Passion Sunday
5th Sunday in Lent 2010
“Love and Perfection…”
Rev. Stephen E. Stults
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
Passion Sunday, April 10, 2011

Is there such a thing as an incomplete sacrifice? Is there such a thing as an insufficient sacrifice? What a question! For us a “modern” folk, the whole idea of sacrifice is so alien, so antiquated, and even so downright barbaric as to be almost laughable…
That is, the idea of animal sacrifice is ludicrous to us. The erstwhile Bishop of New Jersey, John Spong, once went so far as to accuse God of being “bloodthirsty.” Of course, in this, and in so many areas of the historic faith, he completely misses the point.

Spong, like so many moderns, simply can’t conceive of the concept of sacrifice. The idea of giving up something truly precious for the good of someone else may have crossed their minds, but we would warrant you that when people of this ilk consider sacrifice, it is usually a sacrifice of their money that they would name. While the giving of money is a good and worthwhile sacrifice in certain circumstances, by itself, money itself is too impersonal and perhaps just too sterile. We can all remember examples, primarily by governmental bodies, where they main solution is to “throw money” at the problem. Sometimes it works, but without a cogent, coherent plan to use the money, it often fails.

Yet, money with the right intent, given in the right spirit, does have a sacrificial element to it. It is, after all, the result of our labor, our frugality, and our thrift. When it is coupled with a giving spirit with the leading of the Holy Spirit, it is blessed indeed. Money, in this regard, is “sent” to do good.
Given like this, money is a great and good sacrifice. After all, all that we have is held in trust, not in permanence.

The writer to the Hebrews in today’s Epistle speaks of another kind of sacrifice. He is referring to the Old Testament sacrificial system where the pious Jew gave a lamb bull, or goat, among other creatures, without blemish, to be killed and burnt before God. He did this for a variety of reasons, including a peace offering, a sin sacrifice, an atonement, or even a thanksgiving. It was an important part of being a devout Jew. As we’ve referred in the past, there were several different kinds of sacrifice, including sin, special atonement, thanksgiving, childbirth and peace. All of these held special significance for different purposes under the Law.

St. Paul focuses on the chief sacrifice of the year, Yom Kippur, when he speaks of the High Priest going into the inner sanctum of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, to offer sacrifice for the people. This was a tremendously solemn and holy observation. It coincided with the driving of away of the goat “for Azazel”, otherwise known as the scapegoat. This was where the “Kohen Gadol “ or High Priest, laid his hands on the goat and confessed over it the sins of the people. It was then driven away, out into the wilderness. Interestingly, in reality, the goat was actually driven off a cliff to prevent its coming back to civilization. Brutal? Perhaps it is, but it shows the cost of sin in a graphic way. We in the modern world, who have so inured to sin, need to remember that sin always incurs a cost. It is obvious that the ancient Jew did.

Notwithstanding the cost of sacrifice, did it really serve to make men better? Or, as St. Paul says, did the Law merely serve as a reminder of how sinful one really was? Indeed, the High Priest offered a sin sacrifice once a year and atoned for the people. Yet, as St. Paul tells us in Hebrews 12, this sacrifice was not efficacious because it had to be repeated once every year.

Of course, the glorious contrast St. Paul offers is that of Christ giving Himself as the one-time, completely sufficient sacrifice. Thus, Christ, using his perfect and sufficient Self, offered the complete and worthy sacrifice God required. Not repeated yearly, as was the sprinkling of bull’s and goat’s blood, this sacrifice was sufficient in of itself, one time.

As well, there is another important issue with the sacrifices under the Law. It has to do with atonement versus remission.
Consider these definitions of atonement:
1. Making of amends: the making of reparation for a sin or a mistake
2. Reconciliation between God and people: in Christian belief, the reconciliation between God and people brought about by the death of Jesus Christ

It would seem as if atonement by this definition is certainly a great thing. No doubt it is, because it is primarily concerned with the restoration of relationship between God and Man. Thus, if the Temple sacrifices offered atonement, or the “making good” Man’s relationship with God, it was excellent and much to be desired. Yet, it would seem, the Temple sacrifices lacked something, or else there was something incomplete about them.

St. Paul tells us what that is. It was the quality of remission, which seems to go beyond even the wide boundaries of atonement. For example, consider these definitions of “remission”:

1. the cancellation of a debt, charge, or penalty
2. A diminution of the seriousness or intensity of disease or pain; a temporary recovery
3. Forgiveness of sins
4. the reduction of a prison sentence, esp. as a reward for good behavior.

When one looks at the Sacrifice of Christ in this light, the completeness of it makes more sense. First, while there is no doubt that Christ offered atonement for us, thus repairing our relationship with Almighty God, he did more.

As the definitions states, he cancelled the charge, or debt that our sins incurred. That is, the penalty of our sins, eternal separation from God, He wiped away. We know that separation from God is death, because God is all life. Yet, this penalty has more to it than just a passive consideration of death. Since the human soul is eternal, our afterlife will be eternal. Thus, it will either be in the most positive of all circumstances, living actively with God, or it will be the active negation of all those positives. The point is, however, that we will never cease to be, as those who know not God desperately wish it to be. Somehow, an eternity of non-knowing or non-being is something they can stomach. An eternity in Hell they cannot.
Christ remitted our sins so that our eternal after life will be in the most blessed of all circumstances, not the reverse.

In the remission of our sins, Christ also decreased the punishment that we rightly deserve for our sins. He created a “diminution”, or diminishing of the seriousness or intensity of pain that we should have suffered for our sins. How did this happen? Simple; Christ bore the penalty for our sins Himself.

In so doing, he actually created forgiveness of sins as well. This was not just the disregard of God towards our sins, but the actual forgiveness of them. Our sins, through Christ, will God remember no more. It is almost like they never happened; except that we know while sin is forgiven, the consequences of our sin here on Earth remain.

Finally, the fourth part of the definition, Christ actually reduced the time we would have to spend paying for our sins. Our “prison sentence”, instead of being an eternity separated from God, becomes a commuted sentence. One preacher termed it this way, as in a newspaper headline: “Man’s sentence is suspended, goes to live with judge.”

When considered in its totality, the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice becomes a little clearer. St. Paul aptly compares it to the transient and incomplete sacrifices of the Old Testament, while completely emphasizing the permanence and efficacy of what Christ did for us. There simply is no comparison.

Thus, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us”.

Christ did it. Not we by our acts of righteousness, nor a thousand years in Purgatory can accomplish the same. We are not saved by our own acts. It is not possible to earn our way into Heaven because our crimes are too vast and our nature is too corrupt to be redeemed without the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Without Him, our future is bleak.

With Him, our future is how St. Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 15:53-55 “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

There is one reason why this statement will become true for every believer. That simply is because “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Christ is the one, true, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for our sins. Thanks be to God!



Glory be to God the Father, and to God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, now and forever. AMEN