Sacrifice

“So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." (Genesis 4:5b-7, ESV)
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10, ESV)
There is something about the Christian life that seems to have been forgotten as the gods of materialism and power raised their ugly heads over much of the world in recent years. What is it? As one man put it many years ago, in a room of Christians sometimes it’s hard to catch the smell of Jesus. What did he mean? And what connection do hardship and suffering have with living the Christian life? These are serious and a light perusal of little snippets of Christian ideas, sometimes not grounded in God’s Holy Word, that are seemingly forever forwarded through e-mails, will not be enough when we are called into account for our lives. In the two references above, we have two dissimilar situations. Firstly, we have the third human to be on this planet in a conversation with the Almighty God. Cain has a “situation” as modern dramas like to put it. He has willfully disobeyed God and now God is gently rebuking him for his sinful actions. Cain has a typical response when caught in disobedience; he becomes angry and he’s “down in the mouth”, to use an older expression. He’s a sourpuss; suddenly everything in his world has gone wrong. We can surmise that he was asked by God to sacrifice an animal as an offering of thanksgiving, but the scripture does not state that. We do know, however, that under the Jewish law, people purchased animals for sacrifices because the law specifically stated how each sacrifice was to be made. Other than grain offerings for specific reasons, produce was never indicated as a proper sacrifice to God. When we look at the world’s pagan religions, we find that the offering of foods to the gods is very typical and is usually associated with the idea of ancestors or statues needing to consume food. At any rate, God did not accept Cain’s sacrifice and so Cain found himself in the above situation.
Contrary to popular misunderstanding, the offering of sacrifices is key to our relation to the God of the Universe, not simply part of our religious culture. Sin entered the world and death came through the sin, as is even evident in the clothing God made for Adam and Eve after they sinned in the Garden of Eden. Leaves of fig trees were not risque, they simply were not of a sacrificial nature. Hence, God made clothes for Adam and Eve from the skins of animals. The animals had to die for God to make those clothes. God is the first person in history to perform an animal sacrifice to expiate the sins of man. I wonder how Adam and Eve felt after that. Surely they realized their act of disobedience brought death to these animals, perhaps animals they had been with, since Adam named all of the animals before Eve was created. The purpose of sacrifice was to keep man in communion with God, to expiate the sins of man, and to keep man in remembrance of what a great sacrifice has been made because of his acts of sinfulness.
Cain had a choice to make. Either he could do what God had asked, in which case he would feel good again, his anger would dissipate and he would not commit further sins, or he could follow his feelings. We know the rest of the story, which ended not only in tragedy, but the first murder in the world. Cain carried the mark of his sin the rest of his life, but he also carried the memory of killing his own brother. Sin does that.
Now it would seem that the second scripture, written by the apostle Paul, has no bearing on this topic, but it does. Paul is telling the Corinthian Christians about his own struggles in preaching the gospel; he is frustrated at their refusal to obey his instructions, instructions that were meant to strengthen the Corinthian Christians in their Christian living. That is what preachers do, that is what spiritual leaders do, they bring from God’s Holy Word the instructions we need to live according to God’s ways, not our own sinful ways. Just as Cain carried the mark of his sinfulness, Christians are meant to carry the marks of the cross, to show the world that our God is a living God who suffered for us. God does not want His children to suffer, but He will allow it to the extent that it brings the godless into closer contact with the Suffering Servant. The world is watching us as we react to circumstances around us, especially times when we have fallen. Truthfully speaking, as well as making honest mistakes, Christians make willful mistakes and sin. The world holds itself up as a model of everything that is right and proper, having no power to live that way, but is quick to criticize Christians who make even one mistake, who fall even one time. It is easy in those situations to get angry, to lash out at others, to sin. Surely the apostle Paul was tempted to vindicate himself on more than one occasion, as is even evident in his response to the High Priest’s order to have Paul slapped (God will slap you, you white wall. See Acts 23:3)
Christians who are stricken, but not crushed, who are perplexed, but not driven to despair, rely on the power of God that is in them to keep from sinning and to present the Wounded, Suffering Savior to the lost. It will always be so. A better measuring stick for the health of a church is not the number of people sitting in the pews on Sunday, but the number of Christians who take it to heart that suffering is part of the cup that is filled to overflowing by the Lord. We enjoy “creature comforts”, usually taking the easy way, in everything we do. We love labor-saving devices so that we have more time to relax. Relaxation time simply means time to sit and do little or nothing. We will go out of our way to avoid anything that is physically strenuous, but pay for membership in a gym, so that we can work off unwanted pounds, to look better, or even just to feel better. Our Christian lives are similar. We tend to think that showing up on Sunday morning for one hour is all that should be expected of us and even then, we complain about the singing, the lengthy prayers or the long-winded preacher. For years the worship has been called the “worship service” and many Christians have taken the word service out of context. Worship is worship, not really even a service to others of any kind. Our contributions of money are simply giving back a little of what God has so generously given to us, no more, no less. Even our giving is not sacrificial in nature, but simply a little we might have left over and can spare. We can become indignant if we are asked to serve in other ways, to work in ways to help the poor and downtrodden, especially to give of our precious time. We like to take the easier way, so we hire those to do the things in church that we really don’t want to do. Years ago a Christian attended worship services away from home and was surprised to find that the song leader was not a Christian, but had been hired to lead the singing. Churches often hire secretaries who may not even be Christians, or at least not a member of that congregation. We think nothing of it, because our minds are wrapped around a business world view that is in stark contrast to the Christian world view we should have. If the secretary is efficient, though not a Christian, we praise her for her service and pay her a salary. If the song leader can make the singing more beautiful, even though not a Christian, we believe that is more acceptable to God, that it somehow honors Him more. It is easy to forget that there are three different places in the Psalms that command the worshipers to make a joyful noise to the Lord. Maybe the noises people make when singing off-key are more delightful to God than our painstakingly crafted contemporary songs are.
Cain took the easier, less costly way when offering his sacrifice. It cost him everything. Paul endured hardship for the sake of others, that they might know the Risen Savior. There have been good men and women since the beginning of the Church who have sacrificed that others might know Jesus.
Sacrifice is what our relationship with God is all about, the sum of everything. The supreme sacrifice was made by God Himself, Jesus Christ, who bore the marks of sin in His body that we might bear the marks of His Righteousness in ours.
The smell of Jesus is the smell of love, mercy, forgiveness and humility. Were we to stand next to the Cross on that Great Day, we would have smelled the blood of Our Wonderful Savior. His very life blood smells of love. There is no bloodless sacrifice, no painless way to salvation. He asks for our love and He tells us how we can show that love to Him. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John14:15, ESV) Cain showed neither love to God or to his brother. What will we do?