The concept of sacrifice, at least in the religious sense, is one that is foreign to most of us. Nevertheless sacrifice has been an integral part of many world religions. Sacrifices included those for propitiation (appeasing the gods) and thanks (for thanking the gods). Sacrifices also included both animal and human sacrifices Animal sacrifices had not only a religious function but economic and social functions as well because the edible portions of the animals were usually shared as a meal following the sacrifice (which was true in Judaism as well as in the Roman Empire). Human sacrifices existed in both the old and new worlds. The Aztecs once sacrificed more than 10,000 prisoners in order to bury them beneath one of their great pyramids. We see remnants of human sacrifice in the Abraham and Isaac story in Genesis 22.
Within Judaism sacrifice functioned in several different ways, each attested to in scripture. In Genesis everyone from Noah to Abraham to Jacob sacrificed animals as a way of giving thanks to God for what God had done for them. The use of sacrifice expands in Exodus 12 which describes the Passover. The heart of this story is the sacrifice of a lamb, in order that its blood be spread over the door posts and lintels of Hebrew homes so that the angel of death would "pass over" the Hebrew homes (the last of the plagues in Exodus). Finally the concept of sacrifice was formalized within the Jewish Law given to Moses on Sinai. Of the 613 commandments in the Law 100 of them deal with sacrifices. These 100 commandments insure that sacrifices are appropriate for their purpose (thanksgiving as well as propitiation) as well as appropriately conducted. Among those sacrifices is one not conducted in the Temple. It deals with the "scape-goat." This is the ceremony in which the Temple is cleansed of all sins, those sins are ritually placed on a goat, and the goat is sent out into the wilderness. This process was intended to insure that at least once a year, any unknown sins were taken care of.
Each of those images of sacrifice (the lamb, the regular atoning sacrifice, and the scape-goat) is applied to Jesus in the New Testament. The Lamb of God (Angus Dei) imagery is focused within the Gospel of John. In John 1:29 and 1:36 John the Baptist sees Jesus and declares him to be the Lamb of God. The point is that Jesus will be the one who will be killed in order that his blood protect God's chosen people from death. The concept of Jesus as Temple sacrifice is contained within the New Testament book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 9 and 10 we read the author's argument that while Jewish sacrifices were temporarily effective at removing sin, Jesus was the sacrifice which once and for all dealt with sin (Hebrews 9:26). Finally the image of the scape goat is contained in the Gospels as Jesus is crucified outside of Jerusalem. While some people have argued that this was the normal procedure for crucifixion, Christians have long seen the leading of Jesus out from the Temple to the "wilderness" for crucifixion/sacrifice as a scape-goat image.
Throughout the New Testament Jesus and sacrifice are continually connected. These images helped the early church make sense of what Jesus did on the cross. Many conservative pastors and scholars have even argued that God could not forgive without a sacrifice and blood being shed. Where we have to be careful however is in assuming that God's forgiveness could be bound by rules and regulations about sacrifice. I say this because the New Testament offers us other ways of understanding what Jesus did on the cross and how it accomplished our forgiveness, none of which are linked to blood or ritual sacrifice. Nonetheless the image of Jesus as sacrifice is one which can and should help to inform us the fact that God has dealt with sin, once and for all, in order that we might be brought back into right relationship with God, not just for a few moments (until the next sacrifice) but forever.
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