A good Sunday to all.

The synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke begin the story of Jesus’ public life with the baptism in the Jordan River. The evangelist John ignores this episode, but dedicates ample space to the figure of the Baptist and presents it in an original way. The synoptics speak of the Baptist as the forerunner, he who has gone ahead to prepare the way for the arrival of the Messiah. John does not present him as a precursor but as a witness. A witness is one who has seen something and can share with others the experience he or she had.

The Baptist is presented as the witness of the light. He is the first who has seen this light and recognized it. The Gospel of John, in the Prologue, begins by saying: “A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, whichenlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (Jn 1:6-9). This light has come from heaven to dispel the darkness of the world. This is the experience made by the Baptist.

Jesus appeared in the Jordan like all the other Jews who came there to be baptized. Only the Baptist has seen, in that young Galilean, a light that has fascinated him. And immediately he felt the need to indicate it and give testimony to all.

Let’s hear how the evangelist John recounts the Baptist’s encounter with Jesus:

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.”

“The next day” … it comes spontaneously to wonder what happened the day before. A delegation of priests and Levites had come from Jerusalem, sent by the competent authority, to interrogate the Baptist. They wanted to know details of his identity and what he was doing.

The Baptist was a character that was attracting the attention of the entire people. With his preaching and his life, he raised questions, expectations, hopes and many wondered if he was the Messiah. The Baptist responds to these delegates: “I am not the Christ. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I amnot worthy to carry his sandals.” (Mt 3:11).

This testimony of the Baptist is beautiful. He says: ‘you should not look at me, but to that light of which I bear witness. The next day after meeting this commission, the Baptist sees Jesus approaching. Jesus suddenly appears on the scene. It is God who begins to make himself seen. Jesus will travel through towns and cities, enter people’s homes, with the clear objective of showing the face of the Father in heaven. It is God who has become one of us, precisely to be seen. And also, to show us the true man, the successful man, the Son of God.

And, seeing Jesus approaching him, the Baptist says—it is the Baptist who speaks in this text, but it is not indicated to whom he is speaking because it is not mentioned that there is someone at his side therefore, his words are clearly addressed to us today. What does the Baptist say? He is one who has seen and therefore testifies to what he has seen. He points his finger and tells us: “There is the Lamb of God.”

The figure of the Baptist is beautiful. He doesn’t want them to focus on him, but to look to that light about whom he is bearing witness. If a person wants to be guided for an authentic light that does not disappear into the darkness and, therefore, falls into ravines and harm one and others, then follow the light that I indicated to you, because I have seen that light. And the Baptist gives a name to this light: He is the Lamb. Surely he left everyone baffled. No one expected a light to come from a ‘lamb’.

In Israel, people expected someone much more important. According to the famous blessing of the Patriarch Jacob, they waited for ‘the lion of the tribe of Judah,’ fierce one, stronger than all the others, one who could triumph over all the enemies and start the kingdom of Israel. Or, perhaps, they expected a king, a shepherd of his people, a king to whom everyone would submit and pay taxes.

Instead, the Baptist testifies to having seen the ‘lamb.’ What ‘lamb’ was he referring to? The reference is clearly to two biblical texts well known to us. The first and best known is the reference to the Passover Lamb, in Egypt, whose blood placed on the doors of houses would have saved the Israelites of the passing of the exterminating angel. We remember the passage: “For when the Lord goes by to strike down the Egyptians, seeing the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and not let the destroyer come into your houses to strike you down (‘amasjrit’ in Hebrew)” (Ex 12:23).

This text referred to an archaic rite of the shepherds, who fulfilled this rite in spring to protect his flock from the attack of any evil spirit. And that’s why they did this bloody rite: they killed a lamb and then put its blood on the doorposts and when the exterminator arrived would be blocked by this blood.

The Baptist makes a clear reference to this lamb who donates his own blood to prevent the exterminator from causing evil to people. Why can the blood of this lamb rid the world of this evil spirit? Why should the lamb have to die, the lamb that is the most meek and tender animal we know, and it does no harm to anyone? To remove the beasts the ability to harm it is necessary the sacrifice of a lamb.

Only in front of a lamb can the beasts realize that they are wild. If everyone is wild, it is normal to behave like a beast. If all are thieves, dishonest, violent, mobsters, it is clear that the most robust, the most appreciated would be the one who can do better as a mobster, the most violent. To change these people, it is necessary that one that is completely different would come in. One who is loyal, honest; and when this person arrives, those who are bad and dishonest would be aware of their behavior.

The Baptist says that with the arrival of this Lamb a completely different kingdom from the previous ones has arrived. It is no longer the kingdom of those who take the lives of others, but the kingdom of those who donate their lives to others. The second reference is to the book of Isaiah where there is talk of a mysterious servant of the Lord who is said to be“Like a lamb led to slaughter or a sheep silent before shearers, he did not open his mouth. Seized and condemned, he was taken away…. For he was cut off from the land of the living, struck for the sins of his people” (Is 53:7-8).

