Sacrifice

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalms 51:17

I once heard of a man who gave up shoes for Lent. There was some sort of social justice concern embedded in his actions in addition to spiritual practice. Without shoes the man could better understand the difficulties of those in poverty who had to do without shoes because they couldn’t afford them. For over 40 days, this man walked about on gravel and in snow with only socks and, occasionally, a bit of duct tape to keep the socks dry.

When I first heard of this man, I remember being fascinated by him. I was impressed with his dedication and sacrifice, and I began to feel like my own Lenten practice was inadequate. Giving up sweets or social media doesn’t seem to be on the quite the same level as giving up shoes.

I think there’s a lot we Christians seem to get wrong about sacrifice. One thing in particular I think we misunderstand is how the Jewish people interpreted sacrifice in the Old Testament. There’s a tendency for us to generalize and say that Israel understood sacrifice as the primary means of achieving forgiveness from sin. We concoct a narrative which says the Jews sacrificed in order to achieve forgiveness, but now we have Jesus, the perfect sacrifice. And since we have Jesus we no longer have to keep sacrificing animals or food or drink in order to be forgiven.

The verse above is from Psalm 51 and is traditionally read during Lent. The Psalm is
mostly about asking for God’s forgiveness. The author calls on God in order to be washed of sin and be given a clean heart.

Verse 17 is particularly moving because it says that what God really wants us to sacrifice is not sugar or livestock. God really desires the sacrifice of a broken heart.

You see, God doesn’t want us to sacrifice any-thing. God want us to sacrifice our very self, to lay down our life, take up our cross and follow Jesus. God longs for us to present our very heart and soul, broken and humble and ready to be made new.

When we give things up for Lent it’s not about achieving anything like health or holiness. The season before Easter is a time of humbling. It is a time of laying our hearts broken before the Lord, so that we may be made new when the sun rises on Easter morning