Sacrifice
Submitted by Ford Prefect on January 16 2001 18:34:45
In reply to Sacrifice submitted by Splash! on January 15 2001 22:03:17
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A lot of people see "blood" and "sacrifice" as words with nothing but bad connotations. Indeed they do. Consider that in some pagan religions a blood sacrifice was seen as a way to placate an angry god. Most of these gods had very human characteristics. They showed jealousy, vengefulness, and tended to be greedy. They were every bit as petty as humans.....perhaps even more so. I think that we have been brought by Jesus to a new understanding of sacrifice, not the giving up of something of real value to appease a small-minded god, but the giving up of things that have only the appearance of value to achieve union with a loving God. Jesus showed us this in so many ways. He showed God's desire to be unified with us by actually becoming one of us. He showed us how giving of ourselves was of far greater value than amassing things for ourselves. He showed us how becoming the least made us, in fact, great. He showed us that even death is helpless to deprive us of the eternal life God wishes us to have. Jesus showed us the way. The way of giving up what we are told we need, and in the process attain what we truly need. ---Ford |
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