Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

After the pro­logue that recapit­u­lates the wis­dom of the logos (here in John, Word), the author of the Fourth Gos­pel presents a terse but theo­lo­gic­ally loaded con­ver­sa­tion between the Phar­isees and John the Baptist con­cern­ing his iden­tity (cf. John 1:19–28). To the inter­rog­a­tion of the Jews (through the Priests and the Levites) “who are you (Greek: su tis ei)?” John the Baptist answered, “I am not the Christ (Greek: egō ouk eimi ho Chris­tos).” That is, the Anoin­ted One, the Mes­si­ah.  The word Christ is the Eng­lish trans­la­tion of the Greek Chris­tos, which itself, is a ren­der­ing of the Hebrew Mashi­ah. Mashi­ah derives from meshiach which means con­sec­rated per­son or anoin­ted one. Cf. also Intro­duc­tion in “The Quest for the Mes­si­ah.”

The Sin of the World

The author of the Gos­pel accord­ing to John remarks that the next day, when John the Baptist saw Jesus com­ing towards him, he exclaimed: “behold the lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). What fol­lows this major affirm­a­tion and recog­ni­tion is a cla­ri­fic­a­tion of the Baptist’s words to the Phar­isees dur­ing his con­ver­sa­tion with them the pre­vi­ous day (cf. John 1:26–28). Gen­es­is 22:8 (And Abra­ham said, “God will provide for Him­self the lamb for the burnt offer­ing, my son”) is an import­ant pas­sage for the title of the Lamb of God (Greek: amnos tou theou) as applied to Jesus in the Gos­pel accord­ing to John. In Jew­ish thought, this was held to be a supremely import­ant sac­ri­fice. For John, Jesus is now the sac­ri­fi­cial lamb whose respons­ib­il­ity it is to take away the sin of the world. But what is this sin of the world?

Conclusion

The sin of the world was exhib­ited in vari­ous ways dur­ing John’s day and the same con­tin­ues even in our own time. Gen­er­ally, people seem to be reli­gious, but the high rate of evil and god­less­ness in our vari­ous soci­et­ies is appalling. Cor­rup­tion, injustice, dis­crim­in­a­tion, hasty and harsh judg­ment, pre­ju­dice, lying, char­ac­ter assas­sin­a­tion, extreme self-centred­ness, favour­it­ism, pois­on­ing, and killing, are all by-products of people liv­ing and behav­ing as if God does not exist. Ours is a world where God exists only in prin­ciple but is com­pletely absent in our actions, both in the civil and par­tic­u­larly reli­gious con­texts. This is or rather, was what John said Jesus as the Lamb of God, came to take away. What is the situ­ation today? Has Jesus or rather, did Jesus suc­ceed in tak­ing away this hama­r­tia tou kos­mou? Or, have we gone on to cel­eb­rate and jubil­ate that Jesus died on the cross, tak­ing away our sins while we con­tin­ue to live as if God does not exist and as if we are mas­ters of life and of the universe? 

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 2^nd Sunday of the year is found in The Word of Life, vol. I, pages 67–73. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo
or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com
or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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