Christian Ideas of Sacrifice (2024)

Christian Ideas of Sacrifice

sacrifice: from Latin sacrificare; sacer sacred, holy + facere to make. 1. To make an offering of; to consecrate or present to a divinity by way of expiation or propitiation, or as atoken acknowledgment or thanksgiving; to immolate on the altar of God, in order to atone for sin, to procure favor,or to express thankfulness; 2. Hence, to destroy, surrender, or suffer to be lost, for the sake of obtaining something; to give up in favorof a higher or more imperative object or duty; to devote, with loss or suffering. 3. To destroy; to kill. 4. To sell at a price less than the cost or actual value. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996

Christ on the Cross, by El Greco Cathedral of San Juan at Toledo

Background

The importance of bloodshed in sacrifice did not originate in the Christian tradition. Sacrifice was a majorpart of the ancient world. The ideas of sacrifice as an atonemnt found in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) formmuch of the basis for Christian conceptions of sacrifice. In the Old Testament, theGod-given means of expiation was the sacrificial blood (Young 27-28). The idea of a dying Godwhose sacrifice results in eternal life for followers is also found in Roman mysteryreligions.

In its early years, Christianity struggled to distinguish itself from Judaism and mystery cults as the ‘correct’religion. Although they took many ideas from these traditions, Christians developed a unique sacrificial tradition.The idea of sacrifice as a spiritual, self-directed act instead of the offering of animals was one such distinction.The body itself, with its links to the body of Christ, remained very important to Christians. Their forms of sacrificefocused on the bodies of its members as a living sacrifice.

The Sacrifice of Jesus
Christians understand Christ's death on the cross to be a necessary atonement for the sins of humankind. In thefirst generation after Jesus' death, the apostle Paul wrote: For I delivered toyou first of all, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that hewas buried, and that he rose again on the third day. . . I Corinthians 15: 3-4. Christ 's deathwas the final sacrifice, which superseded the need for animal sacrifices offered in the past by the high priest: Having therefore a great high priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus Son of God.. . because he continues forever, he has an everlasting priesthood. (Hebrews 4:14, 7:24). Christ was both priest and sacrificial victim.

Christianity often refers to Jesus’ Passion as the "ultimate" or "perfect" sacrifice.The Christian church believed that Christ’s death occurred as the ultimate expiation of sins and that it annulledthe need for sacrifices named by the Old Testament. Christians turned from the notion of animal sacrifice to self-sacrifice.The methods by which Christians presented themselves as purified of sin, then, could be understood as a form ofsacrifice. Baptism, the Lords Supper (the Eucharist), and martyrdom are major traditions of Christian sacrifice. All of theseacts are necessary for redemption. Using Jesus as an exemplar, Christians believed that one could only gain redemptionthrough sacrifice. These beliefs and traditions illustrate the importance of blood in Christian spiritual cleansing.

The Sacrifice of Martyrdom

This idea of a living sacrifice was bound to the Christian tradition by blood. Baptism and martyrdom wereefforts to cleanse and redeem oneself from earthly, mortal evil. When a person was baptized, he or she confessedhis/her belief in Jesus as the Christ thereby admitting that Christ’s blood, shed on the cross, was Jesus’ self-sacrificefor the forgiveness of all sins. The proclamation of this belief in the "perfect sacrifice" providedone with redemption. Martyrdom also was a very important formof Christian sacrifice. Due to the magnitude of this topic we have devoted an entire portion of our site to thetopic of martyrdom.

The imitation of Christ (Imitatio Christi) has been a goal of Christians in every age but its meaninghas been imagined in forms as diverse as monasticism, liberation theology, and the contemporary Christian sloganWWJD (What Would Jesus Do?). A few unusual Christians have even experienced such an identification withChrist that they have manifested Christ's wounds (stigmata)upon their own bodies.

