Context is EVERYTHING

The sacrifice of Isaac has always been a mystery to me. As a parent and as a Pastor it always confused me a little bit. The more I study God’s BIG story, the more I realise CONTEXT is everything.

In ancient Middle East there was a religion dedicated to an idol named Molech.  Faithful adherents would sacrifice infants to Molech every year, a horrible display of twisted religiosity to appease their god’s wrath and earn his favour…. It was common place in the ancient world for a man to lead his son up a mountain to be sacrificed to his deity. (We make the road by walking, B. McClaren, pg 89, 2014).

So it is in this CONTEXT that Abraham and Sarah step into the timeline of God’s Big story.

It is important to know that the dominant theory of God in Abraham and Sarah's day taught that the gracious God who gives human life would also demand human life as a sacrifice. So when Abraham believed God was commanding him to kill Isaac, he believed he was being faithful to a traditional model of how God and life worked.

Imagine being the first one to come down the mountain WITH his son still by his side?  To bring a NEW view into the current culture that was so strong. Imagine the message of grace and love that the children heard; that God didn’t want a sacrifice of child’s life but that He wanted us to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with Him. The only sacrifice that mattered to God was the holy gift of humble hearts and lives dedicated to his way of love.

What a powerful insight. When God provided the lamb to replace Isaac, God was saying that animal blood could please or appease their God as a substitute for human blood.

Then I wonder if we can see this experience, this new paradigm shift, through a child's eyes who lived in this CONTEXT. The culture then was that all ages were together during all events and therefore children would have been present during the sacrifice of animals as an offering to God. So a child could have realised that this might have been them, but that God loves them so much that God has saved them from death.

This is the BIG story of God. This has never changed from the very beginning of time, although God is always doing new things, to make His point.

So we move on in God’s BIG story and the CONTEXT again is very important. We come to the time of Moses and the freeing of God’s people. In this CONTEXT, a King can command that all children be killed, in order to wipe out a nation that threatens his Kingship. God again saves a child from this tragedy. His name is Moses and he becomes the one to lead God’s people out of slavery. Again, there are times I have felt that for God to kill all the Hebrew babies to make His point seems cruel and savage and yet in this CONTEXT it is what Kings did to save their own people. Pharaoh was affected with the same pain that a King in his line did some 40 or so years before in order to weaken God’s people. God also uses a sign of animal blood on the door, a reminder that it is not His desire for His children to perish. That night the parents would have told the stories of a long time ago when sacrificing children was what their God’s required and what God did to change all that.

God’s saving love is shown again to God’s people, as they are spared from death by the blood of a lamb and they escape to the promise land.  A NEW story is added to be told every Passover about the depths of God’s love to free His people and draw them to himself.

So the BIG story moves on again and the CONTEXT changes again. God is doing a NEW thing. Years later while Kings still command that baby boys be killed in order to protect their Kingdom, the memory of child sacrifice to appease for sin grows dim, as animal sacrifice becomes a way of life. It is in this CONTEXT that Jesus in the form of a man steps into the timeline of God’s BIG story.

The Passover is a very important time to retell the story of God’s Love and saving grace. The elements of the meal all have special meanings. The Passover begins with a child asking a question, because their CONTEXT is still that children were always a part of these occasions as all ages were present. They told of the blood of the lamb placed on the door to save the children from dying in the night.

But on this night, Jesus draws attention not to the lamb (the animal sacrifice), but to the bread and the wine. He is bringing a NEW meaning to this meal. He is preparing them for a NEW CONTEXT. Today we take communion and think nothing of using the bread and the wine, but those present on the first night would have been shocked.  Today our communion does not even include lamb, it is very rarely associated with an actual meal. But the very first LAST SUPPER had a very important CONTEXT. God was teaching His people that His son would pay the price, and be the sacrificial lamb. And like all those years ago with Abraham and Isaac, and Moses, from this point on things will CHANGE.

From Jesus’s death onwards animal sacrifice was no longer necessary. Jesus had paid the price. We no longer sacrifice animals for our sins and shortfalls. A simple remembrance table is set with the bread and wine as a focus.

God’s message has never changed. He still wants us to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with Him. The only sacrifice that matters to God is the holy gift of humble hearts and lives dedicated to His way of love. We must never lose the power of his LOVE because the CONTEXT has changed, because we have not been affected first hand by the loss of our own children, by the need to kill animals and make sacrifices. We did not see firsthand Jesus dying a painful death.

We live in a TIME of RESURRECTION and HOPE. A time where Jesus has paid the heavy price of our shortfall, and we his children no longer have to die, but have new life in HIM. Let us NEVER forget to see this amazing sacrifice through the eyes of a child, who long ago, learned that God’s love is so great that He would replace HIS child, for himself and die a painful death in our stead.  May this Easter not lose its power because of our lack of CONTEXT.