The Ultimate Sacrifice

The scriptures referred to Leviticus 1-7 and Hebrews 9 and 10.

During our Lenten Bible study we examined the sacrifices made in the Tabernacle and Temple. We used as our definition for sacrifice one which I cobbled together from a couple sources. Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or lives to a higher being as an act of worship, or for a higher purpose to gain something more important, worthy or valuable. We primarily looked at the first part of that definition by examining the various offerings laid out in the Torah. And some of the descriptions of how it was to be done were pretty gory with all the shedding, pouring and sprinkling of blood. Andrew Henry, a religion studies PhD candidate and host of the You Tube channel Religion for Breakfast, described how, while watching a video of the sacrifice of a goat, he got woozy even as he was trying to remain clinically detached. I wonder how many of you would be here if every week I killed, exsanguinated, butchered and burned an animal at the altar, even if we did enjoy a barbecue afterwards. Though we eat meat much more often than people in the past, we are farther removed than them from the process of getting that meat.

Yet we are omnivores and it is difficult to get all the amino acids, proteins, iron, B12 and fats you need to stay healthy if you don't get it from animals. Our ancestors were less squeamish about killing animals, out of necessity. Yet they understood that life is precious and taking one is serious. And virtually all ancient cultures practiced animal sacrifice as a part of worship. The Bible first depicts sacrifice in early Genesis when Abel offers God choice portions of the firstborn of his flocks. (Genesis 4:4) Nothing in the text suggests that God commands this, though some see sacrifice indirectly instituted by God when he makes Adam and Eve clothing from animal skins. (Genesis 3:21) This may indicate a connection between sin and death.

Evil always has a cost. Usually it is in the form of injury on the part of someone, either physical, psychological, social or financial. Typically it is the victim who pays, though sometimes the perpetrator may suffer as well. Punching someone is a good way to break the bones in your hand. If you are caught trying to ruin someone else's reputation, it can ruin yours as well. You may suffer guilt feelings from the harm you've done to someone. And though it seems to be rarer, sometimes ruining someone financially will lead to the ruin of the perpetrator, as it did with Bernie Madoff. But the person causing the harm doesn't always pay directly.

The problem for any group is if you administer absolute justice, punishing every instance strictly, you will decimate your ranks and endanger the peace of the community. If you prioritize peace and allow some injustices not to be addressed, certain people will begin to feel they can do what they want with impunity. Both they and their victims will then share a contempt for authority and ironically peace in the community will eventually break down. How do you keep the peace and administer justice, especially when no restitution can be made? Is there a third way? Requiring the costly sacrifice of an animal that would otherwise be a good breeder or a good meal was one way.

Sometimes, however, the cost can be borne by another person besides the victim or the victimizer. A person can bail out or help monetarily someone who has suffered a financial loss. In the Bible a relative who did this, such as buying someone out of debt slavery, was called a redeemer. Today a crusading journalist can uncover the facts and publicly exonerate someone who has had their reputation smeared. A therapist can help a person overcome psychological trauma. And sometimes a person can step in front of a blow or a bullet meant for someone else.

One example of that is Dr. Liviu Librescu. A Romanian survivor of the Holocaust, Professor Librescu was teaching at Virginia Tech when the infamous shooting spree took place. Shouting for his students to leave through the windows, Librescu held the door of his classroom closed against the shooter, even as he fired through the door. Librescu was shot 5 times but never moved from the door. All but one of his students escaped with their lives. Librescu sacrificed his life to save the lives of others.

Of course, when he went to his class that day he had no idea that he would be called on to do that. Others go into situations to confront evil fully aware that it could spell death. Noor Inayat Khan was a children's author and the daughter of an American woman and an Indian Sufi Muslim teacher. She fled with her family from Paris to England when the Nazis conquered France. Though raised as a pacifist, Khan became a wireless operator and was recruited by the Special Operations Executive because of her accuracy and speed in sending Morse code. Speed was important because the Gestapo was also swift in tracking down the origin of radio transmissions from the French Underground and capturing the operators. In fact the life expectancy of a Resistance wireless operator was about 6 weeks. In June of 1943 Khan became the first woman in that capacity to be sent into the field. From occupied France she managed to send back vital information to the British for a record 4 months before being betrayed by a double agent and arrested. Even so, she managed to escape, greasing her small, slender body and literally slipping between the bars of her cell. When recaptured, she was kept in shackles. She refused to talk about her network even under brutal interrogation, though other prisoners remember her crying at night. She was transferred to Dachau where she was beaten and shot. Her last words were “Liberte!”

