The Thursday after Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday in Advent
Posted on December 18, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. John 1:24-34 (NKJV)
1:24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”
28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”
32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
Devotion
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John the Baptist is a witness. He can say, ‘I was there, I saw it, it’s true; God has come to men to lead them to truth and life, to lead them home to Himself!’ John tells his followers his testimony, and they go to see this revelation for themselves. As they follow Jesus through His life, they see the miracles, hear His words, and they become witnesses to the truth as well.
Every important story needs reliable witnesses. Did what was claimed actually happen? Without truthful and reliable witnesses, a story is not worth believing. So, John the Baptist is a witness, and testifies that the Man walking in front of him is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the truth, that God became a man. This was the Lamb that would take all of the sin of the world onto Himself and be sacrificed to satisfy God’s justice.
In the Divine Service, when we sing the Agnus Dei, we confess that we meet this Lamb of God in the Holy Eucharist we are about to receive. It’s as if we are John’s disciples, standing with him as he points us to the Savior. Today, he is pointing us to Jesus who is at the altar. It is there we find Him and the life we seek.
Collect: Lord, we beseech Thee, give ear to our prayers, and lighten the darkness of our hearts, by Thy gracious visitation; Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
