Joel M Bradshaw

1“You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.–Deuteronomy 17

Put yourself right now in the story of the ancient Israelite. You have this animal that has a defect. You have treated it special, hoping the matter would resolve, but it just got worse. It’s blemished. It’s defected in its body somewhere. You won’t be able to sell it. It might not even live that long anyway. You have to give it extra attention because the wild animals seem to have selected it. You’re not allowed to just eat it, but have to sacrifice all meats before God. It would be really convenient if this time around, the sacrifice could be that animal. It would be a ‘two birds with one stone’ kind of thing. God would get his sacrifice and I could be rid of this situation. The animal would get some glory in its final moments. All would be good and we could just move on.

For many, that sounds logical and right. It takes care of some pressing issues. But worship of God isn’t meant to be convenient. It’s meant to be precious and costly. It isn’t something to bargain or to justify or to excuse. That sacrifice enabled your relationship with God to functionally go further. It should be the priority, not the afterthought. The best animal reserved, not the worst.

In our modern Christian context, we have no sacrifices of animals. We see Jesus as our substitutionary sacrifice. On the cross he died and that death was once for all, not repeated on a regular basis. He was and is the best possible sacrifice. So sacrifice now becomes both a metaphor and an attitude.

Romans 12 commands us to be living sacrifices. What do we offer to God? What is metaphorically put to death? What attitudes are metaphorically crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)?

We live in a time when worship is convenient. Churches have many services and even different days of the week. There are online options and live streams. You can go in person or stay at home. I’m not here this morning to criticize that. Worship may indeed have options that were convenient. People sold animals at the temple in Jesus’ day for the convenience of worshipers not having to travel long distance with animals. That wasn’t a bad thing. Convenience isn’t bad.

The attitude that is convenient with God, however, is dangerous. Giving God your rest rather than your best. Justifying it rather than sacrificing it. Go back to our text. Whatever led to the man sacrificing the defected animal was his choice. And that choice led to what God considered an ABOMINATION. God considers worship sacred territory. He takes this seriously. Just because we are no longer offering costly sacrifices doesn’t mean that worship is any less important or meaningful. I don’t know about you, but I need to check my attitude. Am I just getting worship out of the way? Is it simply a means to an end? Do I have more important things to do that weekend? Where is my heart and am I offering the convenient rather than the ‘costly.’ Now look at your own attitudes.–JMB