By The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
November 25, 2012
Text: Hebrews 10:4-10
He was an extremely famous surgeon. His name was Evan O'Neill Kane. He was famous because he had determined that even though he was an eminent surgeon a number of his patients died, not because of the surgery but because of the anaesthetic . He noticed that with all the good intentions in the world the anesthetic could cause a reaction and until the person was under the knife, had no idea whether the person would arise from that anaesthetizing. He was concerned. He saw the unnecessary deaths and complications. He saw the slow recoveries and wanted to know what he could do. One day he decided answer was to try something new, maybe to try a local anesthetic, rather than putting the patient out completely, numbing the pain at the location of the surgery. He thought it was a good idea and he thought he'd found a way to perform such an operation.
He went looking for volunteers: Who would be the first person to have an operation without anesthetic in the classical sense? Well, you can imagine, he had a hard time convincing anyone that this was the way to go. He finally found someone who was willing to do it. So, with great eagerness, they came to the day. It was an appendectomy - the removal of the appendix. He prepped the patient. He prepped himself. He made sure that he was absolutely up to speed on all the new surgical techniques, and he began to operate. He operated on the patient, and as per usual, he found the place, he made the incision, he turned over the flaps, he stopped the blood flow, he took out the appendix, and he was able to bring it all back together to sew it up. It was a beautiful operation! And, to his great astonishment, the patient did very well. He went into recovery afterwards, and there were no complications. The patient had felt no pain whatsoever, and in fact was bright and smart and ready to move around hours after the operation. It was a huge success.
The operation took place in 1921. Kane, having seen so many of the young men and women, but mainly men, who had been hurt in World War I, and who had died not because of their injuries sustained in battle but because of the anaesthetics, was delighted, because he knew that from now on many, many lives would be spared.
Now, Dr. Kane had something in common with the patient at that time. They were the same person. You see, he had operated on himself. He knew he could find nobody else, so he took it upon himself. He knew that even if he suffered, he would be suffering for the good of others. He did not want to make just a professional point, but to heal others. He was the patient; he was the surgeon. He paved the road for the healing of millions.
When I look at the passage from the Book of Hebrews today, I can't help but have that very same image in my mind. The writer of the Book of Hebrews is talking about God doing healing: God restoring the broken, God replacing sin. Rather than relying on someone else, rather than relying on outward things, God decided to do it himself. He came in the form of his own Son, and his own Son bore the stripes, bore the pain, bore the sin, and bore the suffering of the world.
This was, as Kane's surgery, something entirely new. God was doing something new, and God was taking it upon God's self to do it. But what was the old thing that was replaced here? We can't understand the power of the new unless we understand the power of the old. Well, the old is what one would call “sacrificial workings” or “sacrificial offerings” rooted and grounded deep within The Old Testament, rooted and grounded within Jewish tradition.
This whole idea of people making sacrifices to atone for their own sin, to ask for forgiveness goes right back to the earliest times. For example, it goes back to when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham was called on by God to show his faith by offering his son. As we know, the story goes, God stops Abraham from doing it, but Abraham's faith had become abundant. Abraham was willing to make the sacrifice, but God didn't require it. He wanted only Abraham's faith and obedience.
The same is true later on with the Exodus and the Passover, where the people of Israel were set free from the hands of the Pharaohs, and when they were able to cross over the sea into the Promised Land. Some of the signs that they were to be saved were placed: blood of a goat on the doors of those who were Jews as a sign that they were to be spared from the plagues. Sacrifices occurred as a remembrance of God saving God's people. These were all the positive things. This was sacrifice that showed faith that believed in God, and that was a manifestation of a deep, deep sense on the part of the people.
