Sacrifice

“Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:4).

Christ Before Pilate (Tintoretto)

Do you know what the hardest part of a sacrifice really is?  It is not showing it.

I do not worry very much about doing something for someone and keeping it quiet or secret.

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:3-4).

That sort of sacrifice is reward unto itself.  After all, there is great satisfaction to be gained from knowing that something that I did might have helped another person.  I can feel good about myself for making a sacrifice of that nature.  And I have been thinking about that today.  You see, the sacrifice that we make each day is what affects the quality of our Christian charity.  I can think of others before I think of myself, and this can help me to understand how I should be relating to others and therefore God.  I should be placing myself last and making myself the least…

That is the example of my Beloved.  When He was at the height of His influence.  When the crowds were most intent on following Him, when the people would have listened to everything that He said and recognised Him as the Son of Man.  When – on Palm Sunday, the people laid down their cloaks and the olive branches and worshipped Him, Christ was well within His rights to rest of His laurels – so to speak.  He was certainly within His right to use His power to maintain some comfort or respect from the people who He had come to save…  But even during this time – even then, Christ kept His mission at the front of His mind and reminded His disciples of it…

“So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.  And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, ‘Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.’” (Matthew 20:16-19).

He was not distracted by the other things.   You see, the sacrifice itself was the primary objective for Christ.  He came to Earth to suffer and die for my sins.  And it did not matter that the judge was unjust.  It did not matter that He had every right to be rested – HE IS GOD!  Instead, what mattered was that He would make the necessary sacrifice.  And it is a PERFECT sacrifice because He gained nothing from that sacrifice and we gained SALVATION…

And I have been thinking about that today as I make a song and a dance about every single little sacrifice that I offer…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.