Scripture: Genesis 22:1-14
It is a terrible story.
Listen, if you were going to try and get someone, anyone to believe in God as we know God, a God of love and mercy, a God who offers grace through the sacrifice of himself, a God who is real and at work in our lives, you would not lead off with this story.
You would naturally tell the story of the Cross, the resurrection, the birth of the Church, but not a story where at first read God comes off as a cruel and sadistic. Although there are those who enjoy a God who is just that, it is not the way to win hearts and minds, and certainly not what Jesus teaches about God.
Although, not everything Jesus taught is meant to give us the warm and fuzzies. Again there are those that would also be completely happy with the warm and fuzzy God.
Here what Jesus says in the Lectionary’s Gospel text for today from Matthew 10:37-42.
“37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 40“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Now that is a hard pill to swallow.
As I read and reread this story during this past week, I had a scene running through my mind. It is Isaac and Abraham traveling back home after the trip to the mountains to worship. The two of them are traveling along, not really saying much. They look around at the scenery, but are hesitant to make eye contact with each other. It is an awkward trip home.
Finally, Isaac says, “So…”
And Abraham says, “So; whatever you do, DO NOT TELL YOUR MOTHER.”
Kind of like the commercial where the father is spending time with the kids where he keeps telling them, “Don’t tell your Mom.”
Any parents ever say something like that to your kids?
No doubt about it, Abraham had good reason to not tell Sarah about this journey. Does anyone think that he might have told her what he was going to do? I mean we are not told that Abraham discussed any of this with his wife and mother of Isaac.
“Honey, I am going to take Isaac on a trip up into the mountains and sacrifice him to God.”
“That’s nice dear.”
I don’t think so!
Yes God had promised Abraham many blessings for this act of faithfulness, but I have a feeling that Sarah might not have been so appreciative of Abraham’s actions.
And we, if we are honest, we understand. Abraham was not going to win any Father-of-the-Year contests.
We would call anyone even considering sacrificing a child insane, would we not? So what do we do with this story of a cruel God and a lunatic father who is willing to murder his son?
Fortunately for us, we get to read this story in the light of the Gospel and to see it for more than what lies on the surface and it is what lies below the surface that is important.
Listen to me now, if we read the Bible and only take away what we find on the surface, we are cheating ourselves and we are not going to gain a complete understanding of God. We are going to miss out on the wonders of scripture and the opportunity they provide us to think, to learn, and to grow.
Old Testament or New Testament, we are to use our God gifted intelligence and Holy Spirit guided ability to discern what these writings mean for us, hear and now, and not only what they might have meant for someone 100 years or 1,000 years ago. If we only read what is on the surface, we make the Bible, God’s Word, nothing more than a history book or worse, a weapon to subjugate those who think, look, or act differently than us.
God’s word is meant to be for everyone, and if it is meant to be for everyone, then it must be open to interpretation and individual discernment, otherwise we are on the path to a return to the dark ages where only priests and monks were allowed to read the Holy Scriptures.
So let’s go below the surface of this story and see what we can learn.
I: Foreshadowing of the Plan
As with many Old Testament stories this story has many glimpses of what God had in mind for the future. God’s plan of salvation was in action from the fall of Adam and Eve. Abraham’s faith in God’s promise to make a great nation of his descendants was an important part of the plan.
And in this story, written thousands of years before Christ, we see glimpses of that salvation plan in action.
Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice is son, whom he loves. Sound familiar!
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…”
They travel for three days before reaching the place of sacrifice. When Abraham left with Isaac, Isaac was a good as dead. He was under a death sentence and there is evidence in this story that Isaac, who is a young man at this time, is aware that there are some strange circumstances to this trip. As far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was dead from the moment he got the orders from the Eternal. Of course, the number three will become important throughout God’s interaction with us. And in most places, it is a foreshadowing of the three days that Jesus was dead before the resurrection.
Abraham’s assurance that “God will provide” is a prophetic word. God will provide the sacrifice, and God does provide the sacrifice in Jesus Christ.
And finally, Isaac, being young and strong could have fought off his elderly father when it became apparent that he was to be the sacrifice. But, we get no notion of anything but an obedient son willingly letting himself be bound and placed on the altar.
This is another foreshadowing of Jesus, who willingly went through the trials, beatings and crucifixion when he could have easily defended himself and called down heaven’s angels to assist him.
For family devotions, Martin Luther once read the account of Abraham offering Isaac on the altar in Genesis 22. His wife, Katie, said, "I do not believe it. God would not have treated his son like that!" "But, Katie," Luther replied, "He did."
II. A Story of God’s Faithfulness
We marvel at the faith of Abraham. Abraham believed that if he sacrificed his son to God that God could and would raise him from the dead. That is faith.
But this story is more about the faith of God. But understand that the faith that any of us have, you, me, Abraham, is faith given to us by God. It is God’s faith on display in this little scene.
If we had to rely on our ability to believe, we would be in a sorry state. Our faith comes from God; the same God who plants a rainbow after a storm. How many saw a rainbow this last week. It was great rainbow weather with sudden rain storms followed quickly by bright sunshine. One minute the wind is blowing, the sky is dark, the rain is coming down sideways as streams and creeks rise, thunder is cracking and lightening is flashing. People huddle in out of the rain or watch it storm from the safety of home or office. For a little time it is all doom and gloom. But then the storm passes and the sun comes out, people move out into the fresh air, flowers are blooming, grass is growing, and birds are singing. The darkness has turned into light. The gloom into a bright summer day and rainbows appear all over the place. This past week, several of my friends posted photos of the rainbows that appeared in their backyard of over there town. The rainbow is the image of God’s faithfulness.
III. Heroes are humans too.
Finally, we learn from this story that our heroes of faith, are all too human at times. Abraham, by faith, is the forefather three major religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
Yet this hero of the faith was just as flawed as you or I.
Read Abraham’s story in Genesis. He is not a model husband. As we have seen in today’s story, he is not a model father. He is not a model leader. He is not even always a model of great faith. For every moment of great faith that we read, we can read of moments when his faith waivers and causes himself and the members of his family great hurt and heartache. Make no mistake, Abraham was a human being just as you and me. And it is in this fact that we should praise God. For it is God’s grace and faithfulness that will use flawed humans like Abraham. Like Moses. Like King David. Like Peter. Like Paul. Like you. Like me.
You and I, in spite of our weakness and failings, in spite of our age, in spite of our education, in spite of our past, in spite of our present situation, can be used by God to spread the news and continue to plan of salvation.
In fact, God is counting on us. God’s plan of salvation did not end with the cross and resurrection. It did not finish with the birth of the Church or with the book of Revelations. God’s salvation plan continues when those who are touched by the presence of God reach out and share the Good News with the world we live in.
So you see, when you look beyond the surface of the story and dig a little deeper, stories that seem to have nothing to say to us today, actually tell us quite a bit about ourselves and our opportunities to live as one who is a new creature, raised with Christ, in the twenty-first century.
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