Amazing Grace

My topic today will be Amazing Grace: not the song but the lived experience of God’s Amazing Grace.

When the People of God were living in slavery in the land of Egypt, they cried out to God, “O Lord, save your people. Set us free from this terrible suffering. Set us free from the brutality of the Pharaoh. Set us free so we can go back to our homeland.” God was moved with compassion and sent Moses and Aaron to talk to the Pharaoh. But the Pharaoh was stubborn. Then God sent plagues on the land, plagues which should have caused Pharaoh to change his mind. But he was stubborn. So God sent the tenth plague—the Angel of Death. This angel was told to kill every firstborn in every house in the land of Egypt. Every house except the ones that had the blood of a lamb on their doorpost. The People of God were in on the secret. They killed a lamb and put some of its blood on their doorposts. The blood of the lamb saved them from the Angel of Death. The Pharaoh finally changed his mind and set the people free. They left the land of Egypt and 40 years later crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land.

With all that background in place we are ready to look at today’s gospel. Today’s gospel story begins on the banks of the Jordan River. John the Baptist sees Jesus walking down the road and he says to his audience: “Look, there is the Lamb of God.” The people look to see where John is pointing. They don’t see any lamb. Instead, they see John’s cousin, Jesus of Nazareth. They don’t see any lamb; but they don’t question John. They know that John is prone to using metaphors in his speeches. And they know their religion well enough to realize that John is saying: “Look, there is our savior. Just as the Passover Lamb saved our families back in the land of Egypt, so will this Jesus save us in our day. Jesus is the new Lamb of God and his blood will set us free.”

This story is found in John’s Gospel and only in John’s Gospel. John truly believes that Jesus is the new Lamb of God. And in hopes of making his point even more clear John changes the crucifixion story. Matthew, Mark and Luke say that Jesus died on Good Friday. But John says that Jesus died at three o’clock on Thursday. John says that because he knew that the Passover lambs in the city of Jerusalem were being killed at three o’clock on Thursday. And if Jesus dies at that moment then everyone will know that he is the new Passover lamb.

In several very important ways, Jesus is similar to the lamb in the Book of Exodus. Both lambs had to shed their blood and both lambs served as liberators for their people. But this is not to say that the new Passover lamb is identical to the old Passover lamb. The lamb that died in Egypt gave the people their political freedom. Meanwhile, Jesus gave people spiritual freedom. He set the people free from the power of sin. The lamb that died in Egypt saved the Hebrew people. Meanwhile Jesus saved all people of all nations. Like John the Baptist said: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Not just the sins of the Hebrew people but all the sins of the whole world. If Jesus liberates all people of all time, then we are included in the circle of salvation. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are benefactors of the Lamb whose blood was poured forth in the New Covenant. That means that sin no longer has ultimate power over us. Without a doubt, we are still held down by the after effects of original sin. We are held down, but not controlled by them. We have sinful desires and sinful tendencies which try to control us; but we also have the grace we need to overpower those desires and tendencies.

For example, we are tempted to cheat when we know that we should be playing fair. We are tempted to criticize others when we know that we should limit ourselves to taking inventory of our own behaviors. And sometimes we like to have freedom without responsibility. We like to follow the crowd and do what is popular, even when the crowd is doing something wrong. Archbishop John Ireland said, “The timid move in crowds and the brave move in single file.” We are tempted to eat and drink more than we should—especially during parties and football games. We are tempted to limit our vision to our own needs and ignore the needs of others. But all those temptations and selfish desires are not the bottom line. The bottom line is the grace of God. And the Lamb of God has given us the grace of God by shedding his blood on the cross. Sin is powerful; but it has no power over us when we are solidly attached to the grace which the Lamb of God is delivering to us.

St. Paul says, “The grace of God has been bestowed on us in Christ Jesus.” That is the primary teaching, the Number One teaching, in our Faith Formation programs in the past and in the church today. “The grace of God has been bestowed on us in Christ Jesus.” We expect each other to do good and to avoid evil because God has bestowed grace upon us… in and through the sacrifice of Christ. Let’s take some time now to ask ourselves, “How often do I thank the Lamb of God for giving me the gift of divine grace? And how often do I use that grace in my daily struggles with temptations?

Let’s take a moment to reflect upon those two questions.