The Sacrifice of Baptism

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Online baptism is a sacrament of admission to the Christian Church. The forms and rituals of the various churches vary, but Baptism almost invariably involves the use of water and the Trinitarian invocation, "I baptize you: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of he Holy Spirit." The candidate may be wholly or partly immersed in water, the water may be poured over the head, or a few drops may be sprinkled or placed on the head.

Baptism is preformed to expiate the sins of a human through a ritual cleansing of the soul. It must be performedby a priest or memember of the clergy (depending upon the denomination being described). Baptism has been imaginedas a sacrificial death to sin and symbolic rebirth as a member of the Christian church.

The Sacrifice of Communion

Probably the best known of the Christian sacrifices today is sacrifice of communion. The spaces in which Jesus'sacrificial death is symbolically re-enacted are sites of immense spiritual power. Altars were imagined as sacrificialplaces from very early times, and it became common to place martyrs' relicseither under or in them.

The historical development of the Eucharist as a sacrificial mealthat symbolically re-creates Christ's sacrificial death at every occasion, everywhere in the world, provided away for sacrifice to become a central part of Christian worship. In this way Christians are able to share "inthe benefits of his [Jesus’] redemptive death." (Young 63). Like martyrdom,this is such an expansive topic that another link on the site deals solely with the practice of the Eucharist.

The elements of the Eucharist: wine representing the blood and bread representing the body ofChrist. Lycos PictureGallery

Priests and pastorsare commonly imagined as church leaders who especially model the imitation of Jesus' way of life. Priests are theonly Catholic Christians authorized to perform the sacrifice of the Mass (the Eucharist) and most of the sacraments.The Catholic Church has insisted that priests must be male because Jesus was. Thus, the imitation of Jesus' lifehas gendered implications. Although women can become pastors in most Protestant denominations, Protestant womenhave also considered the extent to which Jesus' gender limits women's ability to truly imitate Jesus' life. BecauseJesus is believed to be not only human but divine, does his human gender mean that divinity can only be imaginedas masculine?

Sacred Spaces and Texts

The spaces in which Jesus' sacrificial death is symbolically re-enacted are sites of immense spiritual power.Altars were imagined as sacrificial places from very early times, and it became common to place martyrs' relicseither under or in them. In the Middle Ages nuns were not allowed to enter the inner sanctuary area of their ownconvent churches (where the Eucharist was performed), not even to clean it. Although Catholic women are excludedfrom the performance of this ritual, this is not the only Catholic site of power. Women are not excluded from thecult of saints, nor are they excluded from pilgrimages to saints'and martyrs' shrines. In fact, both women and men,both in the past and today, have experienced visionary rapture, weeping, and miraculous interventions at shrine sites.

The cult of saints and martyrs is not part of Protestant Christianity, but the super-emphasis upon the Bible as a site of sacrality provides further accessto sites of Christian spiritual power. The Protestant emphasis upon the "priesthood of all believers"historically has meant that all Christians are considered to have equal access to the sacred scriptures. CatholicChristianity has generally limited interpretation of Scripture, like performance of the Mass, to priests and authorizedteachers.

Conclusion

So, as far as the New Testament is concerned, the sacrificial blood of Christ isexpiatory, by the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which are fulfilled and annulled by his greater and more efficacioussacrifice (Young 72). However it is the Judaic idea of blood as a purification of sin that isthe main artery of Christian sacrifice. For it was the blood Christ shed, his death, that provided Christians withredemption from sin. Christian sacrifice serves to mirror and celebrate in the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus whichprovides believers with redemption.

Bibliography

Brown, Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (NewYork: Columbia University Press, 1988).

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Blood Rites. ( 1998).

Frankiel, Sandra. Christianity (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1985).

Rubin, Miri. Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1991).

Stevens, Marianne, ed. Reconstructing the Christ Symbol: Essays in Feminist Christology (New York:Paulist Press, 1993).

Young, Frances M. Sacrifice and the Death of Christ. (SPCK: London, 1975).