Noor Inayat Khan knew death was a real possibility when she went on her mission, but, as her escape attempt shows, it wasn't Plan A. Lieutenant John Robert Fox knew death was a certainty in his case. He was a forward observer stationed in a small Italian village directing artillery fire on German troops. On Christmas night 1944 enemy soldiers infiltrated the village in civilian clothes. By morning the town was largely in their hands. While most of the US Infantry withdrew, Fox and other members of his observer party stayed in their second floor post to direct artillery fire on the Nazi troops. He kept adjusting the artillery fire closer and closer to his position to stop the German advance. Finally he was told by radio that the next adjustment would take out his own position. Acknowledging the danger, Lt. Fox simply said, “Fire it.” When the town was retaken by Allied troops, the body of the 29 year old black officer from Cincinnati was found surrounded by the bodies of approximately 100 Nazi soldiers.

Like Samson, Fox sacrificed himself to take out the enemy. But some people save lives in a way that harms no one but themselves. Maximillian Kolbe was a Polish priest and Franciscan monk, who, despite bad health, taught in seminary, started missions in China, Japan, and India, published Catholic newspapers and started radio stations. When the Nazis invaded Poland, he was one of the few monks who did not flee. He turned the monastery into a place for refugees and even hid 2000 Jews. Kolbe refused to sign a document granting him the rights of a German citizen, which he could have claimed because he father was German. Eventually, the Nazis shut down the monastery and Kolbe was sent to Auschwitz. There he continued to serve as a priest and was harassed, beaten and whipped. Once friendly inmates smuggled him into the prison hospital to be treated for his injuries. Then one day a prisoner escaped and the deputy camp commander picked 10 men to be starved to death in an underground bunker in retaliation and to end further escape attempts. One of the men selected cried out for his wife and children. Kolbe volunteered to take the man's place. In their underground cell Kolbe led the men in prayer and song. After 2 weeks without water, only Kolbe was alive. To empty the bunker, the guards gave him a lethal injection. It is said that the priest calmly raised his left arm to receive the injection.

Noor Inayat Khan was given the George Cross posthumously. Likewise Lt. John Robert Fox was given the Distinguished Service Cross in 1982 and was finally awarded the Medal of Honor in 1997. Maximilian Kolbe was canonized a saint in 1982. We are not certain exactly what motivated the self-sacrifices of Khan and Fox but we know what motivated Kolbe. It was the example of Jesus Christ. His death was the offering of one's life for a higher purpose to gain something more important, worthy or valuable. In the case of Jesus, he gave his life not to save one person but all mankind.

So to recap, humanity realized early on that evil had a cost. They knew that evil was serious and that if the injustice was not dealt with it would corrupt the community. They knew that the price they would have to pay would be steep. They knew that the price for keeping the community alive with food was the death of animals. They applied that same principle to keeping the community safe from evil, sacrificing costly animals to absorb its impact.

Some societies even sacrificed people. Evidence of human sacrifice is found in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Rome, Greece, China, India, West Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas. The Bible mentions that Israel's neighbors would give their children as burnt offerings to Moloch, something God condemns several times. And to demonstrate this, we are even given an enacted parable, if you will, in Genesis when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his heir Isaac. Abraham, a child of that time, prepares to do so. God stops him and provides a ram in Isaac's place. That part of Mt. Moriah is thereafter called “The Lord Will Provide.” The moral is that God will never ask us to sacrifice our child to him; he will provide the sacrifice.

