Fr. Robert Hale, OSB, Cam

In the very first chapter of the Gospel of John we have John the Baptist proclaim of Jesus, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”.

Jesus as Lamb of God. This is a familiar image for us Catholics for it comes up twice in our Eucharist, first right before communion, when we sing or recite, directly addressing Jesus, “Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world; have mercy on us, have mercy on us; grant us peace”.

This is the famous Agnus Dei prayer that is sometimes set to beautiful music that we monks here at the Hermitage sing and pray.

For the second time, the image of Jesus as Lamb of God comes when the priest raises the consecrated bread and wine and says to the congregation, “This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper”.

So we Catholics should be very familiar with this image of Christ as Lamb of God. Still, perhaps it remains something of a puzzle to many of us, remote and less immediately moving and powerful than other images. For example, there is Jesus as Good Shepherd, who seeks out the lost sheep, puts it on his shoulders, and carries it back to the flock. Or Jesus as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.

“Lamb of God” has its own tremendous power when we trace its beginnings and development in scripture. One cultic source, from Deuteronomy, involves the two goats that were selected on the Day of Atonement. One was slaughtered within the sanctuary as atonement for the sins of the people.

The high priest prayed over the second goat, confessing all the sins of the people, putting them on the head of the goat, then driving the goat out into the wilderness with the belief that the goat was not to come back.  

The two goat sacrifices freed the people, it was believed, of their sins, one through the shedding of blood unto death, and the other by removal from the community. This is the origin of the word “scapegoat” which came to mean a person, often innocent, who is punished for the sins of the group, excluded from the group, or occasionally, even killed.

Over time and across cultures, the goats then morph, developing into the Passover lamb, the lamb without blemish, which was slaughtered in Egypt, and then eaten in the households. The belief was that the blood from the lamb was put on the doorposts and lintel as a sign to God who then passed over those households, saving them from destruction. Over time, this Egyptian meal then morphed into the annual Passover meal celebrated by Jewish families down through the centuries, to today where a bone of a lamb is part of the Passover meal, representing the Passover lamb.

For us Christians, Jesus assumes all these rites and symbols into his own body at the last supper, the Passover supper. He becomes the Lamb of God then permanently takes away the sins of the world, and is sacrificed outside the city at the insistence of the high priests.

We are nourished by his body and blood at this and every Eucharist. This is a very powerful and symbolic sacrifice. It is not the sacrifice of an animal with no human understanding nor conscious free will, but by Jesus, Son of God, who freely, out of love for the people offers his all, including his life, for each one of us personally. “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down his life for his friends.”

All the Old Testament symbolism of animal sacrifice is carried to a whole new level by Jesus who also forgives his executioners from the cross and then comes back into the community through resurrection.

The scapegoat, bearing the sins of the people, forced out into the wilderness, was never to return.  But Jesus, who is without sin, returns to pardon us, grant us peace, his love truly reconciles us to the Heavenly Father, to each other.

Some theologians, such as Rene Girard, have developed a whole analysis of the scapegoat dynamic that can occur in any community. In any age, the powers-to-be recognize tensions in the community, tensions that might even put their own power into jeopardy. They then tend to pick a scapegoat, a kind of marginal figure someone different, in nationality, or race, or beliefs, or gifts and then convince the people that the scapegoat is responsible for the problems of the group.

The sins of the people are psychologically put on that scapegoat and they then remove or drive him (or her) out of the community. It can even happen within each of us. We have some tendency or yearning or even a gift which isn't directly sinful, but which troubles us, so we want to repress it, or drive it out. Examples from our own times are not lacking from the fanatical Hitler who turned the Jews into a scapegoat, to the racisms of African Americans as scapegoat—marginalized and even lynched.  

This is what happened to Jesus too. He was alarming the Jewish leaders and the Roman leaders. The Jewish leaders stirred up the crowd with shouts “crucify him” And he was put to death, but even while dying, he pardoned his crucifiers.

And then, this is the big one, he came back, rose again from the dead—that wasn’t supposed to happen! But amazingly, he came back, and not to fiercely seek revenge on the leaders and the people, but to bring forgiveness, pardon, peace, and Christian love.

This, for Christians, must break the cycle of the scapegoat. Might there be forms of this in our country now, in our communities, in our own hearts? From this question comes the image of Jesus as the Lamb of God.

We are invited to receive, as individuals and communities,
and with immense gratitude, the pardon, the peace, the love of Christ.

For Christ is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins—of the world, everywhere, and in every generation.