Sacrifice
Do you remember Mel Gibson’s controversial movie “The Passion of Christ?” It was a graphically violent film, released on Ash Wednesday in 2004, that focused exclusively on the last days of Jesus, highlighting the details of his torture and crucifixion. I made the conscious decision not to see the film myself, in part because I find it emotionally difficult to watch violent scenes. But the other reason I skipped the movie was that I didn’t understand the purpose of it. Sure, it seems meaningful to convey the horrific reality of torture, which has been inflicted on millions (billions?) of people throughout history, if your purpose is to stir viewers to take constructive action to stop it. But that wasn’t Gibson’s intention as I understood it. I believe that Gibson’s intention was to depict what Jesus might have gone through as a “sacrifice for the sins of many.” If that was his intention, I would argue that it was misguided. I don’t believe the Bible handles the question that way.
I am not suggesting that crucifixion isn’t as horrible as the movie portrays. What I am saying is that it is a complete distortion of what sacrifice means in the Bible. Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t submitting to torture. Jesus’ sacrifice was becoming fully human—God stripped of all power.
In other words, sacrifice is better understood through what Jesus tells his disciples on his way to the cross when he repeatedly says that the end of the road for him is defeat. They don’t want to hear it. But a God who is humble, lowly, and defeated is a God who walks side-by-side with the humble, lowly, and defeated. To sacrifice is to give something of value up for a larger purpose. There may be pain involved, but the pain is secondary. The crux of the sacrifice is that there is a larger purpose that ultimately has more value than what we originally accorded to the object or quality that we gave up. A new father trades his two-seater sports car for a sedan so that he can transport his children to school. An adult child moves home to care for her aging mother and forges a new and more meaningful relationship. A dissident returns to his homeland to face imprisonment and death, demonstrating fearlessness in the face of tyranny.
Sacrifice is an important topic in this season of the church calendar. I look forward to continuing to explore it, week by week. I hope that together we will discover new meanings in this ancient story.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jen
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