3 January – First Reading

Commentary on 1 John 2:29—3:6

We now move on to the second part of John’s letter: “that we should be called children of God”.  In this part, there are three ‘conditions’ to be fulfilled if we are to be truly children of God.  The first condition, part of which we read today, is to ‘break’ with sin. 

It is a reading full of hope, and begins with an introduction to this part of the letter. We are reminded that we are the special objects of God’s love, and in a very real sense, can be called his children. And, if that is what we already are, what is in store for us in the life that is to come when we will see the Father face to face? 

What we do know is:

…when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

Whatever true holiness is seen in us is always a reflection of God’s own holiness, because he is the one and only source of all that is true and good. If we are faithful now, we are endeavouring to be like Jesus, but face to face with our God, we will be utterly transformed and united with him.

And when that truth and love, which is poured into our hearts, is allowed to express itself through our words and actions, then we become in a very special sense God’s children, true reflections of our Father. If the world, that is, the world of sin and moral anarchy, does not recognise us for what we are, it is because it has not been able to see the presence of God in Jesus and his life.

The greatest sign of God’s love is the gift of his Son (see John 3:16), which has made us true children of God. True knowledge of God (not the Gnostic kind) will ultimately be gained—with God’s help—by living virtuous lives in imitation of Jesus, God’s Son.

And if being God’s children is a source of so much happiness and consolation now, imagine what the future life will be like! Again:

What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

That is something that is totally beyond our capacity right now.

Some of the mystics who have been given glimpses of the reality of God confess themselves utterly helpless in trying to express their experiences in words. But it has given them a terrible longing to have that full vision which is promised to us.

We now come to the ‘first condition’. If we are to have that face-to-face experience, there has to be a total break from everything that is contrary to God’s way. To prepare to enjoy that vision—the one and only goal of all living—is, with God’s help, to remain single-minded (pure) in our quest. 

Sin is to be removed from our lives. “Sin is lawlessness” not just in the sense of failing to keep rules and regulations, but in failing to live according to the deepest demands of truth and love. To be without truth and love is to create huge obstacles to having that face to face vision with the Source of all Truth and Love. 

We have here a reference to the activity of the antichrist, expressed as hostility towards God and a rejection of Christ. Christians do not escape sin, but realise that when they sin, they cease to have fellowship with God.  Virtue and sin distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil. 

For the Gnostics, behaviour was not important; only the ‘right’ knowledge was what mattered. But it is not possible to be both close to Jesus, and to live a life of sin:

No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.

This is again directed against those Gnostics who felt that the only thing that mattered was to have this special ‘spiritual’ knowledge, and that what happened in our bodies was of no consequence.  Immoral acts could be indulged in with impunity. 

The secret of being free from sin in that sense is to submit totally to the Way of Jesus, who takes away all sin in those who turn to him in a spirit of reconciliation:

No one who abides in him sins…

As we will see later in the letter, love and sin are incompatible. Let us then pray that we may remain ever close, intimately close, to Jesus.

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3 January – Gospel

Commentary on John 1:29-34

Yesterday we saw John the Baptist denying that he was the Messiah or any of the great prophets. Today he gives testimony to Jesus as the one he had been talking about.

The passage begins with “The next day…” We mentioned already that the opening section of John up to the wedding at Cana represents a week, echoing the seven days of creation in Genesis. We will see that phrase occurring three more times in the first chapter, and that brings us to the fourth day of the week. There is then a gap, but the wedding at Cana is introduced as taking place “on the third day”, that is, after the previous four, and hence is the seventh day.

As John saw Jesus approaching, he said to those around him:

Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Another feature of this first chapter is that the author introduces the various titles of Jesus which he uses later on.

Why the “Lamb”? The central feature of the Jewish Passover feast was the lamb, which was eaten during the Passover meal. It recalled the lamb which the families of the Israelites ate on the eve of their escape from Egypt, and whose blood was painted on the doorposts of their houses. When the angel of God came to destroy all the firstborn, it “passed over” the houses of the Israelites, which had been marked with the lamb’s blood. This became then a symbol of liberation, and one of the most important celebrations in the Jewish calendar.

For us, however, there is now a new symbol of liberation, a new Lamb. Jesus is both the ‘offer-er’ of the sacrifice and its victim, and his death and resurrection inaugurate a New Covenant between God and his people. It is perhaps significant that in all the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, there is no mention of a lamb being eaten during the meal. This is because there was a new Lamb, who told his companions to take and eat, take and drink the bread and wine “handed over for you”. And it is through the blood of this Lamb that we find salvation and liberation.

The title Lamb of God also recalls the suffering servant led like a lamb to the slaughter, which we read about in Isaiah (53:7,10). In Revelation, too, we read of the victorious apocalyptic lamb who will destroy the evil in the world (5:5-7; 17:14).

The Baptist then indicates the superiority of Jesus over himself:

This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’

In the context of the Prologue we read earlier, this is an intimation of Jesus’ pre-existence as the Word with God (remember that, chronologically, John was slightly older than Jesus). John also explains why he was baptising; it was to make Jesus known to the people of Israel. His baptism did not have the power to forgive sin; this would be the prerogative of Jesus and his disciples. (In John’s Gospel, the Baptist also says that up to this, he had not known Jesus, which conflicts with the other Gospels where he is presented as a close relative.)

John then continues to talk about the baptism of Jesus, whereas the event itself is described in Matthew and Luke. He says that he personally saw the Spirit of God come down on Jesus like a dove, and it stayed with him, indicating the enduring relationship between the Father and the Spirit with the Son. The dove is a symbol of new life, recalling the dove which brought the olive branch back to Noah’s ark to indicate that the Flood was over. At the same time, the One who told John to baptise with water also said that the One on whom the Spirit came down would, in turn, baptise with the Holy Spirit. The Baptist concludes:

And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.

“Chosen One” is also translated as ‘Son of God’, so here we have another title of Jesus.

Each one of us has also received the same Spirit in our baptism. It was that Spirit which inspired Jesus in all his Messianic work, climaxing in his death on the cross. May the same Spirit inspire us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and join with him in his work to build the Kingdom.

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