Sacrifice
My devotional times seem to repeat themes regularly as if there is some lesson I need to master. One of those themes is the cost of discipleship. I regularly come across passages that insist that I am not worthy to follow Jesus unless I give up everything to do that. "Sell all you have, give the money to the poor, and come follow me." "Whoever loves parents, siblings, spouse or children more than me is not worthy of me." "It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle."
The passages, when listed like this, seem severe and harsh and demanding. But there is this other side to them that I glimpse sometimes. There is a freedom, a lightness that comes from giving up our grasp on things. Because that is what it is, grasping. We worry so much because we have so much, and the more we have, the more we convince ourselves that it is these things that keep us safe. We grasp them with both hands held so tightly that our tendons bulge and our muscles ache and our fingernails cut into our palms. And while our hands are so tightly closed they cannot receive anything that gives us relief or peace.
"Do not worry about tomorrow." "Don't worry about what you should eat or drink or wear, but seek first God's kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be added to you."
I think when we have so much we get the idea that we can control it somehow. We have four kinds of insurance to keep disaster away. They are even named after illusions. Health insurance? Life insurance?
We have lists of things that we need to be happy. We have lists of things we have to do/eat/think about in order to be healthy. We have more parenting books than we can possibly read because we are so afraid of messing up these children we love more than we love ourselves. The more afraid we are the more rules and lists we have. When I become afraid of something what do I do? I try to control it so that it can't hurt me.
We even try to control religion/faith. We make rules for ourselves with the intent of becoming closer to God through these disciplines. And disciplines DO bring us closer to God. But then we get mixed up and think that it is the rules that are saving us instead of the relationship saving us. So we make more rules and we get more judgmental of people who don't or can't share those rules and we become less and less like God.
The crux of it is finding the alternative. How do we live in that state of grace where we know with our hearts as well as our minds that none of these efforts to insure our own safety or happiness is worth anything? How do we walk into the kind of joy that knows no fear, not because danger does not exist, but because our certainty of who we are in God's eyes makes us able to face the fearful things with courage?
There is a lot more here to think about, but this brings me to the second repeating theme.
Jesus was required to die for my sins.
My experience of God is one full of mercy and grace. So when my devotions bring me again and again to this requirement of blood sacrifice for my sins I try to reconcile it with my experience. I can't throw it out. It is everywhere in the Bible. To throw it out is to throw out everything.
There are some things I ponder that relate to this.
Jesus never promised safety. He promised that following Him would likely involve very real risks. Would we have gotten that message had he not demonstrated it? But that question implies that he went looking for death to show us how it is done. That is misleading.
Jesus lived his life without fear and with freedom and truth. He was surrounded by people who had fear and bondage and lies. People like us. People who were afraid of a God who could send them to hell so they made up rules and more rules and more rules and then substituted the rules for the relationship. So Jesus comes and says no to the rules and their whole system of being right with God is threatened. They are so convinced of the rules that they get the idea that Jesus is blaspheming---telling people he is leading them to God when he is leading them to destruction. In their eyes He is destroying faith and they have to kill him for it. They are so terrified of losing their safety system that they can't even recognize God right in their midst, miracles and all.
And they are me. I've relied on my rules and found safety in my ability to control my world and the times I have been angriest at God are the times when God has made it plain that He doesn't fit into my neatly constructed box for him. I've made him too small. I've tried to be too safe. So if Jesus died because of sin, at least part of that sin was the Pharisees who couldn't see Jesus because they had built such a safe way to God that they could not accept the real way to God. I have that sin too.
This doesn't even come close to explaining all of the history and theology behind the sacrificial system. I don't pretend to get even a fraction of the meaning behind the idea of sacrifice for sin and how that is fulfilled in Jesus. This is only a start.
There is something too about finding release from the weight of guilt by doing something tangible, giving up something valuable to make things right. But this post is long enough.
There is new stuff at my other site - see 'notes from the journey' in the side bar.
The passages, when listed like this, seem severe and harsh and demanding. But there is this other side to them that I glimpse sometimes. There is a freedom, a lightness that comes from giving up our grasp on things. Because that is what it is, grasping. We worry so much because we have so much, and the more we have, the more we convince ourselves that it is these things that keep us safe. We grasp them with both hands held so tightly that our tendons bulge and our muscles ache and our fingernails cut into our palms. And while our hands are so tightly closed they cannot receive anything that gives us relief or peace.
"Do not worry about tomorrow." "Don't worry about what you should eat or drink or wear, but seek first God's kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be added to you."
I think when we have so much we get the idea that we can control it somehow. We have four kinds of insurance to keep disaster away. They are even named after illusions. Health insurance? Life insurance?
We have lists of things that we need to be happy. We have lists of things we have to do/eat/think about in order to be healthy. We have more parenting books than we can possibly read because we are so afraid of messing up these children we love more than we love ourselves. The more afraid we are the more rules and lists we have. When I become afraid of something what do I do? I try to control it so that it can't hurt me.
We even try to control religion/faith. We make rules for ourselves with the intent of becoming closer to God through these disciplines. And disciplines DO bring us closer to God. But then we get mixed up and think that it is the rules that are saving us instead of the relationship saving us. So we make more rules and we get more judgmental of people who don't or can't share those rules and we become less and less like God.
The crux of it is finding the alternative. How do we live in that state of grace where we know with our hearts as well as our minds that none of these efforts to insure our own safety or happiness is worth anything? How do we walk into the kind of joy that knows no fear, not because danger does not exist, but because our certainty of who we are in God's eyes makes us able to face the fearful things with courage?
There is a lot more here to think about, but this brings me to the second repeating theme.
Jesus was required to die for my sins.
My experience of God is one full of mercy and grace. So when my devotions bring me again and again to this requirement of blood sacrifice for my sins I try to reconcile it with my experience. I can't throw it out. It is everywhere in the Bible. To throw it out is to throw out everything.
There are some things I ponder that relate to this.
Jesus never promised safety. He promised that following Him would likely involve very real risks. Would we have gotten that message had he not demonstrated it? But that question implies that he went looking for death to show us how it is done. That is misleading.
Jesus lived his life without fear and with freedom and truth. He was surrounded by people who had fear and bondage and lies. People like us. People who were afraid of a God who could send them to hell so they made up rules and more rules and more rules and then substituted the rules for the relationship. So Jesus comes and says no to the rules and their whole system of being right with God is threatened. They are so convinced of the rules that they get the idea that Jesus is blaspheming---telling people he is leading them to God when he is leading them to destruction. In their eyes He is destroying faith and they have to kill him for it. They are so terrified of losing their safety system that they can't even recognize God right in their midst, miracles and all.
And they are me. I've relied on my rules and found safety in my ability to control my world and the times I have been angriest at God are the times when God has made it plain that He doesn't fit into my neatly constructed box for him. I've made him too small. I've tried to be too safe. So if Jesus died because of sin, at least part of that sin was the Pharisees who couldn't see Jesus because they had built such a safe way to God that they could not accept the real way to God. I have that sin too.
This doesn't even come close to explaining all of the history and theology behind the sacrificial system. I don't pretend to get even a fraction of the meaning behind the idea of sacrifice for sin and how that is fulfilled in Jesus. This is only a start.
There is something too about finding release from the weight of guilt by doing something tangible, giving up something valuable to make things right. But this post is long enough.
There is new stuff at my other site - see 'notes from the journey' in the side bar.
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