2nd Sunday Ordinary Time – Year A

Deacon Tom Vert

Preached: January 18, 2026

Will you look at that!!

Can you remember those times when you saw something so amazing or interesting that you pointed it out to the person beside you – will you look at that! I was thinking of key moments when that happened in my life:

• The time we were driving through British Columbia and every corner the mountains, trees, rivers and creeks looked more beautiful than the corner before.
• An amazing sunrise or sunset even at home when I had Carmela come out to the front porch to see the orange and pink glow off the clouds and sky.
• My first time in Rome walking into the piazza in front of St. Peter’s. There are these moments in life that are unforgettable, and you must point them out!

In the gospel today, we see the same thing at the Jordan River. John the Baptist is having a regular day, people are coming to him from across Israel to be baptized.

He looks up and sees Jesus coming towards him with an aura about him, as he is about to start his official ministry and John, his cousin, recognizes the moment saying: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”.

John knows that he is only the forerunner, the messenger and the one to point the one who is to come.
His mission is now being accomplished as the Messiah, the Saviour, has now  arrived to take the “baton” and move the mission forward.

“Will you look at that!!!” is what John is shouting to his followers and the people at the river that day.
“Behold the Lamb of God”!

I had to think to myself, we know what the Lamb of God is 2000 years later, but what would the people at that time think John was talking about? Would they have recognized the link between Jesus and the Messiah who is to come?

The “Lamb of God” was a specific phrase, and the people would have three images in their heads as they looked at Jesus coming forward.

The first is that of the Passover Lamb. We remember the Exodus story when the people of Israel left Egypt, the final plague had the first born of the Egyptians slain by God, but the Jewish people where to sacrifice a lamb and put the blood on their doorposts so the Israelites were protected…so, the blood of the Lamb delivered them.

Secondly, they would know that every morning and evening a lamb was sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem as an atonement for sin.

And finally, and maybe the most critical is the writings about the lamb in the prophet Isaiah chapter 53.
“However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore,
And our pains that He carried.
But He was pierced for our offenses,
He was crushed for our wrongdoings;
The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.”

The people would recognize the “suffering servant”, the Christ, the Saviour, and the promise of one who is to come that by his sufferings and sacrifice, meekly and lovingly borne, would redeem his people.

Will you look at that!!! Christ on the cross was foreshadowed in Isaiah, and here by the river, John is saying the day has come!!

This is so important that in the 7 th century Pope Sergius wrote the “Lamb of God” chant that we still recite today “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us”!

It is so critical to our faith life that we still have the priest hold up the Eucharist and proclaim, “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”! 2000 years later we repeat the words of St. John the Baptist to recognize that Jesus’ sacrifice leads to reconciliation with God as a gift that we receive freely!!!

2000 years later we receive the Good News that no matter what is happening in our life, no matter how close or far we may have strayed, Jesus, our Saviour, still comes to us as a gift we receive in our hands, and we consume knowing how near He is to us as He dwells inside of us.

2000 years later we look and realize how much God loves us by coming into the world as a gift of love.

So, when Father Mark raises the host today and proclaims “Behold”, quietly in our hearts, let us be awestruck and say, “will you look at that”!!

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