In the passage, a scribe approaches Jesus after hearing him debate with religious authorities. The scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest. Jesus responds that the foremost commandment is to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second is to love one’s neighbor as oneself. The scribe agrees, acknowledging that loving God and neighbor is more significant than rituals like burnt offerings. Jesus recognizes the scribe’s wise understanding, telling him he is close to the kingdom of God, after which no one else questions Jesus.
I wish I could ask as honest of a question as the scribe. Jesus sees him and knows he close to God. My questions are about the unimportant, not the most important.
But I feel that a deeper perspective is gained by asking about the details.
What is a burnt offering for in the first place?
Now I could do some research and look at Leviticus, and I have in fact read those parts in the last two weeks at least… (Our bible study at St. Mary’s with Fr. David) But that is not what I am interested in. I know the ancient Jews preformed sacrifice to honour the life that God gave them. Offering the blood(life) of their livestock(livelihood) to God(giver of all life). It is a recognition of an absolute dependence on him. For to give what one needs to God so that one may receive more than offered is a true sign, and still today, a righteous duty.
But today we don’t sacrifice bullocks. Nor do we make whole burned offering in ecstasy. What is a burnt offering to us today, I want to ask Jesus?
We do offer our lives on an altar today he would say. At the sacrifice of the mass, Jesus takes our lives, as his disciples, and offers then to the Father, letting the Father’s will be done in our lives, for his beloved children and friends.
So loving God IS more important then sacrifice but sacrifice is not unimportant. We are still our putting ourselves with Christ on that altar, in the new perfect unbloody sacrifice. Offering not our food or clothing or livelyhoods but through our freewill, we offer our eternal souls back to their creator.
I must ask myself, when I offer my sacrifice, am I doing this to be closer to my creator? Is the holocaust offered righteously out of true obedience to the Father, or am I like Paul says in Romans 1:23 “Exchanging the glory of God for images resembling mortal human beings.” Do I think God is more like a Poseidon or an Hera? Offering myself back to my image constructed of God that looks more like me than Christ?
Now I think that my projections may be unavoidable many a time. That doesn’t mean that a projection is unescapable, God is still with me, still guides my eyes ears and words, and even if it is imperfect… at my best my imperfect will is still his. He can work with it.
It is like he says to me in those times when I am not sure which way to go… As from the Lord, Samuel said to Saul, “I desire obedience not sacrifice.”
And as Christ, the Lord himself says, “I desire mercy not sacrifice.” For those statements are one and the same, considering God’s commandments. To worry about the details can sometimes lead you away from the most important questions… and sometimes God brings you right back.
~Andrew Heakes
-30-
Mary’s Little Bro — ANDREW HEAKES 