Risk and sacrifice

 

Risk and sacrifice

Dale Cupo

1/18/24

Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

 

Hebrews 13:15-16 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Exodus 20:24 ^An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.

“The word for sacrifice in the Old Testament was Korbanot.  The word korban means “something which draws close.” Their purpose was to bring people closer to God.”

So many thoughts swirling as I ponder an online discussion on this regarding an Exodus passage in the bible. Much was discussed but one point was that in some ways a sacrifice is something precious given up for the highest thing. Abraham willing to give up his son to God. And when the Israelites left Egypt, the old leavening needed to be left behind so that the new could come. Bearing children in our crazy world today is taking a risk and making a sacrifice so that the population can continue instead of standing on the selfish view of not bringing children into this world because we fear what might happen to them. If we don’t risk/sacrifice the new cannot take hold and eventually death comes to the people.

Sacrifice in my modern western thinking constitutes laying down everyday luxuries for a little while to the Lord. Adding in the connotation of risk though moves it into a whole other context. Risk leans into the word dangerous. To move towards danger as a means to Korban/draw closer to God? Abraham risked his entire promise of generations to come from his line when he obeyed the Lord to prepare Issac as the sacrifice. Risk was Mary saying yes to God. This risk taking biblically appears costly to those that are willing to sacrifice and yet their obedience brought in hope for the future. They gambled their personal futures for the generations that will come.

What would it look like if we sacrificed to the point of moving towards the dangerous and risky things. The obvious is that we know Jesus came to sacrifice himself for us and we are to take up our crosses and follow him. But how do we truly reconcile the call for ourselves as believers to sacrifice all? How do we push into the dangerous risk of sacrificing to make way beyond our own lives?