Behold the Lamb of God

Sermon by Canon Adrian Ling CMP, Sunday 17th January 2021
Gospel: John 1:35-42

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​It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What is attractive to one person may not be attractive to another. We may use that statement to cover up the fact that we cannot see the attraction a certain thing holds for another. 
 
It is a great blessing to be able to appreciate beauty wherever it may be found, whether it be a glorious sunset, a fine painting, a beautiful building. 
You may find another person or even an animal beautiful. What you find beautiful you might also call adorable; it lifts your heart and fills you with a sense of pleasure. I keep as a screen saver on my computer a view of the Atlantic Ocean from the balcony of the Hotel Sol y Mar in Isla Cristina in Spain. To anyone else it would be just a beach and the sea, to me it is a beautiful sight, a reminder of happiness and a representation of hope for the future, that one day we will be able to do again those lovely things we used to do. 
 
When John the Baptist points out Jesus to his disciples, he says, ‘Behold the Lamb of God.’ 
I prefer this translation of the gospel, others just have ‘Look, the Lamb of God,’ which feels rather ordinary, as you might point out a bird in the garden. The word ‘behold’ is so much more resonant. ‘Come and behold him, born the King of Angels’ we used to sing at Christmas. When the shepherds and the wise men came to the stable at Bethlehem, they did not just look at a baby, and then clear off, they lingered, they gazed at him. They beheld him, and that had an effect on them, it moved them to adoration. 
 
When John says ‘behold the Lamb of God’, he tells his disciples to see and understand Jesus as the suffering servant, the ultimate sacrifice. He is the ultimate lamb, offered in sacrifice to God to atone for sin, but he is more than that for he is ‘the lamb of God’. He is of God, he has come to take away the sins of the world, by dying for us on the cross. 
 
At the end of the gospel, Pontius Pilate declares to the crowd ‘behold the man’,  ‘behold the king of the Jews’, the charge against him that will be inscribed on the cross. The Lamb of God is indeed sacrificed.
In the Mass we are invited to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This beholding of Christ is all the more important in this time of live-streamed Masses, because our communion with Jesus is a visual communion. 
We receive Jesus by beholding him. 
 
When this church was built, this was the way in which the people communed with Jesus, they beheld him. They might actually have received communion just once a year at Easter, but at each Mass after the priest said the prayer of consecration and the bells rang as he raised up the host above his head for all to see they beheld their Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament. This was the moment of grace. 
 
The anchorhold at All Saints’ was built by the altar so that the anchorite could gaze on Jesus in the tabernacle all day long.  St John Vianney, the priest of Ars in France wrote about an old farmer who would come into church each day and sit there just staring at the tabernacle. When the priest asked him what he was doing he just said ‘I look at him and he looks at me’. Communion indeed. 
 
In the gospels the look of Jesus was powerful. In today’s gospel he looked at Simon and declared he would be called the rock and he would build his church on him. When the rich young man came to Jesus and asked what he should do to gain eternal life, the Lord looked at him and loved him and told him to give his wealth to the poor. The young man went away sad for Jesus had peered into his soul and seen that he loved his riches before all else.  
 
Let us behold Jesus in the blessed sacrament and rejoice in his abiding presence with us. Let us behold him in our mind’s eye, looking back at us. Dare we ask ourselves what he sees? What do we want him to see; what do we not want him to see. What are the sins we need to confess for the Lamb of God to take away? 
 
The hymn Just as I am, without one plea expresses so beautifully the fact that what the Lord sees in us is beautiful. He loves us for whoever and whatever we are. Though he loves not the sin, he still loves the sinner. He looks on us and loves us, with a love that breaks down barriers. Whatever our worries, conflicts and doubts, however inadequate we feel, when we come to the Lamb of God he welcomes us, he pardons and relieves us. Whatever burden we carry, he can help make it lighter. 
 
Let us come to him, let us behold him. Let us see that he is beautiful. Come let us adore him.  
 
Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd'st me come to thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt;
fightings within and  fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come.



Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
sight, riches, healing of the mind,
yea, all I need, in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, thou wilt receive;
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, thy love unknown
has broken every barrier down;
now to be thine, yea, thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, of that free love
the breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
here for a season, then above:
O Lamb of God, I come.