Very early on, even as early as the Book of Genesis, we find that there was a danger that was implied in these sacrificial offices, and that in fact not all sacrifices were good, and not all were acceptable. The most famous story of all is the story that many of us know of Cain and Abel. This is a classic example of sacrifice gone wrong. This is how the Book of Genesis in Chapter 4 records it:
Now, Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord; Abel brought fat portions from some of the first born of his flock as a sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour. So, Cain was very angry and his face was downcast. The Lord said to Cain ”˜Why are you angry? Why is your face so downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But, if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.' Now Cain said to his brother Abel ”˜Let's go out to the field', and while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
This is a classic example of offering sacrifices gone wrong! Abel made a sacrifice to God, and God received it gratefully - a sign of thanks. Cain made a sacrifice, and God rejected it. We are not given the reason why God rejected it, but we can suspect from everything that follows that it was because he knew what was in Cain's heart. Cain's heart was angry and evil. As soon as Cain's sacrifice wasn't accepted, he killed his brother Abel. In other words, there are sacrifices that are good, and then there are sacrifices that are offered from evil motives for the purpose of simply trying to win God's favour, but the heart doesn't change and obedience doesn't change.
In the Book of First Samuel, the same example is given when Samuel talks to Saul. He says, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings, or does the Lord delight in an ear that hears his voice?” In other words, does the Lord want these burnt sacrifices, these offerings that are given, or does God want something that is more tangible in the heart and in the life. Hosea captured it beautifully: “The Lord wants mercy and not sacrifices.” In the Gospel of Matthew, when Matthew the tax collector is being condemned by many of the religious leaders, and Jesus is condemned for calling him as one of his disciples, Jesus quotes Hosea - “Does the Lord want mercy or does the Lord want sacrifices?” You see, there is a sense in which, in all of this, even rooted in the Scriptures themselves, there is a concern that sacrifices, offerings, things that we do and give for God, can actually become an impediment to our faith.
That is the old; then comes the new. The Book of Hebrews suggests Jesus has now come in the flesh, and Jesus is now here to do the will of the One who sent him. Jesus is the one who is going to give us life for the sake of the world. The sin, the brokenness, the destruction that is in human life no longer requires us to take sacrifices into the Temple or elaborate offerings, because it is now taken care of by the Son, who has done it for us, just like Dr. Kane in the story this morning, just like Dr. Kane, Jesus is the one who does it all for the sake of others.
It is fascinating that the writer of Hebrews though quotes from the Psalms to show who Jesus is. From Psalm 40, he quotes:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offering and sin offerings you were not pleased. But then I said, ”˜Here I am. It is written about me in the scroll: I have come to do your will, O God.'
Jesus knew that even what he was doing was a direct relationship even from the tradition from which he had come: he had come to do something new once and for all for all. So, what does this mean? Well, clearly it means for me that true fellowship with God is borne out of obedience.
This last week, I went to one of the men's groups on a Thursday morning. They meet with me from time-to-time. They will provide me with questions that they would like me to answer. I mean, it is like doing a doctoral exam all over again with these guys! You get a list of questions, and they are the most incisive questions you could ever get. You have to prepare for them and read up for them, because they are ready for me when I arrive.
One of the questions they asked this time around, and some of you are here this morning, was “Does religion sometimes stand in the way of people following God?” I thought about this a lot because I think the answer is “Yes and no.” On the one hand, yes, religion can stand in our way, and in another, religion helps us. By religion, I mean the outward form of our gathering, our religio: those traditions, those rituals, those rites, and those governances that are needed to manifest our faith and our will and our desire to serve one another.
But religion can also become distorted. It can stand in the way. It can become a replacement for God rather than a way of bringing people closer to God. So many people, when they get very entrenched in religious institutions, have a tendency to forget the reason why they're there, and that the purpose and the reality of the church is to do something more. Religion often becomes a series of rules and regulations and rites of passage rather than the free recognition of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Religion becomes like the sacrifices and the offerings of so many even within The Old Testament. We listen to the law, but we don't understand the inner motive.
I am a great fan of Philip Yancey. I read a story of his that resonated with me like you wouldn't believe! It was about how when he had an operation on his foot, he went to his surgeon afterwards and asked what he was able to do after the surgery, and the surgeon gave a list of all the things he wasn't allowed to do: climb, ski, run, jog, play tennis. The list went on and on! Philip got really depressed. So, he was told to do all these exercises, which he did - and you can imagine that I empathize with this from a couple of years ago almost to the week - because he was getting frustrated with the things that he wasn't able to do. But then, he realized that his doctor had an Achilles heel: the doctor loved golf. So, he thought that if he appealed to the doctor to get permission to play golf, maybe, maybe at this point, the surgeon would say yes. But, the surgeon, to the great dismay of Yancey, said, “No, you are not even allowed to play golf. The problem is you will swing to your right and you will pivot, and you will turn your ankle in your foot, and you will undo all the surgery that I have done on you. You cannot do it, because it is bad for you! You cannot do it, because it will damage you!”
