Genesis 22:1-14; John 8:42-59
Lent 5
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
Even though we’ve heard today’s Old Testament reading before, it really is still a bit scandalous and troubling that God would ask Abraham to kill his son Isaac. This is the son he had waited for 25 years, the son of the promise, the one through whom all nations on earth would be blessed, God said. It seems almost cruel now to command Abraham to sacrifice him as a burnt offering, like an animal. Is He just toying with Abraham? What good is a God who asks you to give up what you love, even people you love? We want a God who will give us our heart’s desires and help us to fulfill our dreams. But that’s not the God that Abraham had. The true and living God speaks of denying yourself and taking up the cross, and sometimes He asks you or causes you to give up what is most dear to you–not because He wants to make your life difficult, but because He wants to make your life eternal. He wants your heart to be set on things above, to have a treasure that will never pass away, to love Him above all else–even above your own children and family.
When God calls for such sacrifices from you, that’s when what the heart loves and trusts in is revealed. Think about the things or the people that you enjoy most and are most attached to in this world. What if you had to choose between them and God, having them or having Him? It’s hard enough for us to choose divine service when the competition is extracurricular activities or sleep or recreation or work or just when the weather is unpleasant. What about when it comes to the truly serious sacrifices, when God asks you to give up even money or family or friends?
Christians sometimes think that they would never do what Peter did and deny Christ, that they would go to a martyr’s death before that. And yet the church can hardly even compete with college basketball. Just wait for the coinciding of March Madness and Holy Week services. And if sports aren’t a test for you, I’m sure something else will be. How will we ever be faithful in the big things when even the little things are such a struggle? Sooner or later you will be asked to give up what you love, in one form or another. And then you can either say to God: You aren’t good; you shouldn’t do this to me. I’ve had enough and I don’t want to have anything to do with you any more. Or, you can say: I don’t understand at all. But Father, this much is true and certain; I know that your will for me and mine is only good, and I believe that in the end I will be able to see the good, even though I can’t right now. Dear Father, I believe; help me and save me from my unbelief.
It’s rather interesting that nowhere in Scripture are we let in on what Abraham was thinking or feeling about God’s command. There’s nothing about the inner turmoil he must have been enduring. That’s not the main thing here; his faith is. Abraham simply walked by faith; he did what God said to do. The book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed that the Lord could and would raise Isaac from the dead–which still doesn’t make it any easier to put the knife to your own son’s throat. This must have been tremendously heart-wrenching. In the Scriptures, God calls Abraham “My friend” (Isaiah 41:8). And a friend is someone who can empathize with you, who knows and understands what you’re going through. I would suggest that Abraham is called the friend of God in part because at the sacrifice of his beloved son Abraham tasted something of what God Himself would go through.
God asks Abraham to do this not only for the testing and strengthening of his faith, but also because this is a picture and a prophecy of what God Himself would be doing on the very same mountain some 2000 years later. Like Isaac, Jesus is the only Son, the beloved Son of the Father, the One long promised and long awaited, born of a woman who conceived in a way beyond human power. Just as Abraham saddled his donkey, so a donkey would be saddled, too, for Jesus, and He would ride on it into the city of Jerusalem, which was later built here on Mt. Moriah. As Isaac carried the wood, so Jesus, too, would have wood laid on His back, the wood of the cross for sacrifice. As Abraham raised the knife to slay his son, so the cross was raised up from the ground to slay the Son of God.
And there’s one more point of comparison that we should make. Just as Isaac did not fight his father, Jesus willingly let himself be bound and nailed to the wood in obedience to His heavenly Father. When this sacrifice is depicted in Christian art, Isaac is generally portrayed as an able and strong boy. He certainly could have tried to prevent that which His aged father intended to do. But he doesn’t lift a finger in self-defense. He allows himself to be tied up, not in order to prevent a last-minute change of mind, but because this is what you do with sacrifices: You bind them, you lay them on the altar, and you kill them. Isaac accepts the will of God as preached by his father, and in that he paints for us a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So it’s not only Abraham the Father who should receive the attention in this narrative, but also Isaac the son. He “did not open His mouth but was led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7). And in that, he foreshadowed the much greater Sacrifice, the great patience and restraint which the Lamb of God exercises for us. Jesus, like Isaac, doesn’t raise a finger in His own defense. They both trust their father; they both trust in God.
It’s important for us to recognize that Jesus also had to walk by faith. As a true human being, He had to face suffering and death trusting in His heavenly Father, believing that the Father would vindicate Him and raise Him up, even when by outward appearances He seemed utterly rejected. The words we pray in Lenten Vespers each week from the Psalms are the words of Jesus, “In you, O Lord, do I put My trust; leave me not, O Lord My God.” Don’t ever forget this: Jesus’ faith saves you, this commending of Himself into His Father’s hands. You are saved by Jesus’ believing. It is this faith of Jesus that the Holy Spirit gives to you, so that together with Christ you also may trust in the Father and commend yourself into His hands. If you are ever struggling in the faith, just look to Jesus. Take refuge in Him. For it is by His faith that you are given the power to believe.
Abraham didn’t have to go through with killing his son. Instead of Isaac, God told him to offer up a ram, caught by its horns in a thorny thicket. In this sense then, you are like Isaac. You don’t have to make the ultimate sacrifice, because God has provided a substitute sacrifice, the Lamb of God with thorns on His head, willingly caught in the thicket of your sin. Jesus is sacrificed, and you go free. You are saved from death, forgiven by the blood of Him who was offered up for you at Golgotha.
Jesus says in the Gospel, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” I can’t help but think that it was here on Mt. Moriah that Abraham saw Jesus’ day, that he was given to understand fully the sacrificing of the willing, obedient Son, the meaning of the substitute being offered, the meaning of this being the third day. As Abraham received his son back from the dead, figuratively speaking, on this day, so did the heavenly Father, literally speaking, on the third day. Abraham laughs with joy, not only to have his son, but also to see the Lord’s salvation. Abraham saw that God the Father was willing to sacrifice His Son out of immeasurable love for this fallen human race, for him and Isaac, for you and me. “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
Finally, Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” They were ready to kill Jesus for saying that. He was unmistakably laying claim to being the Lord Himself in the flesh, the great I AM. It was as though He said: Yes, I am the one who called Abraham from his homeland. I am the one who gave him the promises. I am the one who spoke to Moses in the burning bush. I am the one who led the children out of their bondage in Egypt. I am that one. But now I’ve come among you to do something far greater. For I’ve come to be your Great High Priest and to sacrifice My own self in your place, that you may have an eternal inheritance. You claim Abraham as your father. Then rejoice with him, since you, too, have been given to see My day.”
The God who asked of Abraham the unthinkable is the God who came to do the unthinkable Himself. The Lord Jesus continues to be your Lamb, just as you sing to Him when you come to His table. His Body and Blood there are unquestionably “for you.” And so He Himself is with you; He is on your side. Like Abraham, you have been made to be the friend of God. That is a tremendous comfort to hold onto, especially in those times when He asks you to make great sacrifices.
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
(With thanks to the Rev. William Weedon and other brother pastors)