3 January 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
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“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29
Between Yaldo and Denho the Church listens to John the Baptist. He sees Jesus coming and cries: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The Child of Bethlehem is the Lamb who will be offered for us. John adds: “I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” Christmas joy is joined to the purpose of Christ's coming: to take away sin.
In the evening Gospel John is very practical. The crowds ask, “What then should we do?” He answers: “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Tax collectors must be honest; soldiers must not extort. Conversion is not only a feeling; it bears fruit in the way we use money, power and possessions.
The Old Testament readings show children growing before God: Joseph loved by his father and given a long robe; the boy Samuel growing “in the presence of the LORD”, his mother bringing him a little robe each year. Hebrews remembers Moses, who chose “to share ill-treatment with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin”.
Isaiah gives the promise for the new year: “Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary.” Those who follow the Lamb do not run on their own strength.
Theme: “Behold the Lamb of God.”
John the Baptist points away from himself to Jesus: “Here is the Lamb of God.” He also tells ordinary people how to prepare for him: by concrete repentance in daily life.
“Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7
“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29
Apply: Look at the Holy Mysteries at the elevation and say in your heart: “Lamb of God, have mercy on me.”
“Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Isaiah 1:16–17
“And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”” Luke 3:10–11
Apply: Give away one good garment or one day's food to someone in need this week.
“Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and with the people.” 1 Samuel 2:26
“And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” John 1:34
Apply: Speak of Jesus simply to one person this week: what he means to you.
John's whole life is a finger pointing to Christ.
Let our lives too say to others: “Behold the Lamb of God.”
Take-home resolution: Pray each night this week: “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.”
Dear brothers and sisters, we are still in the light of Christmas, and today John the Baptist points to the Child of Bethlehem and says: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The baby in the manger came for a purpose: to give his life for us, as the Passover lamb was given for Israel.
In the evening Gospel the crowds ask John: “What then should we do?” His answer is very simple. “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; whoever has food must do likewise.” To tax collectors: be honest. To soldiers: do not extort. Conversion is not a beautiful feeling; it is a changed way of using what we have.
After Christmas many of us have more than enough: new clothes, sweets, gifts. John asks: where is your second coat? Who needs it? Our readings also show children growing up close to God: Samuel growing in the presence of the Lord, his mother bringing him a little robe each year. Let us help our children grow like that.
And as the new year begins, Isaiah promises: “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” On Wednesday we celebrate Denho, the Baptism of the Lord. Come, renew your own baptism, and follow the Lamb. Amen.
Children, John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin. When he saw Jesus coming, he said: “Look! The Lamb of God!” He meant that Jesus came to take away all our sins.
People asked John: “What should we do?” He said: “If you have two shirts, give one to someone who has none.”
Do you have a toy or a shirt you could share? Let's say: “Like John, I will share!”
Lord Jesus, Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us. Make our conversion bear fruit in sharing, honesty and love, and renew our strength in this new year, that we may run and not be weary. Amen.
Between Yaldo and Denho the Church listens to John the Baptist. The Evening Gospel gives his plain answer to the crowds: “Bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8), which means sharing a coat, honest accounts, no extortion. The Old Testament lessons offer young people growing under God's eye: Joseph, loved by his father and given a long robe (Genesis 37:1–4); the boy Samuel with the little robe his mother made every year (1 Samuel 2:18–21). Psalm 45 sings of the King, and the First Letter of John asks for love “in truth and action” (see 1 John 3:18) and gives the commandment that follows from it (3:19–24).
The three readings studied here form one line about seeing what cannot yet be seen. Isaiah, whose chapter gives John the Baptist his own title of “voice” (John 1:23), tells tired exiles to lift their eyes. Hebrews shows Moses, who endured “as though he saw him who is invisible”, keeping the Passover with the blood of a lamb. In John the Baptist sees, and points: “Here is the Lamb of God”. The key words are seeing, faith and the Lamb.
Setting.
Isaiah 40–55 is addressed to the Jewish exiles in Babylon, in the years before Cyrus allowed them to go home (539 BC). Most scholars think these chapters come from a prophet of the exile in the tradition of Isaiah of Jerusalem; the Church reads the whole book together as one witness. Chapter 40 opens with “Comfort, O comfort my people” and with the voice in the wilderness (40:1, 3), the verse all four Gospels apply to John the Baptist.
The exiles live under a great empire, among splendid temples and star-gods. They have seen their own Temple burned. The question is not whether God exists, but whether God still notices them. This reading is his answer.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these?” (40:26)
The cure for despair begins by looking up. The One who knows every star by name will not lose track of one exile.
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?” (40:27)
God quotes their prayer of complaint. He has heard even the sentence that says he does not hear.
“He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.” (40:29)
The Creator “does not faint” (v. 28), and that is why he has strength to spare. The young, who seem to have most of it, can run out (v. 30).
“but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (40:31)
The order is surprising: flying, running, walking. The list seems to go downward, but it matches life. Flying is rare; running comes at times; walking is every day. It is for the plain daily walk that the promise matters most.