And in Jesus, he does. Paul, obviously thinking of how the person making the sin offering put his hand on the head of the sacrifice, symbolically transferring his sin to the otherwise unblemished animal, says of Jesus, "God made the one who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God." Chapters 9 and 10 of the book of Hebrews draw the parallels and highlight the differences between the continual sacrifices made by the high priest in the temple and the one all-sufficient sacrifice Jesus made. Had we an extra Wednesday to do it I would have led a Bible Study on those 2 chapters alone. Suffice it to say, that the major differences are that, first, Jesus, unlike the normal high priest, need not make a sacrifice for himself since he is sinless. And second, Jesus' sacrifice is made for the whole world and, third, it is made once and for all. Jesus did what all those sacrifices could not: take away the penalty for all sin forever. We can stop punishing ourselves; Jesus took the punishment for us. Now is the time for healing and forgiveness.

If you just can't get past the idea of religious sacrifice, let us reframe how we look at it. Since the idea of sacrificing oneself in a wartime situation seems more acceptable these days, then think of God sending Jesus on a suicide mission. Like Khan, he is to enter enemy-occupied territory incognito, gather a network of the resistance, and spread his message. When captured by those who oppose his mission, due to the betrayal of a double agent in his own network, he refuses to give up his allies. (John 18:8) Like Fox, Jesus completes his mission, though he knows it means certain death. Like Kolbe and Librescu, Jesus dies in the place of others, though in this case it is in place of all people everywhere and everywhen.

The sacrifices of Khan, Fox and Kolbe did not mean the end of the war, just as the D-Day landings did not mean the immediate collapse of the Nazi Reich. It was, however, the beginning of the end. So too, Jesus' sacrifice, though decisive, does not mean all evil has magically disappeared. We his followers have to finish the mopping up. We need to spread the word and free people and make more allies and confront evil in the places we encounter it as Jesus did. And just as Khan, Fox and Kolbe were not the last sacrifices made in the effort to liberate Europe, so too some Christians followed Jesus even to death. To this day, people are dying for speaking and acting in his name.

Jesus never disguised the fact that following him required sacrifice on our part. When he revealed to his disciples that he would be killed, they were horrified. Their idea of the Messiah was then as it is to most Orthodox Jews today: a leader to establish a physical, political kingdom of God on earth. To do that, the Messiah can't die and lose; he must live and conquer. And Jesus shut that literalistic thinking down right there. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) There is no easy, painless way to deal with evil. Those who think so are fooling themselves and those who say so are trying to sell you something.

We live in a world where evil is shedding its sheep's clothing and no longer camouflaging its selfish and cruel agenda with polite words and symbolic measures. It is no longer considered beyond the pale for people to identify themselves as racist or greedy or unsympathetic to the underdogs in society. Contempt is common currency on social media and people are communicating in rude and simplistic memes rather than sincerely seeking discussions on hot button issues. Politicians will not cross party lines for policies that serve the good of all if it means losing the votes of their base. Pharmaceutical companies do not care if they kill patients with painkillers or let them die from being unable to afford their insulin. Corporations are willing to destroy this planet rather than leave one penny of profit on the table.

The only way to fight the evil is to be prepared make sacrifices. People need to sacrifice their smugness and the certainty they are always right and be willing to let others speak and to listen to them. Politicians need to sacrifice their desire for popularity among members of their party and their supporters to work with the other side on solutions that really solve problems and do not merely make a good vote-getting slogan or kick the can down the road. Corporations need to sacrifice potential profits in order to ensure that all people and the planet we live on survive. All of us will have to sacrifice some of our privileges and luxuries to keep peace and see that society is just.

And we need to sacrifice our time, talents, treasure and energy in fighting evil. If it is ignorance we can educate folks. If it is stupidity we can work out wiser ways to accomplish things. If it is the harm of neglect we must call it out. If it is willful harm we must stand in the way of the adversary. We must be ready to stand between those who victimize others and those they wish to victimize. And we must do it, regardless of the sacrifice we must make.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you—that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:24, emphasis mine) And the next day, on a cross, he demonstrated how much he loved us. Can any of us say we have shown that kind of self-sacrificial love in return?