The Cross Is Not Mere Sacrifice

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.  (Hosea 6:6, NIV)

I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6, NLT) 

The Hebrew word for "mercy" in the NIV is chesedh, which is translated as both love and mercy.  The older translation from the King James of "lovingkindness" may capture most of the word's meaning.  In a more story-form, it is the quality of kindness that is usually reserved for close friends and family members.  "A person exercising chesadh has chosen to treat the recipient as if such a relationship did exist," whether it does or not.

To further explain this term, Hosea places it parallel to "knowing God."  Knowledge of God is nearly always understood in the Bible as an interactive or conversational relationship.  It is not merely knowing about God, but actually knowing him in a personal way.  So, when God desires lovingkindness, it is not so much as an act done to others around me, but as a quality that I live in.  God is saying he wants my love more than my "sacrifices."  He wants to know me and not just receive homage from me.

In the Old Testament, sacrifices demonstrated the love and faithfulness of Israel to God.  Hosea is pointing out a disease that had spread among the people of Israel.  They were giving sacrifices without lovingkindness.  They brought their offerings without seeking to know the God they brought them to.  Their hypocrisy became plain in how they dealt with each other, showing that God's mercy and the awareness of him did not salt their attitudes toward each other.  Hosea was saying that such sacrifices were worthless and that God had no use for them outside the context of this tender love and eager conversation he longed to have with his people.

The cross of Christ stands as the final sacrifice for all people, but it must be clear that God does not desire sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice.  What underlies the sacrifice of Jesus is this lovingkindness and this passion to know God.  Jesus' loving and willing obedience to the Father is what gives the cross its ultimate significance, not his painful, morbid death.  Without such love on Jesus' part, his death is a mere tragedy - actually pathetic.

Jesus embodiment of God's lovingkindness and his awareness of the Father's presence moved him to the cross as atonement.  Jesus death by itself does not rescue me from death - separation from God - any more than the sacrifices of the Israelites in themselves brought them closer to God.  No, Jesus himself is my atonement, my covering.  His sacrifice is the most significant proof and outcome of that great love he has from the Father for me, but in itself that death means nothing apart from the life of Jesus with me.  His continuing relationship is what atones or "covers" me, not just something he did.

When I apply "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" to the cross, I find myself drawn to he heart of Jesus.  I find that God's desire is for my heart to be the same as Jesus' more than for me to suffer for him.  That is why following Jesus in Jesus' own words is "Take up your cross and follow me" rather than "Believe in my cross and you will be saved."  The response that God wants from me when I see the cross is not merely "What a wonderful thing Jesus did!"  or "What a good example Jesus gave!"  The response that God wants is "God is love.  I want to know Jesus and his Father.  I will give up this life I try to lead on my own to the cross and enter into life with him today!"  If my understanding of the cross does not naturally move me to an interactive, conversational relationship with God, then I do not understand the cross of Christ.

Lord, let your lovingkindness saturate my life.  Let this desire to know you through Jesus guide me.  Deliver me from mere sacrifices into the joy of giving up everything to you in trust and dependence.  Let the cross be to me a landmark of your great love and my increasing desire to obey you out of trust.  Apart from your daily relating to me - walking and talking with me as your own - I will not make it.  Be not far from me, Father.  Amen.