This essay continues a sequence. Read the previous one here.
I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,
— KJV; Matt 12:7For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
— KJV; Hosea 6:6
We can’t reach the infinite through the finite
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Mercy
In our exploration of “Blessed Are The Merciful” we established that “mercy” does not mean random acts of kindness, but the cultivation of mercifulness as a personal quality.
It requires the constant effort to understand our fellow man objectively, which is an aspect of love. An external, visible action is spiritually sterile unless it is a manifestation of love.
The physical cannot of itself have spiritual impact, but the spiritual has both spiritual and physical implications i.e. the physical is excluded from the spiritual, but the spiritual is not excluded from the physical (ref. “Spiritual vs Material, Part 1“).
Old Testament: Sacrifices & Burnt Offerings
Sacrifices could cover a wide range of activities, from peace offerings brought to the altar to communal meals. They typically involved the priestly class, and in most cases the priest and/or the offerer would consume part of the offering.
Burnt offerings were, as the name implies, burnt completely, and therefore not consumed by any parties.
Hosea 6:6 is stating that no matter how elaborate a sacrifice or burnt offering was, it was inferior to the personal sacrifice involved in cultivating mercifulness (love) in oneself.
So, Christ’s countless references to the primacy of love, including Matt 12:7, were reminders about something we should already have grasped. In other words:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
…
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
— Matt 22:37-40
The sacrifice that is meaningful to the Almighty is self-sacrifice i.e. selflessness. Not the sacrifice of material things, but love for our fellow men.
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Modern Sacrifice
Modern Christians have replaced the old concepts of sacrifice with activities related to the church e.g. church work, church donations, church events, tithes, etc.
The habit of putting the church at the centre of Christian life is encouraged by the use of the word “service” to describe joint hours of worship.
This makes sense if:
- Our attendance is a favour to our Almighty Father, or
- Attendance is an inconvenience that we inflict on ourselves, or
- Our attendance is to help the church and helping the church is helping God, or
- The Almighty is happy when we sing and pray to Him in church.
In light of the preceding discussion, the Nature of God (as discussed in essays like “God Is Neither Superman Nor Santa“, “God ‘Wants’ Nothing“), and the actual meaning of “Church” (ref. “Christ Is Not The Founder of Christianity“) none of these possibilities makes any sense.
Words have power (ref. “Mind Your Language“). Equating “service” and “church attendance” is a significant (and underrated) contributor to the fact that the majority of us do not invest most of our energy in figuring out how we can create a genuine service to the Almighty by way of self-sacrifice in our thinking and day-to-day lives: our ideas, workplaces, families, social circles, etc.
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me.
— Matt 26:37-41
Our spiritual energy has been diverted towards sacrificing for religious organisations instead of towards the personal spiritual development required to build a Kingdom of God on Earth (ref. “The World’s Most Underrated Prayer“).
A Tower of Babel
It is ridiculous to think one can build a tower to Heaven, since Heaven does not exist in this physical plane.
Perhaps this allegory was to warn us that great physical achievements (sacrifices) are not an indicator of spiritual progress in and of themselves; that it is futile to try to reach the spiritual through the physical1.
Faith without works is dead and, equally, works without love are also dead (ref. “Faith Is A Halfway House“).
Without love, true “service” and “sacrifice” do not exist.
Today’s Resolution:
- We pray for the strength to take the leap of faith into a life of true selflessness.
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- A central theme in Charles Eisenstein’s “Ascent of Humanity” ↩︎
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