God's Very Best

A Reflection on the First Reading for February 28th, 2021:
Second Sunday of Lent

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​Genesis
22.1-2, 9-13, 15-18

God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham said, “Here I am.”

God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

When Abraham and Isaac came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” The Angel said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

There are concepts in our faith that are so rich with meaning, nuance, and symbolism that I struggle to fully appreciate them. Would you be surprised to learn that sacrifice is one of them?

As a modern woman, sacrifice is indelibly connected to personal ambition. If I’m willing to make certain sacrifices, then there’s a good chance that I will get exactly what I want. But I have to be willing to fully commit – I can’t do it half-heartedly; I have to be all in!

For the most part, this interpretation has lent itself nicely to my reading of the Bible, particularly when it comes to ideas like temptation, sin, and purity of heart. If I want to continue to grow spiritually, I have to be willing to sacrifice my temporal desires for eternal ones.

But as I’ve come to discover, this definition has certain limitations — especially as it relates to the idea of becoming a sacrifice myself. Because, I don’t know about you, but there is something deeply unpalatable about the idea of being hoisted up on my own cross.

Sitting with this unsettled feeling in my lower gut, I came to appreciate, at least in some small part, some of the error in my thinking. See, I’ve only ever seen sacrifice as being the act of giving up some lesser good for a greater one. So, in the past, whenever I read the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, there was some part of me that understood Isaac as being the second best to a very best, if you will, which was God’s blessings and a multitude of descendants.

This perfectly explains my utter confusion whenever I heard John 3:16. With my narrow understanding of sacrifice, what I was really hearing was, “To God, Jesus is worth less than you.” For years, my silent response to hearing that verse had been: “Then why does He give Him everything?”

At some point, I came to appreciate that when God talks about sacrifice, He’s talking about sacrificing the very best, not the second best. This means that, unlike my previous understanding, after the sacrifice is over, I, as the one offering the sacrifice, am expected to be at a loss.

Of course, God does compensate us for our sacrifices, but it’s not a transaction. As much as I still continue to struggle with this idea, I can appreciate that God made those promises to Abraham before Abraham proved he was willing to sacrifice his son (Genesis 12:2-3; Genesis 17:2). And, while I still have many questions and much further to go in terms of fully appreciating this behemoth of an idea that is sacrifice, these reflections have changed the way I think about becoming a sacrifice to God. Whereas before, it made me feel less than, now I see it as quite the opposite: that the call to be a sacrifice to God is really an invitation to become one of God’s very best.




Laura Dysart

Pray a song of surrender with Refiner by Maverick City Music.

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