2 Lent 2006

  Think of the hardest thing you have ever had to do. Two little kids were in the hospital, lying on stretchers next to each other outside the operating room. The first kid leans over and asks, “What are you in here for?”

      The second kid says, “I’m in here to get my tonsils out and I’m a little nervous.”

The first kid says, “You’ve got nothing to be worried about. I had this done when I was four. They put you to sleep, and when you wake up, they give you lots of J-ello and ice cream. It’s a breeze.”

The second kid then asks, “What are you here for?”

The first kid says, “A Circumcision.”

The second kid says, “Whoa, Good luck buddy. I had that done when I was born. Couldn’t walk for a year.”

      So, what is the hardest thing you have ever had to do?

For some of you that will be easy to say. For some it may not be so easy. No matter what your hardest thing might be I doubt that it can compare to what God asked Abraham to do.

 He was a man of the promise. God had spoken to him singularly and said, “Through your offspring I will bring a great nation, as great as the stars of the sky, and the sand of the sea.”

 Even though Abraham was very old, even though he tried to manipulate God’s plan through marrying another woman Hagar, and then having a son, Ishmael, through her rather than through Sarah his wife; and even though God had granted Abraham the fulfillment of His promise in the birth of Isaac through Sarah, Abraham had no way of knowing what kind of torment and self-doubt awaited him.

 Because of his great faith, Abraham was counted as righteous in God’s sight, even though Abraham was a flawed man, a man who was a sinner. This is a great image of who we are in Christ. Through our faith in Christ we are counted righteous, worthy by God, and thus, heirs to all that God has promised, even though we are flawed, sinful human beings.

 Even though Abraham had great faith, or perhaps because of it, God tested Abraham. He tested Abraham by asking him to offer his son as a sacrifice to God.

 The offering of human sacrifices (especially sacrifices of children) was very common in the pagan world of Abraham’s day. Children were often killed on altars as offerings to the sun god, or some other deity.

 But the God of Abraham never asked for human sacrifices. So why would he want this faithful man to offer up the son that God miraculously gave him in the first place? Although technically Isaac was not Abraham’s first born he was still considered the first born because he was born to Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Isaac was heir to the promise of God, heir to the fortune of Abraham, so why now must he be sacrificed on an altar?

 Abraham, being a man of faith, and recognizing the voice of God, believed that God had a reason for asking him to do this so he complied. It is hard for us to understand this in light of the news accounts that we hear of parents who do harm to their children because they said God told them to.    

 Abraham took Isaac up on a mountain and prepared to thrust a knife in the boy’s heart and then burn his body. Abraham must have had great trust in God.

 I often wonder why I have such trouble trusting God. For example, before our most recent Alpha Course began, I had trouble trusting that God would bring people to the course. I couldn’t bring myself to fully trust that God would move people of this congregation to actually invite unchurched people to attend the course. Once again God came through even when I didn’t trust him.

 Sometimes we think that if a person has had a dramatic encounter with God they will trust God more. I had a rather dramatic conversion experience when I came to Christ and when I was filled with the Holy Spirit. After that I would tend to expect God to dramatically work all of the time. I would expect the same feelings I had experienced in those initial experiences. When He did not do that I would tend to lose my trust in Christ, and might not recognize Him working in less dramatic ways.

 For those who have not had a dramatic conversion experience, you might be tempted to not expect God to work in much of any way outside of the natural course of events. You might tend to limit what God can do or wants to do in your life. Since you don’t expect him to intervene in any sort of tangible way, then the tendency is to lose our trust in Him. When we pray with people, do we actually believe that God might heal them then and there? I suspect some clergy might fall over in a dead faint were God to dramatically heal someone when they prayed for them.

 Some don’t trust God because there have been unanswered prayers or tragedies that have happened. Others have been praying for a long time for something without an apparent answer. Some may be waiting on a mate, or a child to turn back to God, or a way out of a particular problem, you may feel like you are losing your trust in God. We want God to speak to us in a dramatic way like he did to Abraham, but we don’t want Him to ask us to do anything difficult or uncomfortable.

