READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 42:1-9
Romans 12:1-5
- St. Luke 2:42-52
Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Who speaks to you on this the Sunday after His Epiphany in His Gospel heard today, saying:
“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I
must be in my Father's house?”
Whenever we speak of sacrament and sacrifice, we must always frame it first within the Divine Service. Not because you’re not allowed to question, but because this is how the life of Faith God has given us in His Son, works. Sacrifice is not understood outside of the Divine Service of God, therefore, through His Word today, God invites us to His Sacrifice, to see what He is doing, and to commune in it.
It seems as if Jesus made His father and mother give a big sacrifice, in letting Him go off on His own and spend an extended weekend in the Temple. And then He has the audacity to talk back to them. when they find each other again. Truly it is difficult being the parents of God. Which disciplinary options would you choose?
What is a sacrifice? Is it really a sacrifice to be the guardians of young Jesus? Our Epistle reading this morning mentioned sacrifice. It said, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (12:1).
A sacrifice is usually dead, not living. As we understand it, a sacrifice is something given away never to return. Whether it is an animal sacrifice that is killed to appease a deity, or a sacrifice you make for someone else. What you offer does not come back to you, but you hope it is enough.
And that hope is unfounded. You have no proof that your sacrifice will accomplish whatever you made it for. If the Temple sacrifices did not have God’s own Promise behind them, Sts. Joseph and Mary would have no reason to believe and make the pilgrimage journey, in the Gospel today. And for today, having been missing for three days, Jesus had become their sacrifice.
It was Passover, after all. Each family was required by law, to journey to the Temple for this Feast and bring the appropriate sacrifice. St. Joseph had brought the required money for offering and he brought the required sheep for the Passover celebration, but he had not counted on the fact that he brought the Lamb, as well.
Maybe the words of Abraham, spoken to Isaac, echoed in St. Joseph’s head at that moment, “The Lord will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Gen 22:8) and it turns out to be his son. Maybe, in his panic and dread, he tried to remember the Passover promise that all the firstborn of Israel would be passed over and live (Exodus 12:13), in order to placate himself.
He had made the right sacrifices so his son should also be passed over and live.
Repent. You believe, like St. Joseph and St. Mary the ever-blessed, virgin Mother of God, that you bring the right sacrifices. They thought they had brought enough in the earthly fruits of their labors, as Cain thought. And yet we are not even a chapter away from St. Simeon’s words, “a sword shall pierce your soul also” (Lk 2:35).
We forget what a sacrifice actually is. It is not just earthly fruits that can be replenished. Time, talent, money are all things we think are sacrifices we can make to God, because they are valuable to us. But are they valuable to God? We never ask that question. We don’t want to think about it, because deep down we know the answer: No.
There is no amount we can pay. No gift we can give. To even give up a son as Adam, Abraham, and David know very well, is a small price to pay for favor and blessing, if that is what is commanded.
If that is what is commanded. So is it? Is God a God of sacrifice Who will take away your children if you don’t make Him happy?
He would, if God were like you. What we think is a sacrifice is not a sacrifice according to the One Who commanded it, because He didn’t command it. Let’s look at our Gospel reading again. Jesus asks why His parents were searching for Him if they knew He was supposed to be in His Father’s House.
And the most famous thing about His Father’s House; that is, the first thing we think of when we think of the Temple, or really any old-time religion is…sacrifice. Cain and Abel knew this and all of the people in Genesis knew this even before Moses recorded sacrificial procedure in Exodus and Leviticus. It was required, as Psalm 50 says, “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” (Ps 50:5)
And yet Jesus declares, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Matt 9:13) and He was getting neither, for a sacrifice can be made in unbelief just as well as in belief. Therefore, true sacrifice was to prove faith was present, not the other way round. Jesus points this out in Malachi, “When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person? saith the Lord of Hosts” (1:8).
So when did a sacrifice become a sacrifice? When it was born? When it was bought? When it was brought? When it was sacrificed? You had already planned in your heart what to offer to God, before you got to Temple, before you got to Church.
From 1 Samuel 15:22, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams”.
This is the reason Jesus says, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness”, in St. Luke 22:52-53. They have come in the name of obedience, but are not obeying. God’s command has slipped through their blood-stained fingers.
Now it is not that there is no sacrifice, as if we can just replace sacrifice with mercy on our own terms. God sets the terms and none of His Word will pass away. St. Zephaniah proclaims, “Be silent at the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated His guests” (1:7).
Thus, sacrifice is a matter of mercy, but it is a matter of God’s Mercy, not yours. We sit and wait to see what that means and what that means is Jesus abiding in the House of the Lord forever, known forever as the sacrifice of the Lord. He is in His Father’s house as the sacrifice for you.
“Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins”, says Hebrews 10, but Jesus, “when He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God” (10:11-12).
Thus the sacrifice was always meant to prove Jesus was present, making the sacrifice acceptable, whatever it was, and forgiving the sins of those offering. Sacrifice was always the invitation of God to come and see what He was doing and what He was saying.
For example, Communion does not become the Body and Blood by magic. We are not going to, now, take these things off the Altar, place them on our own tables and eat as if nothing was different. The moment you step into church and see the Altar, they are to be used for nothing else, because that is what’s shown to you.
If we had them lying around in boxes on the floor and made a grab-fest out of it, then we would say of them, “worthless”. However, sacrifice was of such importance that Jesus made eternal festivals out of them. Passover was to be celebrated forever, never to end. Date, Time, and Place were all set in holy Scripture. To transgress was to be cut off.
Because God was bringing His sacrifice along with us. The Man, Jesus Christ, walks among His family and His people empty handed, on His way to Passover. The whole world watches, wondering what an empty-handed man will offer on the Altar.
He passes by family handouts. He passes up the money changers. He turns away charity and loopholes. He stands in front of His Father’s Divine Service and opens His mouth, “Here I am. Send Me, send Me.”
He remains in His Father’s House forever, as the crucified, so that when you come up in your spiritual worship, you may be accepted. Spiritual worship, as in no flesh can make satisfaction for sin, no fleshly work you do may be brought up. You are stood next to Jesus and weighed in the balance.
It is not you who lives, but Christ in you. And if Christ is in you, by grace through faith, that is on His terms, then you have a living sacrifice. And His Terms are simple: Hearing produces faith, be baptized and be saved, eat and drink and be forgiven.
“The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (St. Luke 1522-24).
For, as Judith says, “all sacrifice is too little to be a sweet fragrance for You and all the fat is not sufficient for Your burnt offering, but he who fears the Lord is great at all times” (16:16).
Jesus is, today, handing out the Sacrifice worthy to be on the Altar of God, which is the Sacrament. Those things through which God has promised to work salvation, for you. The Divine Service circles around those things which are simply, the declaration of grace, the Lessons, the Sermon, the distribution of the Holy Supper, and the Benedictions.
The Sacrifices of the Divine Service, done in Christ, are the confession of sins, the prayers, the hymns, canticles, creeds, and our offerings. The sacraments enact God’s holiness in this place and the sacrifices prove faith is present and listening. God does His work first, we are then invited to participate or commune in it.
This is why we can bring our sacrifices with joy, not because we know they are enough, but because we know and believe forgiveness is ours. And if forgiveness is ours, then the Son is ours. If the Son is ours, then so is life everlasting.
We offer our sacrifices in the One Sacrifice. We think we are bringing money, but we are surprised to see we have brought Jesus as well.
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