"It's stuff. One is giving something. One of the points that's often emphasized, even in the biblical tradition-- and also in later rabbinic tradition-- about sacrifice is that a proper sacrifice is something that one owns. You can't go steal an animal and sacrifice it to God. And we also have to remember even if we think of animals as property, ancients-- one has to imagine the domesticated life of people, shepherds, living with their animals, who know their animals. A proper sacrifice has to be unblemished.
To have an unblemished goat, one has to really care for that goat, from the time that the goat is born, to ensure that that goat will not become blemished in some way."
As a Christian, I don't sacrifice animals because Christ himself was the ultimate sacrifice for my sins and God requires no more payment for the wrong I continue to do. But this explanation of sacrifice really stuck with me.
"So you have a relationship with that goat. When you inspect it for blemishes-- which is Bible speak for any kind of nick, or bruise, or anything-- the goat looks you in the eye. And when you give this animal that you personally know to God, God isn't some abstract being. He is someone, someone who takes delight when you bring something to him, who you have this very literal interaction with."It seems like such a beautiful picture of what God asks us to do in our lives: give everything over to Him, even the things we really care about. Especially those things. Our relationships, careers, children's futures, reputations - if we were able to physically give these things to God, would it be easier to have this literal interaction of sacrifice and delight?
And it makes me think: What in my life do I feel like is a literal interaction with God?
What in your life do you feel like is a literal interaction with God?
You can listen to the episode here:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/480/animal-sacrifice
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