2018-1-3

朋友们，今天的福音中含有最重要又最被人误解的基督经文之一。洗者若翰看见耶稣，便说：“看，天主的羔羊。”在一次非正式的调查中，我问过一些人这句话是什么意思，他们的答案通常都是：意指耶稣为人温文、谦虚和善良，就像羔羊一样。

 

但对于公元一世纪的犹太人来说，这句话的意思并非如此，而是与祭品有关。它的意思是耶稣注定要成为献给天主的赎罪祭品。

 

洗者若翰把耶稣描述为天主的羔羊，他说的是圣殿祭品。祂将献上最终的并且具有决定性的祭品来使神性和人性得以和解。祂将向圣父献上彻底解决罪恶问题的供品，从而使我们得到救赎。

 

Friends, our Gospel for today contains one of the most important and misunderstood lines in all of Christian Scripture. Spying Jesus, John the Baptist says, "Behold the Lamb of God." In a very casual survey, I asked a number of people what this phrase means, and the answer I typically got was this: it means that he is gentle and humble and good, like a lamb.

 

But for a first-century Jew, the phrase had little if anything to do with that: it had to do with sacrifice. It meant that Jesus was someone who was destined to be sacrificed as a sin offering to God.

 

John the Baptist’s characterization of Jesus as the Lamb of God has to do with Temple sacrifice. He will be the one who offers the final and definitive sacrifice which reconciles divinity and humanity. He will offer something to the Father which will deal finally with the problem of sin, and in this we will find our salvation.