Sacrifice

Sacrifice

Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy …. And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. (Hebrews 10:11-14; 18)

The letter to the Hebrews can be a somewhat puzzling book. Even its author is a mystery: some say it’s Paul, others say it’s another, and some suggest it’s Dr. Luke’s transcript of one of Paul’s sermons. Regardless, Hebrews is the language of the temple, the priest, the altar and atoning blood – Old Testament terms that we thought we’d left behind in the New Testament. But the book of Hebrews also centers on a word that we use quite often: sacrifice – a word with which our Veterans are very familiar.

The word “Veteran” comes from the Latin vetus, meaning “old.” And sometimes we may think of Veterans that way. But we can also look around and see Veterans who are much younger. Veterans Day parades are no longer just for old men in tight suits and campaign hats; they include younger men and women as well, all of whom have borne the battle.

Barely a month before his death, Abraham Lincoln took to the rostrum on the steps of the Capitol and gave one of his greatest speeches – his Second Inaugural Address. The Great Emancipator ended his short speech with the following words:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

Lincoln knew that the four-year-old Civil War was coming to an end. His thoughts had already turned to reconstructing a nation that had been torn apart by war and had killed some 620,000 of its own. Amid those thoughts Lincoln chose to lay the groundwork: “… to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan ….”

Those words still act as the receipt for a debt owed by a nation that sends its young men and women off to war as surrogates for its citizens; as representatives of a national policy; as purveyors of democracy, liberty and freedom. During their time of service these men and women are called troops, soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen or Coast Guardsmen. But once their service is completed, they’re forevermore Veterans. And they deserve a special place of honor in our society because they wrote a blank check, backed by their own lives, for purposes of keeping us free.

Generally, “sacrifice” is a word people use when they find themselves indebted to someone, or to some group, for things that sustain life or, perhaps, for even saving life. For instance, we speak of our parents as having made sacrifices, and we honor people who speak the truth and suffered the consequences for it like Gandhi, Mandela or Martin Luther King. We describe the loss of life in war as a sacrifice made to defend a nation, or given for a cause like freedom.

The word “sacrifice” refers to something done for us without concern for the giver’s self. And when the sacrifice involves the shedding of blood, it conjures up a power that exceeds our ability to estimate in words. The word itself comes from two separate words, Sacer meaning “holy,” and facere meaning “to make.” Of course, that doesn’t really define the many ways in which the word “sacrifice” is used since there are many ways of “making holy” that are not a sacrifice, and there are other sacrifices that make nothing holy.

On September 12, 1861, a 25 year old farmer from southern Lancaster County left his farm and family and marched off to war against the Confederacy with the 79th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment – the Lancaster Rifles. In late 1863, the entire regiment re-enlisted, earning the right to proudly display the word “Veteran” on their battle colors – the 79th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Then, nearly four years after his enlistment, Sergeant William T. Clark returned to his farm, older – and made older – by his years spent soldiering and nursing the wounds of war that would eventually take his life some four decades later.

Sgt. Clark would later serve as the Judge of Elections in November, 1864, when members of his regiment proudly voted for Abraham Lincoln’s re-election. But Sergeant Clark’s blank check had cost him the partial use of one arm, intestinal issues due to multiple combat wounds, and a lifetime battling malaria from his time spent in the Deep South. During his nearly four years in the 79th Pennsylvania, Sgt. Clark and his regiment spent less than 60 nights under a roof – about one night a month.

On September 29th, 2006, another 25 year-old’s blank check was cashed. Petty Officer Michael Monsoor, a Navy Seal, already a recipient of the Silver and Bronze Stars for courage and gallantry, gave his life in service to his country. While on tour in Iraq, he took a position with his machine gun between two teammates on a rooftop. Out of nowhere, an insurgent threw a grenade from an unknown location which bounced off Monsoor’s chest, landing right in front of him. Although he could have escaped, he chose, instead, to protect his teammates by throwing himself onto the grenade to absorb the force of the explosion with his body. Although the lives of his teammates were spared, Petty Officer Monsoor died thirty minutes later from the mortal wounds caused by the explosion. For his extraordinary courage, President Bush awarded his family their son’s posthumous Medal of Honor. Petty Officer Michael Monsoor’s blank check was paid in full.

