3/5/23 Sermon
I was 21 and Gabe was 20 when he told me that he’d been born again. I thought it was curious though not really too surprising. Gabe had been skeptical. We’d been friends for years and the previous summer we became really close through going to a young people’s bible study of Roman’s. Like I said, Gabe was skeptical and would argue interpretations. There would be nights we would stay up past 2 am together talking about scripture and God and different understandings of God. Gabe was skeptical but he believed in God. Gabe was also a beautiful artist. He really was a beautiful person. And I remember looking through his sketch book in utter amazement at what he was able to do with just a pencil and paper. Gabe really could see beauty in the world, in everything he looked at. So, I was curious when he told me he’d been born again.
I asked him what had changed. He’d always had believed in God, but was skeptical of christianity. He asked if maybe we could get together the next week or sometime soon to have a conversation about some thoughts he was having about Religion and discuss some conclusions he came to. So of course, I was curious. I asked him just briefly what had changed his mind. He said what had changed his mind was when he read in scripture that there was nothing more beautiful in the world than laying down one’s life for a loved one. He was referring, I think, to John 15 where Christ tells the disciples No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
I thought about that the next week as I went to his funeral. I thought about the scripture Gabe had chosen to change his mind. I wondered if the pastor who held about 200 young people in his sanctuary knew that this was Gabe’s favorite piece of scripture as he told us in great detail what would have happened to Gabe had he not accepted Christ that previous spring. Did he know that it was Love and Beauty that attracted Gabe to Christ and not the Hell-fire and damnation he was promising these kids if they didn’t accept Christ? I couldn’t figure out what was the bigger tragedy: Gabe’s death or his funeral.
And I thought about what Gabe had told me was his favorite piece of scripture, what had changed his mind- this giving of one’s life for a friend as I sat with his younger brother Jacob. And Jacob cried and told me how he’d been stuck on the cliff and was losing his grip. Gabe climbed up to help him. He got Jacob on firmer rocks with a better grip and in the process lost his own. Gabe fell to his death. Jake would have fallen to his if Gabe hadn’t climbed up there. Gabe laid down his life for his brother’s. Gabe sacrificed himself. I’ve thought about that a lot through the years. Gabe’s favorite scripture passage and how he literally lived it out to a tee less than a week later.
What is sacrifice? What does it mean? You know, you ask people and you get all sorts of different answers. If you ask baseball fans they’re likely to give you a bunting analogy about sacrificing an out for a run to to advance a runner. But is that really a sacrifice? We kind of overuse the word. Like love. I can say I love pizza and then turn to my wife and say I love you. I don’t feel the same way about pizza as I do my wife. Sometimes I like pizza a whole lot more. So what does sacrifice really mean?
The dictionary says that sacrifice means
1 : an act of offering to a deity something precious; especially : the killing of a victim on an altar
2 : something offered in sacrifice
3 a : destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else b : something given up or lost <the sacrifices made by parents>
4 : loss <goods sold at a sacrifice>
Sacrifice is commonly known as the practice of offering food, objects (typically valuables), or the lives of animals or people to the gods as an act of propitiation or worship. The term is also used metaphorically to describe selfless good deeds for others or a short term loss in return for a greater gain, such as in a game of chess. Recently it has also come into use as meaning doing without something or giving something up.
What is sacrifice? What is it? Cain sacrificed produce he grew on the land to God. Abel sacrificed cattle. God loved Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s. Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac and nearly did, but God gave him a goat instead. Moses came down the mountain and found that Aaron had built a golden calf and the Hebrews were sacrificing it. Moses grew so mad he threw the tablets down. In Judges Jepthath promises to sacrifice to God the first thing to come out of his house when he returns victories. It was his daughter. In Leviticus we find that there are different offerings for different things like sin or peace, or joy, or trespasses. All of which ask for a sacrifice to be made.
In the New Testament we see that Jesus was offered up as the ultimate sacrifice. In places like John 10: 11 Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” or in Mark 10:45 where he says. “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Paul goes on to affirm Christ as the sacrifice to God in places like Romans 5:18: So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” And then Paul goes on to say in chapter 12 that “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
So, we see a shift in thinking here. A sacrifice is something that you offer to something that you become. In the Hebrew context it was something external you give to God. Then Jesus is the sacrifice for all. And we end with our very lives being the sacrifices we should to offer to God. We see a shift throughout the Bible from Sacrifice being something given, something external in the setting of a ritual into a self-giving for something greater that we are asked to live everyday.
It’s a very Greek idea.
Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time with the classics, revisiting stories like the Iliad and the Odyssey written by Homer over 3,000 years ago. In the Iliad Achilles, the great Hero of the Greeks, goes to fight in the Trojan war against Troy. He goes to sacrifice himself. Not to the gods, not for other Greeks, not even really for some ideal like Justice... Maybe for honor... But for the chance to be a legend. So that, people 3000 years later like us may remember his name. He offers himself as a sacrifice. He gives his life to be made sacred. To be held above others.
With sacrifice there is a loss attached to it. It isn’t just making something sacred or holy. It is a giving of something in order to become sacred or holy. James and John here in Mark don’t realize what they are asking. They are thinking, perhaps, in terms of a worldly kingdom where Jesus is the ruler and they are asking for positions of Glory. They don’t understand that what is about to happen is that Jesus is going to be a sacrifice. They want the glory without realizing the cost that comes with it. In some ways I think that they are making the same mistake that the pastor at Gabe’s funeral made. It wasn’t the reward that attracted Gabe to Christ. It was the sacrifice. The idea that Christ laid down his life for us so that we may live freely- the sacrifice that Christ made for us and asks us to make for others- That is where Gabe saw the beauty.
In Mark, Jesus tries over and over again to get the disciple to see the bigger picture that they are missing. And here, we find a beautiful summary of what Jesus is trying to tell them: whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
But sacrifice is making something holy, making something sacred. And what Gabe did was something sacred. He laid down his life for his brother. He put someone else first at the risk of his own life. And that is a sacred act. That is a sacrifice. Christ went to the cross of his own will, of his own volition not because it was something that God demanded, but because Christ wanted us to be holy, to be made sacred. Or as Hebrews puts is a royal priesthood. And Gabe is right. There is something remarkably beautiful in that. That Christ saw all that we are and all that we could be, and he was willing to sacrifice himself for us. It wasn’t about glory. It wasn’t about reward. It is the single most beautiful act in all of history. Laying down your life for others. It is a sacrifice. It is a sacred act of making something holy. And he bids us to come and follow his example: to go making all things sacred.
So, where do we make sacrifices. True sacrifices? Where do we give of ourselves to make things around us holy? Do we offer up our lives and what we do with our lives as a free gift? I think thats what we’re asked to do. That’s what James and John were missing. We aren’t called to lives of glory. We aren’t asked to be first or sit in the best spots. We’re asked to pick up our crosses. To serve others. To live as sacrifices made to God in order that the world may be holy. So that the kingdom and reign of God may finally come to fruition and the world may live in some semblance of peace.