God of all things, grant us to follow in the
way of your Son this week, that through his Death, we might receive the riches
of your grace ☩ in the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Most of us are familiar with the liturgical text of the Agnus Dei: “O Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.” For the sermons of Holy Week, I will be reflecting on the idea that Jesus is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. This is the language of sacrifice, and so I’ll be reflecting upon sacrifice throughout this week, and I encourage and invite you to join me in this holy meditation on the theme of sacrifice.
We
heard in the reading from Hebrews that “Christ entered once for all into the
Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood,
thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, with
the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled
so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ… purify
our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” Certainly, this is a
powerful sentiment, but how do we make sense of it?
I
have done a lot of things wrong in my life and have, therefore, had to make a
lot of apologies. And not once have I ever take a goat, bull, or calf and shed
its blood to make things right. If I’ve broken something, I’ve replaced it. If
I’ve offended, I’ve apologized and tried to make amends. If I’ve forgotten
something, I apologize and do what should have been done. If I’m not faithful
in prayer and acts of mercy, I resolve to refocus my priorities. But not once
have I done something wrong and said “Well, things are now okay since I’ve
sacrificed that lamb.” Now, in no way does this dimmish the Jewish practice of
making sacrifices, it’s just a foreign idea to us, and so seeing Jesus as a
sacrifice is also an idea that is foreign to our way of understanding
atonement.
What,
in our modern context, is analogous to the idea of sacrifice? The notion is
that we have done something wrong, but cannot make things right on our own, and
so someone or something else stands in for us and bears the brunt of the
consequences of our actions. I’ll tell you, I’ve been fascinated by observing
the way our society has thought and fought about the idea of “cancel culture.”
Right now, it’s conservatives who decry the idea of cancel culture. But it was
just a few years ago that progressives were warning about the dangers of cancel
culture. When it comes to sacrifice
though, we might say that for us and for our salvation, Jesus was canceled.
Perhaps
that strikes you as a bit of a stretch, but there are more connections than we
might think at first mention. Jesus was a rising religious figure in his
community. He was gaining notoriety and followers. But the things he was doing
were calling into question who had true power and his words were a challenge to
the authority of the religious and political leadership. And so they decided to
cancel Jesus – to speak badly about him and to try to delegitimize him. But
this didn’t work, as he continued to attract followers who were starting to
wonder if those in authority really belonged there. They then took the next
step in canceling Jesus – they arrested him in a perversion of justice,
tortured him, and then executed him in the most degrading and painful way they
knew how – Crucifixion.
The
way this was understood by the author of Hebrews (among others) was as
something done for us. Because we were stuck in our sins and trapped by the
grave, it was us who were deserving of being canceled. Our actions could not be
called “righteous” and death comes for us all. And even if we think that we’re
“not so bad,” Death is the great cancellation – it comes for all of us without
exception. Jesus though is canceled for us, sacrificed on our behalf, so that
the idea of ever needing to make a sacrifice ends. Jesus is the sacrifice to
end all sacrifices.
This
was a very radical claim – for a people whose religious life revolved around
Temple sacrifices to be told that sacrifices like that are no longer needed. It
would be as if someone came to us and said that the Eucharist to end all
Eucharists has been celebrated and we do not need to have Communion anymore,
and further, us continuing to have Communion means that we don’t understand
what God has done for us. I’m not sure that I’d be able to get my mind around
that. This claim that is being made in Hebrews is absolutely transformative and
radical.
The
sacrifice was understood as a way of reaching out to God in repentance and in
thanksgiving. What Hebrews has in mind though is a reversal of this. We heard,
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant.” A sacrifice that
reaches out towards God is no longer needed because God has reached out to us
in sacrifice. This flips everything. No longer is the question of faith “What
do we need to do to be in right relationship with God?” but rather “Look at
what God has done to put us in right relationship with him!” This graciousness
comes through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by his cancelation that we might
not be canceled by Sin and Death.
The
result of this is, as Hebrews put it, we are able to “worship the living God.”
We need not focus on doing things that make us look good or holy because God
has already made us good and holy. So we are freed to worship God instead of
status, wealth, power, prestige, or anything else. Instead, we can focus on the
sorts of things that truly matter, things like faith, hope, and love.
There’s an Episcopal church in New York City that has as the message on their sign out front “Enjoy your forgiveness.” That’s exactly what the sacrifice of Jesus allows us to do – to enjoy the forgiveness that we have been given instead of worrying about whether or not we are forgiven. Holy Week, at its best, reminds us of the depths of God’s love for us so that we know ourselves to be dead to sin in Christ and Risen with him in his Resurrection life. So, enjoy your forgiveness.
