The Second Sunday After Epiphany A

John 1:29-42a

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29 & 36). 

John the Baptist calls attention to Jesus in a most strident manner, not wanting those in his hearing to miss out on or to ignore Jesus.  “Behold!” John exclaims.  You can see him in your mind’s eye:  all his attention focused on this man walking by… all his intention on pointing out this man walking by… all the extension of his pointing finger reaching toward this man walking by…  This man walking by?  A man?  Not a lamb… let alone the Lamb of God.  This man walking by was just that, a man.  Nothing about him identified him as a sheep… as the Lamb of God.  Nothing identified him as the Son of God.  Divinity did not radiate from him or surround him with a glow.  Certainly, he performed miracles, but those were commonplace in the ancient world—witness Pharoah’s magicians (Ex. 7:11) and the casting out of demons (Lk. 9:49).  Even as Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee and its environs, to know him as the Lamb of God… the Son of God… the one who takes away the sin of the world… to know Jesus in his divinity required something more than knowing him in his humanity.  That something was… and is… faith.

Prayers from one who would appreciate an occasional miracle to shore up a flagging faith…

Father, Jesus Christ is your Son from eternity and yet a man born of the virgin Mary, grant your Holy Spirit to so work faith within me that I trust this reality completely with no need of miracles to bolster the authority of your Word.  For Jesus’ sake.  Amen

Father, Jesus Christ is your Son from eternity and yet a man born of the virgin Mary, grant that I live from this reality delivered to me by faith in Jesus Christ such that he, Jesus, is the life of my mortality in this old, passing away creation.  Amen

Father, Jesus Christ is your Son from eternity and yet a man born of the virgin Mary, grant that I would hear of this man dying on the cross and come to believe that I and all humanity put our God to death.  Amen

Father, Jesus Christ is your Son from eternity and yet a man born of the virgin Mary, grant that I would hear of this man being raised from the dead and come to believe that his resurrection is my resurrection so that I am convicted that death has been conquered.  Amen

Father, Jesus Christ is your Son from eternity and yet a man born of the virgin Mary, grant that I, in my freedom from death and in my confidence of the resurrection, would be given by God as an answer to my neighbors in their prayer for daily bread.  Amen

Father, Jesus Christ is your Son from eternity and yet a man born of the virgin Mary, a foolish proclamation when heard by our reason while in this old, passing away world, enable the Institute of Lutheran Theology to be so foolish as to preach and teach this truth for the establishment of faith within us.  Amen

Father, Jesus Christ is your Son from eternity and yet a man born of the virgin Mary, this Son of yours has promised to come in glory, grant me to look forward to that day when my glory, too, will be revealed.  Amen