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.

Lost In Translation

We live in a Materialistic society and a culture of abundance where the power of Jesus’s parables can get “lost in Translation” for us all, but especially our kids. Consider the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the lost Son (Luke 15)

Suppose my child has ten silver coins and loses a coin, he would think “OH well, I have plenty more, who cares!”

Suppose I have 100 different assets in my house and a robber came in a stole one thing!  While I would be annoyed, I would be happy that he didn’t take more and the insurance will cover the one thing, if I could even be bothered to make a claim for such a small thing. After all, I still have 99 left. I will simply replace it with something else, even though I don’t really need to.

Let’s be honest, possessions are expendable, even people are sometimes expendable. If something is lost we simply replace it. For many if something is broken and yet fixable, we would often rather buy the newer model anyway. Sadly, we don’t even usually wait till it is broken to upgrade. 

As I was trying to work through how I tell these parables to my children, to tell of the depth of the Lord’s love for us, the lengths that He will go to, I find it can get “lost in translation”. So many kids around me couldn’t be bothered searching for a silver coin. It has no value for them. They just ask Mum and she gives them another.

I was speaking to an adult recently, who couldn’t understand why the Creator would even create people who have the capacity to get lost. He even said that it is the Creator’s fault to have created such faulty people. So in this context to explain the depth of His love, that He would sacrifice the 99 to go find the 1 gets lost on such a mindset! God’s sacrificial love was not the concern for this man. He actually questioned if the Creator knew what He was doing from the start.

When Jesus was telling these two parables in particular, he sat amongst Pharisees who didn’t think much of him at all. At this time they questioned whether he knew what he was doing. To them Jesus was clearly doing it wrong, as at the time of telling this parable he was eating with sinners and this was not the best way to win votes of popularity with them especially.

It is hard times today, when the message of God’s love has to break through an abundance of possessions and the ability to create our own destinies and dreams. Quite frankly, so many just don’t see the need for God at all. This is true for all ages.  

Then we come to the third story, as Jesus often talks in trilogies. By the third story the message starts to hit home a little more. When the son is left with nothing and is truly lost, he has nowhere to go. Then the grace and love that is bestowed on him starts to strike a cord today with people.

Of course, my adult friend would say it was foolish of the father to even give him the money in the first place, what was he thinking! I believe that was Jesus’s point in the story as He was speaking to the Pharisees and likening them to the older brother who was very angry about the whole situation. The love of the father is the love God desires to give to us, even though He knows we will squander it and waste it. It is only when we have lost everything and really messed up that we can appreciate the depths of the Father’s grace and love. For so many in Western society we have what we need and we have it in abundance.  We tend to take it for granted and somewhat expect it, as if we are somehow owed it in the first place. This is a common attitude I see in our children today.

While we are expecting the world, while we are able to replace whatever we have lost, while we see possessions and life as expendable, God’s message has never changed. What once was lost is now found and it is all that matters to Him, that the son has come home, that the lost sheep is found and that the coin is discovered again. Surely, we don’t ALL have to wait till we have nothing and are completely lost to discover His love. Or do we!

I pray that God’s message of LOVE doesn’t get “Lost in Translation.” Let’s translate it so our children and people can come to know how wide, how deep, how high the Father’s love is for everyone.

We need to look UP more often

I looked UP from my fast pace today to see a box that said..

"Just 5 cents can give a child clean water for 2 days"  from UNICEF.

100s of people walk (rush) past this box each day. Who notices, who cares ? How can this be ? How many look UP or OUT of their world to see? How did we get to this stage where things are so out of proportion that it is not even noticed as we walk past in a rush to deal with todays "first world" problems?

Will I have to wait in a long line to get my coffee?

Will the traffic be so bad that I can't get to my lunch appointment in time?

I am so hungry because I skipped breakfast as I slept in, in my comfortable lush bed.

The wifi is not working so I can't check to see how many "likes" I got on the photo I posted yesterday.

Lord help me, why can't I keep my chin UP and be happy with my blessed life, when sometimes my day is bad because .......

......my kids can't work together and do some odd jobs around the House.

......because I can't pay off my debt as quick as I would like from a wonderful holiday we just had as a family.

......because the power is flickering in the house which is cutting into my work time and what I can achieve during the day.

..... because I can't scratch everything off my daily list.

......because my son wants to borrow the car because he has no petrol in his own car because he has spent all his money on slushies at Hungary Jacks.

......because I can't lose weight that I want to because I have to drink 8 glasses of water a day to help this process and I HATE drinking water because it tastes boring.

Lord help me get perspective when all a child somewhere in the world needs is 5 cents because they would like to have a drink of CLEAN water......for them it doesn't taste boring....it is life giving.

"Rejoice in The Lord always and again I say rejoice" I used to sing as a child. (Phil 4:4)

Lord help me to look UP to you. To always keep your perspective on what's important, what is possible and what you call us to do.

"For those to whom much is given much is expected." (Luke 12:48)

Lord help me to say thankyou more often, to ask how I can be a part of the change, so that one day there will not be some of us who have more than we need at the expense of others. I pray for the day where everyone will have what they need.

As I look UP to you, today I pray......

Our father who is in heaven, thankyou for who you are.

Give everyone this day their daily bread and water.

Forgive us when we have forgotten our part to play in this world and help us to forgive each other as we have lost focus on what is important in a world of wanting it all for ourselves.

Lead us not into self-centred desires that can harm or disadvantage others through our own selfishness.

For in your kingdom everyone has what they need, no one goes hungry or thirsty. May your kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven.

"You're in charge!

You can do anything you want!

You're ablaze in beauty!

  Yes. Yes. Yes." (Mathew 6:13 (the message)

We need to look UP more, UP toward you so that we live daily from your perspective, and look UP at the world around us to see how we can be a part of the change.........for some of us it only will cost 5 cents.