|
We don't hear the word 'sacrifice' very often in our daily lives... here are what I think are some of the more common occurences:
- Soldiers sacrificing their lives for their country
- Salary sacrificing...
- Creed - My Sacrifice
- Firemen/policemen sacrificing their lives for their duties
As you can probably tell, I struggled to come up with much there, maybe you can think of other common circumstances when it's used. Aside from 2 & 3, the other two are pretty serious - the devotion of life to what could be considered the 'greater good'.
But what does the word mean to a Christian? We know that Jesus set us the ultimate example to follow being Christians and all, but is he any different from the above people?
The answer of course is - yes! Jesus died for the greatest good - for all of us, everywhere, forever. It could be easy for us to play down his sacrifice, were it not for the many things he said, such as his words from Matthew 26:53 upon being arrested - "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?". Despite all the things he could do, he knew his purpose and intended to carry it out, even if his purpose was to die with the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders. Both Son of God and Man, he humbled himself to a lowly death on a cross.
Yet, though we feel sacrifice is a sad and unfortunate thing, it is through Jesus' sacrifice that we have been redeemed and freed from our sins! There was no angel, no army, no court and no government who prevented him from carrying out his sacrifice for us. And no terminator either...
|