The book of Hebrews takes the Old Testament notion of sacrifice and castes it in New Testament terms. In the old system, the priests went daily to the temple, and the high priest went annually into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. Sacrifices were made as part of these rituals. In the “old” system of sacrifice, the people were rescued from sin by the life of a sacrificial animal. Their sins were symbolically placed on the animal as a substitute so that the people could begin their spiritual life anew.

But Hebrews points to an inherent flaw in that old system of sacrifice. Let’s say my car is not running properly. So, I take it to the mechanic to have the problem diagnosed and repaired. But what if I had to take my car back to the mechanic week after week to fix the same problem? Obviously, I would need to change mechanics – or maybe get a new car – because the problem wasn’t fixed. Like my car, the Jewish sacrifices that were being offered over and over again were indicative of the fact that the root problem for which the sacrifice was being made had not been repaired, or fixed.

But the book of Hebrews goes on to explain that the temple and its sacrifices had always been intended as only a temporary substitute for something brand new that was being worked out by God. The new sacrificial system spoken of in Hebrews was not the continual shedding of the blood of bulls and goats, but the shedding of the blood of the Messiah – once for all. It’s the sacrifice of Jesus that reaches deep inside of us, transforming us at the core of our being. We’re not just washed clean (a temporary fix), we’re made brand new (a complete makeover). The priests went daily to perform their sacrificial duties, but Jesus didn’t have to. His sacrifice was once and for all – complete – “… because when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer sacrifices anymore.” (Heb. 10:18)

When Jesus submitted to those who killed him, rather than exercising violence against them, the temple veil was torn in half and something brand new happened that day. An event that first seemed to be so terrible and so final was transformed by Christ into a brand new way of existence. You see, we worship a God who chose to suffer violence rather than meet it in kind. God entered into humankind’s cycle of violence and broke that cycle – forever.

Jesus said, “…Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)  In other words, Jesus defined sacrifice as an act of love. Not an act of hate, or an act of war, but an act of love. Now any Veteran will tell you that the bond between those who serve together in theater creates a “band of brothers." Some Veterans prefer to call it a brotherhood. But no matter how characterized, it’s love; that’s what Jesus both taught and showed.

Christ laid down his life for all of us. He chose to allow others to lead him to the cross, knowing full well what was in store. And he did it without remorse, without so much as a second thought. And that love extends to each of us because he went in our stead, just like the Veteran goes to war as our proxy.

It’s love that causes men like William Clark to leave a verdant farm and loving family to march off to war, stand shoulder to shoulder with his friends, neighbors and fellow soldiers, and brave the heat and ferocity of battle even though wounded. It’s love that causes men like Michael Monsoor who, without hesitation, laid down his life for his friends. Those blank checks are too often paid for in blood and breath; in tears and trauma. Nevertheless, the checks were written and then tendered with love.

So, how do we compare the sacrifices made by our Veterans and the ultimate sacrifice made on our behalf by Jesus on the cross? Both are costly and precious; both are made in love. But only the sacrifice of Jesus shows us the way out of the cycle of violence in which we have been bound for millennia. Jesus lived a non-violent life, and through his life he teaches us, and encourages us, to do the same.

Unfortunately, we are still locked into a cycle of violence that sends out substitutionary sacrifices (military men and women), because we are unable to live the way that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. We have not yet learned the new way of being that Jesus demonstrated for us in his sacrifice. In Christ, God is creating a new way of being; a new community of reconciliation by resisting and overcoming the power of the world with God’s saving power.

By Jesus’ resistance to violence he broke the cycle of bloodshed. “It is possible!” proclaims the cross. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” With those words, Jesus inaugurated a new age. We have only to embrace this wondrous love, and then show and demonstrate it in our own lives and actions to help usher in the same.

It is good to honor our Veterans – we should honor them by working for peace. Perhaps, by God’s grace and their past sacrifices, this generation of warriors will be the last.

Grace and Peace,

 Randy