Proper 24

Isaiah 53:4-12; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45

What could be more pointless than sacrifice? Kill an innocent animal for my sins? Worse, kill an innocent man for the sins of the whole world? I would no sooner take a baseball bat to my new car. It seems like a costly waste.

Yet the readings for this Sunday are laser-focused on sacrifice, specifically, on the transition from the ongoing animal sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple, to the once-and-for-all-time sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

But why bother with sacrifice in the first place, and why continue to talk about it (and furnish our churches with altars — as if we were fixing to slaughter one of the Kaye's cows on it) if there is no more need for sacrifice?

Watch or read the transcript of this sermon here to find out all about the necessary substitution that sacrifice provides, and how we are to live after it is finished.