Episode 113: No Bloody Magic (Thinking Atonement, Part 6)

Somewhere along the way in human history, our ancestors got the idea that whatever being or beings were beyond them (a single God, gods, or goddesses) must require sacrifices to be appeased--to feed hungry deities, to guarantee rains and good harvests, to promote fertility, or to avert their anger.  Ancient Israel had a system of prescribed sacrifices in its ritual and worship life, as well as a complicated and layered history full of stories of sacrifice (and almost-sacrifice), and yet the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures never talk about the divine being "hungry" or needing sacrifices to be powered by the people's ritual.  So when New Testament writers pick up on the imagery of Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," they are NOT saying that a bloodthirsty Father needs to be "fed" by the sacrifice of a Son on the cross.   In a sense, the New Testament deconstructs all of that magical thinking. But then... what does it mean to talk about Jesus' death on the cross being like the sacrificed lambs of the Day of Atonement, the Passover, or the day to day "sin offerings" of the Bible?  Pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve pick up the many layers of this conversation as they continue their series for this Lent about what happened at the cross, and how we think about it.  Join us for today's conversation!