The challenge of sacrifice

Jan. 20, 2009, can become a very important date in American history. President Obama has called Americans to end selfish, self-centered living. He has called for a new age of sacrifice and service for one another and for the nation. He has called for young people to give years of their lives in public service. He has called for parents to sacrifice for their children. He has called us all to a new sensitivity to the need of our neighbors.

Elizabeth Alexander in her inaugural poem threw out the essential question.

“What if the mightiest word is love?”

Love is at the heart of the Christian message, but many of us Christians have built a protective fence around ourselves, so we can love without risk. The Christian Gospel (good news) is not about our personal salvation or gain. It is not about being protected from personal harm, but about personal sacrifice in helping acts for our neighbors.

Christians have clouded the call for sacrifice by embracing the death of Jesus Christ as an atonement for our sins. That understanding of the death of Jesus needs to be challenged. Many Christians are hung up on something they call “substitutionary atonement.” The argument goes something like this. Human beings have sinned and have angered almighty God. God is really angry with us all. God has given us all a death sentence. In Paul’s words “We are dead in trespasses of sin.” Jesus, the sinless son of God, was the only person who was outside of the sentence. Jesus came into the world specifically to die as a substitute sacrifice for our sins. With the death of Jesus, the wrath of God was satisfied. We believers have been delivered from the sentence of death. The bloody death of Jesus on the cross did the job.

The Bible’s roots of the substitutionary understanding are found in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. The rules that are found there were written in the mid-10th century B.C.E. by the priests who operated the Jerusalem Temple built by King Solomon. The sacrifices, mostly blood sacrifices, became the center piece of temple worship. The Israelite Lord God, who lived in the temple’s Holy of Holies, was indeed an angry God. The Lord God demanded total obedience, and the children of Israel did not always behave according to the Law of God. The Lord God demanded blood. Temple sacrifice was an appeasement of the Lord God.

Near Eastern cultures that surrounded Israel practiced religious sacrifices. Many of them practiced human sacrifice, sometimes of the oldest son. What was happening in the Jerusalem temple was not unusual for the area.

The system was sometimes challenged by a brave prophet. The classic challenge comes from the Prophet Micah. “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself down before God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? God has told you, O mortals, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”

Prophets like Micah were rare, but they are a part of the Old Testament witness that is too often overlooked or ignored.

Many Christians believe that Jesus taught and lived in the tradition of Micah. He spoke eloquently and demanded that we love neighbors and give ourselves in service roles. He became a troublemaker to those who ran the temple in Jerusalem. His most public action was in the temple courtyard when he created havoc with the people who sold things necessary for the practice of temple sacrifice.

Those who ran the temple arranged for his bloody execution as if he were a common criminal. He died not for the sins of his followers but rather he sacrificed his life in service of those he helped and of the God he dearly loved.

Some of the leaders in the early Christian church interpreted the death of Jesus into the sacrificial system that is found in Leviticus.

I believe that Jesus did in fact sacrifice his life for his followers and in a sense for me too. He sacrificed his life for the causes of needy people. He did so as an act of love in the service of a loving God, not as an appeasement of an angry God.

On Jan. 20 I heard an eloquent call for American people to serve, even sacrifice, for their neighbors and for their country, out of love.

What if the mightiest word is love?

The Rev. Howard Bess is pastor emeritus of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.