Also, here we have the comparison of one who behaves like the lamb and thus removes the sin of the world. How does this lamb remove sin from the world? First of all, the Greek verb is not always well translated. The verb is ‘αἴρων” – airein which means ‘to take away’, ‘to make disappear’ the sin of the world. Sin is not the transgression for which people must be punished because they have disobeyed an order. NO.

Sin is the loss of the human identity. When one does not behave like ‘man’, like a real person, and therefore it affects human identity: If the person is violent, corrupt, dissolute that is getting at his or her own identity. This is the sin. What has this Lamb come to do? To make disappear, to eliminate sin. To remove sin.

Notice it well, not to “atone” for sin, as if this Lamb were to pay for all sins that have been committed. This is absurd and should never be said. It’s not that the Heavenly Father needed to see someone suffer to forgive people’s sin. He sent this Lamb to ‘make disappear’ the sin of the world. The Lamb came to put an end to that evil mentality, to that diabolical force, which leads us to behave not as sons and daughters of God, but it is that impulse that leads us to behave like wild beasts when we interact with our peers, exactly as our pre-human ancestors did. It does not come to cancel a transgression; the Lamb comes to remove the darkness that enveloped the world and prevented seeing the true face of God, prevented seeing the authentic person.

The Baptist said that Jesus would not eliminate evil by granting a kind of amnesty, of forgiveness, healing, but the Lamb will overcome evil by introducing into the world a new dynamism, an irresistible force, His Spirit, the new life that leads humanity to behave in a human way. The Baptist says: “Behind me comes a man who is more important than me, because he existed before me.” The Baptist steps aside. It is not him they should look at. He is not the savior.

Then the Baptist mentions the way he has done spiritually to get to see this light, the light of the world, which indicates how to behave as a person. And twice he says: “I didn’t know him.” He had complete ignorance about the identity of this Lamb. Those who want to get to know the true identity of Jesus, first of all they must become aware of their own ignorance and thus be invited to open their eyes, to sincerely seek this light you must set aside your own preconceived ideas about God and about the true man.

How did the Baptist receive this identity? He tells us: he has heard the revelation of the Spirit: John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven
and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen him and testify that he is the Son of God. Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

The Baptist testified by saying: “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.” This is the testimony of what the Baptist has seen and that he wants also that we see. He has seen that the Spirit come down on Jesus, like a dove, and remain in him.

The reference is clearly to baptism, which John does not narrate. The Spirit has settled on Jesus, not provisionally, as was the case with the Old Testament characters, who were called for some special mission and, after the mission was over, they were no longer filled with the spirit that they had been given for a certain service, and then returned to their previous condition. But, instead, the Spirit dwells in Jesus. And the image of the dove is very important, both at that time and today.

The dove was the symbol of attachment to the nest itself. The dove always returns to its nest. We know that when the carrier pigeons are released, they spin a little to take the direction and orient themselves, and then return to their nest. The Baptist says: “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.” Just as the dove seeks its own nest, the Spirit finds its abode in Jesus in fullness.

And he baptizes in the Spirit. Baptizing means to submerge, to immerse in the Spirit. The baptism of Jesus is not an immersion in a liquid external to the person. Baptism in the Spirit means being impregnated, soaked, of the new wisdom, which comes from heaven, let yourself be impregnated with that divine force that leads to love.

The Spirit is not a water that washes outwardly, but a sap, like that of the vine, which then leads to bear fruit. This sap, which is the divine Spirit, which is the divine life, which has been donated by Christ. The baptism of the Baptist was exterior; Jesus’ baptism in the Spirit is the gift of this new life. And this is the Spirit that conquers, that destroys sin; destroys what is inhuman present in us by the mere fact of being human… what was previously called ‘the original sin.’

The Spirit releases all these dehumanizing forces. And the Baptist continues: “I have seen him and testify that he is the Son of God.” If during this year we welcome this testimony of the Baptist we will always have our eyes fixed on Jesus, then looking at him we will see the face of God. He is the one who is always guided by the divine life, by the Spirit.

I want to make a final comment about the image that is used by the Baptist: “This is the Lamb of God.” It is an expression that we always hear in the Eucharistic celebration, when the celebrant invites to the wedding of the Lamb. We know what weddings mean. It means linking one’s life with the other person.

We are invited to the Eucharistic banquet to join our life to the Lamb. We must make a choice and decide to which kingdom we want to belong to: to the pre-human realm or the realm of the successful person, the person who is guided by the Spirit. Then, when we approach to eat that bread, which is Christ, we must remember that Christ has identified his entire history in making himself bread, that is, in giving himself completely for the lives of others.

This is the proposal he makes to us through the priest who says: “Here is the Lamb of God….” He invites us to assimilate his history. When the bread is eaten, the bread is assimilated, it is transformed in part of ourselves. The option proposed to us is to assimilate the life of the Lamb, that is a life donated by love.

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.