I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. The Book of the Prophet Isaiah contains a set of oracles (four to be exact) known as the Servant of the Lord Songs (cf. Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; 52:13-53, 12). In the four oracles (songs), the Lord celebrates the person and ministry of his chosen servant. Whereas many identifications have been proposed regarding this Servant of the Lord, the New Testament and Christian tradition have fronted Jesus Christ as their candidate. This is because both the New Testament and Christian tradition have seen a fulfillment of these Servant of the Lord prophesies in Jesus Christ. Anyone familiar with the infancy narratives will immediately realize that the last sentence in today’s reading (cf. 49:6c) contains the very words that Simeon will later use as he prophesied about Jesus (cf. Luke 2:29-32). To us, the Servant of the Lord oracles serve to both define and situate the ministry of Jesus.
The ministry of Jesus was generally understood to be both a continuation and culmination of the  ministry of Israel. As a descendant of David, Jesus’ destiny was tied to that of the glorious sons and daughters of Israel from whom he received his vocation (cf. the Genealogy of Jesus [Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38]). As a prophet, Jesus was simply participating in the ministry of the numerous men and women whom God appointed as his messengers and representatives in the community (prophets), beginning with Moses to Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist. The ministry of all the prophets had looked forward to the ministry of Jesus. John the Baptist, the last prophet of the Old Testament whose role was to be a forerunner of Jesus, was very much aware of this fact. This is why when it was time for Jesus to begin his ministry, John not only bowed out graciously but also introduced him to the world. 
When John the Baptist saw Jesus walk towards him as he was baptizing in the River Jordan, he immediately knew that it was time for him to exit the scene. He had successfully accomplished his mission of preparing the people for the inauguration of the Kingdom by Jesus. St. John’s final act as a forerunner of Jesus was to present him to the world as the one whose ministry he had come to usher. He introduced Jesus  as the ‘Lamb of God’ who had come to ‘take away the sin of the world.’ Like Simeon who had introduced Jesus as the light through whom od was to reveal his glory to the Gentiles, John was aware that Jesus’ task as the Messiah was to redeem the world by taking away its sin. It is for this reason that Jesus was born. It is for this reason that Jesus lived in our midst as one of us. What is the sin of the world that Jesus had come to take away, and how was Jesus going to accomplish this? 
St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians identifies Jesus as the ‘second Adam,’ the one who has come to give life (cf. I Cor 15:45). The second Adam gives life by ‘undoing’ what the first Adam had done. Jesus, the second Adam, gives life by undoing the sin of the first Adam. Adam’s sin was disobedience (cf. Romans 5:19a). Through Adam’s refusal to obey what God had commanded him to do, sin entered the world. Adam’s disobedience alienated him from the Creator God who is the source and sustainer of life. Thus alienated, Adam could no longer access the well-spring of life which had been God’s gift to him at creation (cf. Genesis 1:29-30). And so death entered the world. This is the sin that Adam and Eve’s descendants have inherited and in which they participate. This is the sin of the world, the sin which Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has come to take away. 
Jesus takes away the sin of the world by undoing what Adam and Eve did. In other words, if Adam and Eve alienated themselves (and their descendants) from God through disobedience, Jesus brings them back to God through obedience (cf. Romans 5:19b). Jesus does this by himself being obedient to God (cf. Philippians 2:5-8) and calling on us, his brothers and sisters, to follow his example. Only through obedience to God can we reclaim our status as sons and daughters of God and by so doing lay claim to eternal life that is ours by right.