 Can you imagine the pain and the anguish that Abraham must have felt as he prepared to do this deed? Can you imagine the thoughts that must have gone through his mind? Can you imagine the heaviness in his heart as he looked into the eyes of his “only son?”

 He slowly raised the knife and right before he plunged it into Isaac’s chest the voice of the angel of the Lord came to him- “Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” The Lord then provided a ram to take the place of Isaac in the sacrifice.

 What does all of this mean for us?

 It is not insignificant that this story is found in Genesis. For Genesis is the foundation to all of the rest of the Bible. Without Genesis the rest of the Bible makes little sense. Many of the major teachings of Jesus and the New Testament have their roots in Genesis. The eternality of God, the creation by God, the making of male and female in His image, good and evil, marriage, and many other foundational teachings can be traced back to Genesis.

 But most importantly we find out about sin in Genesis. One aspect of the creation by God was the creation of Adam and Eve. They were created into a perfect world with the choice to live in the Garden and eat of its fruit with the exception of the fruit of one tree, the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Of their own free will they ate of the forbidden fruit, thus rebelling against God. As a result, sin entered into the world, it became a part of their spiritual DNA which was then passed on to each person who has ever lived. When sin entered this perfect world it brought with it decay, disease, disasters and ultimately death. Both spiritual and physical death became a reality in man and in creation. Human beings would no longer enjoy that close intimate relationship with the Creator. They were separated by their sin from the Holy God. Even though they and we became separated from God, God’s desire was for them and us to have a relationship with their Creator. But because God is holy and cannot live with sin or anything sinful, He had to come up with a way to keep his holiness untainted, while still having a relationship with sinful humans. God devised the sacrificial system. God determined that only by the shedding of blood of an innocent would the price be paid for sin. Often that innocent was in the form of specific types of animals.

 This brings us to Abraham and Isaac. In the story of these two God is showing His plan to restore humans to that original relationship with him. Isaac is a type of Christ. Isaac represents Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb. Just as Isaac was Abraham’s “only son and first born,” so was Jesus God’s only Son and “first born” (or heir to the promise). Isaac was a symbol of God’s deliverance. Just as Isaac trudged up the hill with his wood on his back, so, too, did Jesus carry his wood cross up the hill.

 We see the word love used in this story of Abraham and Isaac. This is the first time that love is mentioned in the Bible and isn’t it significant that love is seen in the context of sacrifice. “God so LOVED the world that He gave his one and only Son (to be sacrificed on the hard wood, the altar of the cross) that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, be separated from God for eternity, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

 Just as God provided a sacrifice for Abraham, so God has provided a sacrifice for our sins. It is Jesus, his beloved Son. Even though it must have  grieved him to give up His Son to be beaten and suffer at the hands of wicked men; even though it must have wrenched His heart to see Jesus the Holy Son of God crucified with common criminals; God was willing to  endure that pain in order to show us His great love for humanity.

 Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” He laid down His life for us. That is love, my friends, sacrificial love.

 No one else in human history has made this kind of sacrifice. While other religions and religious leaders may offer some good answers, they are in the final analysis no eternal hope, because they did not pay the price for sin, nor did they rise again from the dead.

 According to an ancient legend, a man became lost in his travels and wandered into a bed of quicksand.

 Confucius saw the man’s predicament and said, “It is evidence that men should stay out of places like this.”

 Next, Buddha observed the situation and said, “Let that man’s plight be a lesson for the rest of the world.”

 Then Mohammed came by and said to the sinking man, “Alas, it is the will of Allah.”

 Finally, Jesus appeared on the scene and said, “Take my hand, brother, I will save you.”

 You may feel like you are sinking in the mire of life. You may feel like everyone has abandoned you. You may feel like no one cares.

 Reach out your hand to Jesus and let him pull you up.