Yancey said, “I tried every appeal that I could find, but I still couldn't convince the surgeon to tell me it was okay. When I realized that the surgeon who loved golf had the pain in his own eyes in telling me I couldn't play, it was then I realized how serious he was and what it really meant.” That is exactly what the writer in the Book of Hebrews is getting at: the great healer, the great physician, the one who wants us to live rich and fulfilling lives doesn't do so by just a series of rules and regulations, or just by a series of sacrifices and offerings. That is not what God wants! What God wants is for us to listen to the one who loves us, who knows and cares for us, and has borne the pain on our behalf.
Obedience then, arises from something great, and that is that true obedience comes from a relationship. It is not a matter of simply of rites and rituals, but of faith. Now, I am not suggesting, as some have done, that the difference between the old and the new is between the inner and the outer. A lot of people say that. They say, “Well, it is the difference between being really spiritually enlightened, and not being spiritually enlightened.” Well, that is nonsense!
I was thinking about that this week when I went to the garage and an elderly gentleman pulled up in a car and went to the bay where you use the air for your tires. He was fumbling around, and the poor old guy couldn't get it to work. So, I don't know why, he just looked at me as he saw me pumping gas merrily, and he said to me, “Can you help me put air in my tires?”
I said, “Sure, I will!”
He said, “The system isn't working.”
I said, “Have you put any money in it?”
The poor old boy says, “I didn't know you needed to put money in it.”
I said, “Oh, there's money for everything these days, even air!” Can you imagine, as a preacher, I should be getting hundreds and thousands for the hot air I produce! But anyway, he didn't realize who I was, but that is fine.
So, he said, “That is great!” He didn't have a loonie; I had a loonie. I put it in the machine. There was lots of air. I tell him where the tires are and he goes and starts pumping. He obviously hasn't done this for forty years or something! He is pumping away and pumping away. The air is going into the tires and the car is starting to lift! I looked at him, and I said, “Stop!”
Finally he stops, and he says, “What's wrong?”
I say, “You can't put that much air in the tire!”
And he said, “Well, isn't it better if I put more in?”
I said, “Wait a minute!” for I am waiting for this thing to explode, and I go and I take - and I mean I am really bad, I actually have a tire gauge in my dash - and I go off to his car, and it is 64 pounds per square inch! Twice what is recommended! I think the apocalypse is coming at that very minute. This thing is going to explode in my face! I let the air out of the tire.
The old boy goes in and he pays for his gas, and I say, “I'll take care of it” and I start to fix the tires. I set it right up, and I explain to him that if it is too high, then the contact patch on the road isn't very good, and if you don't have them absolutely right you under-steer and that will be bad, and if you have them under-inflated, you get over- steer, and then your car won't handle well. By this time, he has already left, and I am giving him my lecture on tires!
But anyway, he was bored, but he got the message, and I got a message, and the message I got is look, the Christian life is not like filling up tires. A lot of people think it is! They think that the more inwardly spiritual you are and the more you are able to show everyone how pious you are, the more times you use the name of Jesus in a day than anybody else, or the more prayers you say, the better you are going to be, or the more hours you spend on your knees the more righteous you are going to be. The list goes on and on, and the people who think the more air you have in the tire, the better it is going to be.
It is the same with outwardness, we do the same thing. We think somehow we purify ourselves by the more that we do in an outward way and the more that we demonstrate our faith. This is just another form of the old; it is not the new. The new says, “Look, it is not a matter of being inward or outward. It is not a matter of being more pious or more holy. Obedience comes from listening to the One who loves you. It is not about how much you can impress God! It is how much God has left an impression upon you!”
That is what Christianity is about. That is the heart of the Incarnation: that the forgiveness of sins, the reconciliation of our souls with God, that obedience and love for our fellow human beings, that the forgiveness that comes from the One who has taken responsibility not only to be the great surgeon, but also be the one who made the sacrifice for the surgery for the sake of others. Oh, what joy that should give us once and for all! Amen.