A Meditation on Genesis 22

When I meet new people outside of the church, the question of what I do for a living inevitably comes up. When I answer that question, the response I get in return is, more often than not, something like, “that is very nice, I am not particularly religious.” What I would love to say in return, if I had the courage and the time to unpack what I mean, is “great, I am not really all that religious either!” While this would surely be a surprising response to many, perhaps even to you, classical Christian teaching holds that the Christian faith is not really a religion as much as it is a reversal of all religions. Christian faith and teaching turn the expectations of religion completely on their head, and there are few stories that reveal this reversal with more clarity than the Old Testament lesson for this coming Sunday from Genesis 22.

In this famous story, God tests Abraham by commanding him to take “your Son, your only Son, Isaac, whom you love,” and to sacrifice him. Please do not allow the fact that you might already know the outcome of this story to diminish the shock of this request. This strange God who called Abraham from his life and family is slowly revealing his character to Abraham, and the request that Abraham sacrifice his son is not a good look for this mysterious deity. If this is who the God of Abraham is, he is no different from any and every other god of Abraham’s time, for they all demand child sacrifice. In an incredible display of faith that God’s character is not that of other gods, Abraham insists that “God will provide the lamb for a burnt offering,” as Isaac’s suspicions of what is unfolding grow. And this is indeed what happens: “Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its thorns.”

Here takes place a great reversal of religion. In this moment of miraculous provision, God decisively reveals himself as a God who will not demand the life of children, “your Son, your only Son, whom you love.” Instead, he provides, in that moment, a ram. It is not difficult to read this story in anticipation of God providing His only Son whom he loves.

We naturally expect religious systems to be centered around a few things. By our nature, we believe that religion is all about humanity seeking god(s), humanity suffering for god(s), god(s) receiving gifts from human beings, and human beings struggling to reconcile themselves to god(s). The great reversal of all religious expectations that is Christian faith instead teaches that God seeks us, God suffers for us, God gives Himself as a gift to us, and that God has already accomplished the work of reconciliation we need to approach Him. Consequently, the Christian life is one marked by receptivity to the divine gift of God’s very self to us, a receptivity marked by a posture of gratitude.

Indeed, gratitude is the essential posture of the Christian life, all we can give back to God is a life of thanksgiving (eucharistia) as a display of our receptivity to the divine gift of Jesus Christ, nothing more. As 20th Century theologian Thomas Oden puts it, “Counter to ordinary human expectations, the Christian life consists in taking the risk of allowing ourselves to be endowed with gifts from God.” I would encourage you to listen to the first movement of J.S. Bach’s piece Wir Danken dir Gott, Wir Danken dir (We thank you God, we thank you ), for it captures the theme of gratitude at the heart of the Christian life better than any work of art I know.

Too many Christians miss this good news of Genesis 22 and of Christian life altogether, instead reverting back to our natural religious expectations. How often have you heard this good news of God’s gracious gift to Abraham in Genesis 22, prefiguring God’s giving of Jesus Christ to us, twisted into this strange question, “what is your Isaac?” What are you going to give up to God? What cruel, dangerous talk this is! Sadly, my fellow clergy are the worst offenders I know when interpreting this passage. To turn this passage on its head and ask Christians what they are willing to give to God in response to a story about Abraham ultimately giving nothing, and God providing everything is a strange interpretation indeed. To read this story as a call to human action is to reverse the good news of religion’s great reversal in the God of Abraham whom we know in Jesus Christ, turning good news of God’s provision into a means of manipulation. God, have mercy on us when we do this.

Thanks be to God that, whether we like it or not, teach it or not, believe it or not; God has reversed the ordinary course of religion. He has come to us, given Himself to us, and made the only way to Himself for us. All that you can do in return is worship.