Recently I asked myself the question, what is the point of sacrifice? Why have people performed sacrifices in the past & now? Why take an animal and slaughter it for the sake of praise? Why sacrifice? And ultimately, why are there stories of God sacrificing himself?
It would seem that since humankind became conscious, there has been the need to sacrifice. I’m not just talking about human sacrifice or the act of sacrificing an animal, I’m also talking about the heroic sacrifice of saving someone at the risk of risking your own life.
In some cultures, long ago, people would sacrifice animals and humans to usher in rain, good harvests, fertility and make amends. A lot of people find the idea of doing this outrageous and abhorrent, which is understandable. However, it comes from this idea that one needs to make amends, to make things right, with someone or something.
In the Bible, the ancient Hebrews detested the sacrifice of children that some religions had, but they performed animal sacrifices. Famously, Cain kills Abel due to Abel offering a ‘better’ sacrifice, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son, Isaac, and Jesus sacrificed himself to save humans from sin and allow them to access eternal life. However, it would seem that humanity has needed atonement from the beginning.
Many people do not realize that before the Judaic belief, Vedic Hindus realized the need for the great heroic act of self sacrifice. There is a deity called Prajapathi, who is later assimilated into the deity Brahman, who is the “Lord of all Creation.” Animals and humans were created by Prajapathi, moreover, he is creator of this universe, omnipresent, formless and becomes half-mortal/half human and eventually sacrifices himself, only to be reborn later on. He is also known as, the saviour.
I can hear people shouting at the page now, saying that “There is only one God,” – “Only one saviour,” but the point is, there has always been the need for atonement. I don’t believe for a second that Christ is the fulfilment of Vedic Hindu scripture, He is the fulfilment of Judaic prophecy, but there are striking similarities. Some people have tried to weave Christ with Hinduism, Greek gods, Egyptian history and say He was a Buddhist, et al, but the fact remains that humanity seems in need of a saviour. Just as Christ can be seen to be Prajapathi, He can also be seen as the unknown deity, Ka, in Greek mythology, as Paul the apostle recognized. Further to this, some people have tried in earnest to establish a relationship between Christ and India through the stories of Isa, the Gospel of Thomas, as well as the Prajapathi of the Vedas. It’s been suggested that after the resurrection of Jesus, he travelled India, for there are tales of a character called Isa, who has a tomb in Kashmir. Isa is the Islamic name for Joshua/Jesus and some Muslims believe that, “Isa (upon him be peace) did not die on the cross but Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) raised him to heaven and he will return one day to defeat the Dajjal (Anti-Christ).” Yet, if this was the case, the Muslims could easily discredit the resurrection by opening this tomb.
As is often the way, when a new belief system emerges, it often ‘survives’ initial complaint by allowing some of the existing beliefs to remain in the new faith; it’s how Christianity grew in ancient Rome and Britain, how Buddhism spread through China and into Japan. The process is called syncresis and it’s fascinating. When a religion is born, it grows in to something congruent with both existing and new beliefs.
My argument is that, in anthropological terms, there is an evolution of faith: The Way of things, The Way of things without salvation, The Way of things with salvation through God as man, The Way of things with salvation – but only through God, not man. It’s as if the spiritual development of mankind has evolved through Vedic Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam to be at its current mindset. The reason I believe this is due to the migration of people, transfer of power over kingdoms through conquest and often imposing a religion on the country in question. We are told that Asoka converted to Buddhism and advocated it in his kingdom, just as Constantine did with Christianity in the Roman Empire. Furthermore, the wise men of Israel were integrated with the wise Babylonians when they were conquering their land. And through all this wandering, we have looked for a way to atone, to make right. Asoka wanted to atone, Jews sought a saviour to rescue them from oppression and the Hindu seek to escape samsara.
Universally, it would seem that we are seeking a way to make things better, make a sacrifice that builds that bridge between sin and forgiveness, mortality and eternity. We hear stories about people sacrificing themselves to save others, go without to enable someone to have something; we have this inner conscience that is trying to make us better people and it has always been there, lurking in our minds. We sacrifice relationships for the sake of work, work for the sake of leisure, leisure for the pursuit of freedom; we sacrifice that holiday so we can help someone do DIY, time so that we can help others, money so a charity or person can be better off; we sacrifice a leg so we can save the rest of our body, an organ so another can have a chance to live and sacrifice ego so there is no argument.
We have this inner need for sacrifice which has sometimes manifested itself in animal sacrifices. The aim of both Prajapathi and Christ was to feed their people and show that just as the flower withers in autumn, it is reborn in spring, that without a harvest there is no seed to sow for the next.
Sacrifice is part of our lives and always will be to some degree. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says this about the Hebrew term for sacrifice; “The noun korban, “sacrifice”, and the verb le-hakriv, “to offer something as a sacrifice” actually mean “that which is brought close” and “the act of bringing close”. The key element is not so much giving something up (the usual meaning of sacrifice) but rather bringing something close to God,” and this is, I believe, the true nature of sacrifice – to bring us closer.
So the question now is, what would you sacrifice to be closer to your family, mum, dad, sister, brother friend, wife, or husband? What would you sacrifice to be closer to God? What can you do be closer? As a Christian, I believe that Christ has drawn me closer to him by his sacrifice and for me the resurrection did happen, for as Charles Colson said, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” For me, it’s not just an act of faith to believe in Christ’s sacrifice, it’s an act that reconciles my imperfections with a perfect God – it makes me whole. What Jesus did was take the blame, be the scapegoat and become the bridge. This is my faith, my understanding of it and how the supernatural merged with the natural in my life.
Humankind has this need for a hero. Some believe it’s Prajapathi/Brahman, for others it’s Buddha, Zoroaster, Muhammad, Abraham, Moses, or Yeshua/Jesus. Now ask yourself this, would you be the hero, would you give up your life to save someone? To enable life and survival of something, would you give yourself or everything you own up for the greater good? The good news is, if you can’t, someone already has, even if you don’t realize it. Have a little faith, it can move mountains. Sacrifice a little time to think about it.
Sougen 🙏
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