The First Sunday of Lent
February 26, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline
Genesis
22:1-18 James 1:12-18 Mark
1:9-15
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is the Old Testament lesson, especially these words, “God
will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ. Without the shedding of blood
there can be no forgiveness of sins.
Scripture is clear on that point.
Adam and Eve, Noah, Terah, all the patriarchs knew this fact. For this reason, they had killed countless
animals, pouring out their blood in bowls and burning the animals on altars to
God – to forgive all their sins. To be
made right with God by the death of another creature.
So when God tells
Abraham what he must do, it is a tall order.
Abraham had seen sacrifices before, he had performed sacrifices before,
but never one that would be as difficult or as gruesome as the one God commands
him to do on this day. God tells
Abraham, “As a burnt offering, as a way of forgiving your sins, your Son must
die at your hand. And when you have
killed him, when you have drained his blood out of him, he must be laid on a
pile of wood and burned as an offering to me.
By his death, you will be forgiven.”
His own son must
die. He has to kill his own child, whom
he loves, the one through whom he hoped to have descendants that numbered of
the sand on a beach, that numbered as the stars of heaven. His child must die, God has commanded it.
What must Abraham
have done wrong? What sins must he have
committed? Did he doubt too much? What sin could be so great that his children
had to die? But even as he asks these
questions of God, Abraham gathers the supplies, he gets the fire, he gets the
wood. They saddle up their donkey, and
they head to the mountain God will show them.
They travel for
three days, riding on the donkey, when finally Abraham sees the place, Mount
Moriah. Abraham stops, gets down from
his donkey, and loads the wood of the sacrifice on the his own son, his beloved
son, the one who pleases him, and they begin the final journey. Isaac carries the wood up the mountain to the
place where he must die. Abraham carries
the knife and the fire, dreading what must be done. Isaac stacks the wood upon the altar, and
notices something is missing. “Where is
the goat? Where is the Ram? Where is the creature we are going to sacrifice
father?” Abraham’s only answer is “The
Lord will provide the sacrifice.” Isaac
lays on the wood, Abraham raises the knife, mustering all his strength to bring
it down on his son, his own Son, whom he loves.
And God stops
him. Abraham wait, Abraham don’t kill
your Son! Stop! Don’t do this! For you were right in your confession, I will
provide the sacrifice for your sins. I
will provide the lamb to be slain and burned.
I will provide, for it isn’t your son, but my Son that must die. Its my Son – it’s Jesus, he’s the one who
will die for your sin Abraham, for Isaac’s sin, and for all mankind’s sin.
God stops the
death of Isaac, and in the same way, dear friends, he stops your death as
well. For just as Abraham, just as
Isaac, you too are sinful. You too are
guilty. You too have broken God’s law,
and have not trusted enough, haven’t loved enough, haven’t done enough. You fall short by what you have done and by
what you have left undone. And dear
friends its your fault, your own fault, your own most grievous fault. That sin threatened to separate you from God,
just as it did for Abraham, for God demanded a sacrifice from you to make
things right.
But you don’t have
enough to fix your problem. There isn’t
enough you can do to fix it, even your own death can’t save you. So as Abraham confessed God will provide the
sacrifice – His own Son, born of the Virgin Mary, to die for you. Hear the words of our Gospel lesson, "Behold my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." Its that one, who will die for you.
And so here we are
in Lent, looking ahead to the sacrifice of Christ for you and your sins. We are looking ahead, to Jesus, riding into
Jerusalem on a donkey, just as Isaac rode to Moriah with his Father on a
donkey. We are looking ahead to Jesus
carrying a cross up to Golgotha, just as Isaac carried the wood of sacrifice p
to Moriah. We are looking ahead to
Christ willingly suffering and dying at the will of his father, just as Isaac
was for his father Abraham. And as Abraham
was willing to drive a knife into his own son, so too is God willing to drive
nails and spear into his son.
And its all for
you. Its all for Abraham. Its all for Isaac. And dear friends, on the cross, its all
done. The blood for forgiveness of sins
is shed. All of it pours out on to the
ground. Jesus suffers the death you
deserve. And with his very last breath,
Christ shouts out “It is finished.” No more does God demand sacrifices from you
for salvation. No longer does He ask for
your death, but instead he gives you life forever. Instead, you walk safely down the mountain,
just as Isaac did. Instead you are free
as God’s own child forever.
Without the
shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. And blood has been shed. But its not Isaacs. Its not Abraham’s, its not even yours. It is Jesus blood. And it means your life. Amen.
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| Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. |
