My mother said that if Isaac was a teenager it wouldn’t have been a sacrifice for Abraham to kill him. I am not sure if this was said in reference to me.
As I promised last week, we are going to continue this series on discipleship. Last Sunday we talked about how we can know we are called to be disciples through our Baptism and we talked about using Lent to die to being a religious consumer and rise at Easter to be a disciple. The method we would use would be a hard Lent that would help us trust in God. We may recall that a disciple is one who follows Christ and is engaged in the mission of Christ, versus a religious consumer being one who attends church, pays, gives some time but does not contribute to the mission of the Church.
Today we will talk about God’s over the top, better than the fairy tales’ love and the reward of trusting in God. And how experiencing that love will give us the courage to be disciples.
I don’t know if you are struck by how incredible this story of Abraham is. Take your son, the one you love and sacrifice him on the mountain. What? Did that really just happen? Can you imagine God saying that? Maybe take the neighbour’s kid who smashed your window and plays annoy music at night and sacrifice him. Still, I bet most of us could not even fathom that, especially if we had a three day walk to the mountain to do it. But to take your son, your only son, who you love, and sacrifice him on the mountain? We hear about crazy people killing their children but Abraham was not crazy, he loved his son. And Abraham obeyed. An important point to think of is that Abraham loved his son, on this son rested all his hope to hand on his name and all that he had accumulated. Yet, that is what he was called to let go of and kill his beloved son by his own hand. Why didn’t Abraham say, “Take him yourself and kill him, don’t ask me to partake of such a thing”? I am sure he must have thought, “Did I hear that right? God take me in his place. I have been the unfaithful one.” Yet Abraham did not withhold anything from God, even what he loved most dearly. Jewish lore tells us things that the Bible doesn’t, such as that Isaac was not a young boy but in his late teens perhaps and that he bid his father to trust God and asked to be tied so that he would not fail to make the sacrifice God had demanded.
This whole thing sounds very crazy, first for God to ask it and second for Abraham to fulfill it. Abraham was obviously in a place of deep trust of God to go forth with God’s command. Abraham had tried to secure his future with sin before when he had a child with another woman in order to get an heir and that ended up badly and he now trusted in God. Abraham knew that everything belongs to God, even his son, and he would not withhold anything from God anymore. What faith.
We know how the story ends but what is the story really about? It is about God and His love that He would not withhold anything either. Abraham is representing God to us. In fact, in the exact place geographically where Abraham was asked to offer his son Isaac, God offers up His own son and the Son offers up His own life for a people who did not love Him. You see, like Isaac, Jesus is the only beloved Son of the Father. God offers His son to save a people that might reject His love, that might mock His love, that might be willing to kill His Son all over if they had that chance. Yet, unlike Isaac, there was no lamb to be offered in His place, instead Jesus the Lamb would be offered in our place. Don’t you see Isaac is us? We were slated for destruction, yes, our destination was Hell, eternal suffering had not the Lamb been put in our place. This Lamb was not forced as the ram caught in the thicket in Isaac’s story, He chose to be caught and they put a thicket of thorns on His head and He laid down His life in our place. This story is not about the insanity of God’s commands, but of the inconceivable, unbelievable love of a Father. What would make you sacrifice your child for another? You love them intensely but have only bonded with them for a few years. God has always had His Son. You may love your children but you do not love them infinitely as God does love His Son, yet He still sacrificed Him in our place. Why oh why would He do that? It makes no sense. It would be near impossible to sacrifice our children for a great person, even for a large sum of money, power and prestige, yet God sacrificed His Son for people who don’t even care that they might have the chance of salvation. This is what a disciple acknowledges, a love beyond compare. That we follow a Father who will withhold nothing from His child. That is why St Paul says in the Second Reading, “If God is for us, who can be against us.” If God is for us and we have been enemies of Him. If God is for us when our very sins crucified His most beloved Son.
During the revolution in Spain, a Colonel Moscardo was in charge of a prominent fortress, Alcazar. One day, he received a call from the republican forces that they had his son and would execute him if he did not surrender the fortress. The Colonel told them to put his son on the line and they did. He said to his son, “Son, prepare to die a good Christian death and a martyr for God and country.” The Son said, “Yes, Dad, I can do that.” “You know that I love you.” “Yes, Dad,” the son replied, “I love you, too.” They killed his son. This man had more reason than any to hate, to seek revenge and no one would blame him. This colonel was like God and who could blame him if he didn’t love his enemies. Who could blame God if He did not love us, if He did not care about what happened to us, if he did not want to ever see us again. Yet He does and not only that, His son willed to be that lamb who died in our place. If this God who has every right and reason to call us enemies is for us, wow. Oh you and I might say I have never does anything against God. Oh really? God created the whole world. What have you done to pay God a debt of gratitude? No, you and I have used the world, our bodies in sinful and selfish ways, disrespected ourselves, others and our Father in Heaven. His son had to die to reconcile us. Yes, we have merited destruction but the God who made us, who loved us, decided to show mercy, to show love. So the God who has no reason in the world to love us does love us and He is for us and we can rejoice and should rejoice and return His love and that love is what makes us a disciple. How long are we going to spurn the love of God? How long before we rend our hearts? How can we still act with such indifference and sit yet and make demands of God, when He owes us nothing and we owe Him everything. Repent I say. Turn to this love and be disciples of it so others can experience this amazing mercy and love.
You know, I think this should be enough really, after knowing this we should be happy and rejoice and be falling over ourselves to give our lives to Him and live the Good News and then spread it. But, even more amazing, yes brothers and sisters there is more, even though the greatest sacrifice was made the greatest love declared, God did not stop there. Not only is His love merciful, He is a generous God. He also wants to take us up the mountain with Him today. He wants to reveal His love. What I told you were legitimate reasons to turn back to God, to open your heart. If someone can and does love you that much, you should return but now God wants to do something more. You and I were slated for destruction and someone saved us, saved us at the cost of His own life, suffered most horribly and unjustly. He saved you because He loved you and yet had no reason to. He wants to invite you and I up the mountain today to experience His love. Yes, the truths of God’s love are amazing but today God also want to captivate your hearts as well. He is waiting for permission to come in. He has paid that price, shown you your value and He is now waiting to take you up that mountain to know His love in a new way. Will we say yes? Will we open our hearts?
If you have a desire to know God’s love right now say, “I am terribly sorry, Lord, for the ways I have rejected you and sought myself and not you. Now I open my heart to You. Reveal your life saving love to me. Make me your disciple.”
Being a disciple means to fall in love with our Lord and to daily ask for that grace to love the Lord with all your being, the very being He created and to enter into His plan, and that is to die to a consumer faith and rise up in love to being a disciple.