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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Saturday, April 3, 2004 What Does God Require of You? |
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Frontline Devotion for Saturday, April 3, 2004, by Anne B. Crawford
Text for the Day: Micah 6:7-8
As we move into Holy Week, I’ve been giving some thought to the concept of sacrifice. During the coming week we will focus on the Passion of Christ – God’s sacrifice of his only son, and Jesus’ sacrifice of his life to provide for our salvation.
But just what is sacrifice? The dictionary defines sacrifice (at least one of the definitions) as giving up or offering something that is highly valued for the sake of something or someone else that is considered more important. This is surely a noble idea, but consider the things we often see people sacrificing for these days:
We sacrifice quality time with our families for long hours at the office.
We sacrifice our dreams in order to pursue a paycheck.
We sacrifice our health for any number of addictive behaviors or substances that may make us feel good (or feel not at all) for the moment.
These are the kinds of sacrifices that make me wonder if sacrifice is all that it’s cracked up to be. The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, is full of sacrifices. In the Old Testament, God requires sacrifices from His people as offerings – from first fruits to the blood offering of animals. These sacrifices were required as a way for imperfect people to offer acceptable worship to God.
Jesus’ sacrifice – his death on our behalf – was the ultimate sacrifice. I recently went to see the Mel Gibson film “The Passion of the Christ.” While I’m still sorting out my reactions to and feelings about the film, one thought that occurred to me as I watched graphic and bloody scenes of Jesus being beaten and whipped and hung on the cross to die, was that if that’s what sacrifice is about, if that’s what God wants me to do, I am not up to the task. But the good news is that Jesus’ sacrifice changed everything, because nothing else, no other sacrifice, is needed. So what does God require of us? To the words from Micah (“to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”) I would add that God requires us to love Christ and love one another. The only sacrifice He is truly interested in is the sacrifice of a loving and believing heart. This is what makes us acceptable in his sight. This is what empowers us to be disciples and to serve God by serving one another
As we journey to the Cross and beyond to the resurrected Christ, let us take time to be thankful that Jesus’ sacrifice – his ‘blood offering’ – is the only one we need lay claim to, to be acceptable to God.
Let us pray: O Holy and merciful God. Thank you for the sacrifice of your only Son to make us right with you. Help us to understand the enormity of Jesus’ sacrifice and empower us by your Spirit to do what you require of us with loving and believing hearts. Amen.
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