How the Church reads it.
All four Gospels hear Isaiah 40 in the preaching of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23): the God who comforted the exiles now comes in person, and the way through the wilderness is the way of Christ. The Catechism defines hope as the virtue by which we desire the Kingdom, relying not on our own strength but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit (CCC 1817). Isaiah's waiting is an early school of that virtue.
Setting.
Hebrews is a sermon to Christians who are growing tired (13:22). Its author is not named; the Church has received it among the letters linked with St Paul, and the Malankara lectionary reads it as such. Chapter 11 is a long roll of honour that opens with a description of faith: “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1).
Our passage covers Moses and the Exodus generation, and it retells Exodus 1–15 and Joshua 2–6 to show that the same faith ran through all of them. The author reads the old stories from the standpoint of Christ, whom his hearers are tempted to leave.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” (11:25)
The word “fleeting” does the work. Moses compared what lasts with what does not, and chose against his immediate comfort.
“He considered abuse suffered for the Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward.” (11:26)
Faith here is a calculation done with the right scales.
“By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king’s anger; for he persevered as though he saw him who is invisible.” (11:27)
Exodus 2:14 says Moses was afraid when he fled to Midian, so many commentators think this verse means the Exodus itself, while others read it as his flight seen in a different light. Either way, his strength comes from seeing the One no one can see.
“By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.” (11:28)
Israel's firstborn were kept safe by the blood of a lamb. This is the clearest bridge to today's Gospel.
“By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.” (11:31)
A Canaanite and a prostitute closes the list. Matthew names her among the ancestors of Jesus (1:5). Nobody is too far outside for faith.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Old Testament is rich in witnesses to faith and points to the praise of them in Hebrews (CCC 147). The Passover lamb leads the Church to the Eucharist: at the Last Supper, in the setting of the Passover, Jesus gave it its definitive meaning (CCC 1340). St Clement of Rome, writing about the end of the first century, already sees in Rahab's scarlet cord a sign that redemption would come through the Lord's blood (1 Clement 12, in substance).
Setting.
John's Gospel opens with a sequence of days. On the first, the Baptist tells the authorities' messengers that he is not the Messiah (1:19–28). “The next day” comes this reading, and on the next the first disciples leave John and follow Jesus (1:35–39).
Unlike the other Gospels, John does not narrate the baptism of Jesus. He gives instead the testimony of the one who saw what happened there. The Baptist's whole purpose in this Gospel is to witness and then step aside (3:30).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29)
Jesus says nothing in this scene. He only comes, and the Baptist names him. A shepherd's word for a young animal becomes the first title given to Jesus in public in this Gospel.
“This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’” (1:30)
Jesus is younger than John in the flesh, and comes after him in time. Yet “he was before me”: the eternal Word of the Prologue (1:1).
“And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” (1:32)
The Spirit who was over the waters in creation (Genesis 1:2) rests on the One who will give new birth from the water.
“And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”” (1:34)
A note on the text. Some ancient witnesses, including the Old Syriac Gospels, read here “the Chosen One of God”, recalling Isaiah 42:1, and the NRSV notes this in its margin. Most manuscripts read “the Son of God”, as the NRSV and the POC do. The two do not conflict: the Father's voice at the Jordan also echoes Isaiah 42:1.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism joins the Baptist's cry with the Suffering Servant and the Paschal lamb (CCC 608), and sees in the baptism of Jesus his acceptance of that mission (CCC 536). St Cyril of Alexandria, commenting on this verse, says that one Lamb died for all, to gather the whole flock of humanity to the Father (Commentary on John, in substance). St Augustine, preaching on the dove, finds in it the simplicity and unity of the Spirit, who gives no room for pride or division (Tractates on John 6, in substance).
John and Jesus were relatives, so how can John say, “I myself did not know him”?
Luke calls Elizabeth a relative of Mary (1:36), but the Gospels do not say how much the two men had met. John means that he did not know him as the One to come, until the sign at the Jordan showed him. Knowing a person's family is one thing; knowing his mission is another.
How could Moses suffer “for the Christ” centuries earlier?
Hebrews reads Israel's history as moving toward Christ. Moses suffered with God's people, and it is in God's people that the anointed One would come and suffer. The author is not claiming that Moses knew the name of Jesus; he is seeing one saving plan across the ages.
Why is a prostitute held up as a model?
Hebrews praises her faith and not her trade. In Joshua 2:9–11 she confesses the God of Israel, and acts on it at the risk of her life. The list teaches that faith can begin in any life. See also James 2:25.
After Yaldo, the Malankara Church does not hurry past the Child; she keeps him before us and lets John tell us who he is. The feast of Denho falls this Wednesday. Each Holy Qurbono places the Baptist's words before us again, and the Lamb he pointed to is the One we receive. Families can practise the teaching of the Evening Gospel this week in one concrete act: a coat given, or an account set straight.