Scripture: Hebrews 9:24-26; Leviticus 16:11-13; Leviticus 16:16-17; Matthew 5:23-24; Matthew 9:11-13; Hosea 6:6; Luke 9:23-25 Series: 2020
Preached the Sunday after the 2020 election, this sermon on Hebrews 9:24-26 contrasts the modern metaphorical sense of ‘sacrifice’ (giving something up for success, kids, retirement) with biblical sacrifice as a specific response to God rooted in Yom Kippur and Leviticus 16. Christ’s once-for-all death ends sacrifice, opens God’s presence, and breaks the cycle of eye-for-an-eye violence. Drawing on Hosea 6:6 (‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’), Matthew 5 and 9, and Luke 9, the pastor argues Jesus calls disciples to let go not of what matters but of what is meaningless, and to choose mercy and reconciliation over purity and being right. The closing application is pointed: be reconciled to those you’ve cut off over the election, don’t sacrifice other children of God on the altar of purity, and dream bigger for God’s new creation.’
Illustrations: double-bass-practice-houston, francois-rabbath, twoset-violin-lingling, bonhoeffer-come-and-die, elsa-let-it-go, election-estrangement-reconciliation
November 8
Sacrifice
Hebrews 9:24-26
Sacrifice is a word that is used a lot in our culture, usually with a metaphorical connotation. We don’t speak of sacrifice in the same way that they did in the ancient world. It is not temple sacrifices, doves and goats and blood, nor human sacrifices.
Sacrifice is usually used in the sense of giving something up. “I am going to sacrifice that, I am going to give that up.” I think about this a lot in my own world when thinking about music. Especially, thinking about what it meant as a kid, to practice. I played classical double bass in Junior High, High School, and and College….
In my last two years of high school, I was taking lessons at the University of Houston, so I drove the two hours from College Station to Houston pretty much every Saturday. I studied with a professor who studied with this amazing Lebanese Bassist, François Rabbath, who revolutionized Bass technique, and whom Gustavo accompanied at one point, which is such a cool connection.
Lessons at Houston, Cartoon.
There is a funny YouTube Channel called TwoSetViolin which has these two violinists from Australia and they make all sorts of music jokes, but one bit they have is the mythical LingLing, that their music teachers always brought up. “Why can’t you be like LingLing? Why are you only practicing 8 hours a day? LingLing practices 40 (4-0) hours a day!”
But giving something up is different from sacrifice.
My friends, today we are talking about sacrifice: what it means and what it doesn’t mean, and how we should live in light of Jesus Christ.
We must have in the back of our minds contemporary notions of sacrifice. Maybe for you it is sports or having kids or saving for retirement or saving to give to your kids, this notion of sacrifice is common and we must admit it and then admit that this is not what is going on in the Letter to the Hebrews.
Our reading today is brief but powerful.
Hebrews 9:24-26
Throughout the early part of Hebrews, there are continuous allusions to Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, one of the holiest days in the Jewish Calendar. During the first and second temple period (that is, from the time of Solomon up until 70 AD), Yom Kippur functioned similar to what is described in Leviticus 16
Leviticus 16:11-13, 16-17
This is how sacrifice is understood. It is not a giving up of things generally but a specific response to God. Jesus never asks his followers to make sacrifices. Jesus asks people to take up their cross and follow him. A cross is an instrument of execution not of sacrifice. Jesus tells people in Matthew to stop and not make a sacrifice if they are out of sync with a brother or sister.
Matthew 5:23-24
Reconciliation is more central to the economy of God than sacrifice. Even more, later in the same gospel, Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector, and some pharisees challenge him, saying: Matthew 9:11-13
Jesus quotes here Hosea 6:6: “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
At its heart, this is what we should understand Jesus’s life to do. Mercy not sacrifice. God doesn’t ask us to sacrifice but to let go of what is meaningless in our life. Faith is not about reaching personal goals of success. Those are great, but that is not why Jesus came.
What Hebrews shows us is that Christ’s death ends sacrifice and opens the presence of God to all of us. The violence that the world expected again and again, the violence of an eye for an eye, the violence of Cain and Abel, the violence of revenge and restitution and people getting what they deserve, that is over. Even though there is violence in this world, it will not win.
We can see on the cross the climax of what Jesus means when he says ’to turn the other cheek.’ I desire mercy not sacrifice. When someone confronts me, I don’t have to conquer them. My worth is not in my power but in God’s. Mercy not sacrifice.
Mercy does not mask over injustice or the sins of others. Mercy is not about forgetting. We can only understand mercy as a response to God’s mercy for us. We can only offer mercy to others out of a response to God’s mercy for us. You are forgiven. You are loved. What are you going to do now? I desire mercy not sacrifice. Or to put it another way, it is not your purity that is in question, how are you loving people?
This is also what Jesus is getting at when he tells people in Luke 9
Luke 9:23-25
Jesus doesn’t ask people to give up what matters to them but what doesn’t matter. “If you are going to be my disciple, you can’t be someone else’s disciple. You can’t do that anymore. You have to stop lying to yourself.
Or still, if you ever want to save your life, you are going to have to let go of the life you thought you had. Like Matthew the Tax Collector, like Zacchaeus, like Peter and Andrew, like Mary Magdalene. Like Saul of Tarsus.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, when Jesus calls a man he bids him come and die.
And yet, Christ made the sacrifice so that we don’t have to anymore. Jesus calls us to let die the things that deserve to die.
In the words of Elsa, “Let it go, let it go, can’t hold me back anymore.” Then again, don’t be like Elsa
Be reconciled. If you have someone in your life that you have avoided or blocked because of the election, be reconciled.
Reconciling doesn’t mean you have to like someone. Reconciling doesn’t mean everyone has to be your BFF. The goal of faith is not to buttress ourselves from the world nor is it to save the world from itself. Jesus paid it all and Jesus did it once for all.
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose soul? “ God doesn’t ask you to give up something you need but to see the world in a different way, to see your needs in a different way, to see your relations with other people in a different way. Don’t leave people in your life behind. You don’t have to be the winner. You don’t have to be right.
God never asks us to give up on our dreams, God asks us to dream bigger. To dream not just for ourselves but for all things being made new in God’s new creation inaugurated by Jesus Christ. And the biggest dreams start with the smallest steps. Take a step towards God’s dream this day.
Before you think of the things you should do today, think of the people in your life. Don’t sacrifice other children of God on the altar of purity. We all need grace. We all need to respond to grace. We all need to shine our light and not keep it hidden. Jesus paid it all. Now let us give our all.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.