Last week, I blogged about The Committed Irishman, a man who had chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice-- his OWN ritualistic human sacrifice-- in 5th century Ireland. Some of you were appalled by my choice of topic, and wondered where I was going with this. Allow me to explain...
I like God Stories. Stories of God doing very cool things. MOST ESPECIALLY, I love redemption stories, where God takes something bad, something hard, or even something evil, and turns it into good. One such story, about The Committed Irishman, I shared already. I quoted it out of the wonderful book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill.
But there is another author I want to introduce to you, that also tells really great God Stories, the late Don Richardson. In 1962, he and his family became missionaries to the Sawi tribe in New Guinea. The Sawi tribe was an anomaly, in that they were both headhunters AND cannibals. Usually you are one or the other, but not both. These guys were overachievers, apparently. Mr. Richardson explained what happened next in this book Peace Child. The Richardson family slowly learned the Sawi language and culture, and eventually started translating the Bible into the Sawi language, culminating in the story of Jesus.
But then they hit a snag. The worst of all snags, actually. They got to the part of the story where Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Sawi got all excited, because to them, JUDAS WAS THE HERO. Wait, what??? In the Sawi culture, the highest virtue was treachery. And the ultimate example- the gold standard- was called "fattening a friendship." That was where you would make friends with someone long-term-- over years even-- and then murder them and eat them...
How do you even respond to this? Is it perpetual Opposite Day? Is this Calvinball, where the rules are made up on the fly? It's game over, right? Absolutely hopeless talking to these people because they couldn't possibly understand where you are coming from...
The Richardson's were in despair and thoroughly stumped when they noticed that the tribes were perpetually at war with each other, and village against village. They asked their friends how the fighting is stopped, and apparently "kill all of them?" wasn't the answer they were hoping for. Finally one of their friends explained that you would need a Peace Child. That was where a child from one village, ideally the Chief's son, would be sent to the other village or other tribe to BECOME a member of that other tribe. As long as the child lived, the two sides would be at peace. "But what if someone fattened the friendship with the Peace Child?" the missionaries asked. Universal REVULSION at the question. Absolute disgust. The worst thing possible in their universe. How could one DO such a thing?
So the Richardson family told the Story of Jesus a new way. A culturally appropriate way. Let me paraphrase here:
"The Creator God of the Universe was at war with the tribes of men. Out of his love for them, he sent his only son, Jesus, as a Peace Child, whom they betrayed and murdered..."
And they got it. They joyfully got it, because they finally understood, and embraced God's Peace Child. They realized they didn't have to give their children to the other tribes any more as a Peace Child, because God had already done it for them!
Don Richardson is a big fan of Redemptive Analogies, and wrote a whole book full of them, called Eternity in their Hearts. It is one of my very favorite Christian Books! In the first chapter, he tells the true story of a great plague in Athens in the 6th century BC. People are dying, sacrifices are offered to hundreds of gods, and nothing makes a bit of difference. Finally the oracle tells the Athenian leadership to summon the great philosopher Epimonides from Crete, who will surely know what to do.
Epimonides arrives and takes stock of the situation, surmising that there must be some unknown god who was offended by the king's actions (not explained in detail) and had yet to be appeased. He proposed a simple test. Pen up two choice flocks of sheep, one black and one white, and keep them all night without eating. In the morning, let them loose. If they start eating, never mind then. It was a stupid idea anyway. BUT... if they lay down without eating, this will be the sign from this offended deity that he (she?) will receive them as a sacrifice. So this is what they did. The sheep lay down without eating, and so they built alters for the sacrifices, all over Mars Hill. When asked which deity to dedicate the alters to prior to the sacrifices, Epimonides cautions them to not insult the god even further by attempting to name him. Instead, dedicate the alters to "THE UNKNOWN GOD." And so they did. The sheep who refused to graze were sacrificed to The Unknown God, and the plague was stopped. Epimonides returned to Crete. Eventually, money was set aside in the city budget to keep one of the alters in good repair and the history of their deliverance on record.
Centuries pass, and the apostle Paul finds himself killing time in Athens. Acts 17 tells us that he was debating with the local philosophers, who said things like "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." But no, actually! Paul explains that while he was taking in the sighs of the Acropolis, he found that one remaining alter to "The Unknown God." The alter to the god who had saved Athens from the plague. The god that already showed his love for them. The god they had worshiped in ignorance for the past 500 years! NOT A FOREIGN GOD AT ALL...
"Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found and alter with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you."
People have needs. Health. Healing. To be loved. To be cared for. To be SEEN. Paul was pointing out, by taking them back to their own history, that this God who loved them had already been working in their lives. Wasn't it time they got to know Him better? Got to know what He was all about? I love that. Later in the New Testament letter to Titus, Paul actually QUOTES the famous Epimonides, in Titus 1:12 saying:
"Even as one of their own prophets has said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.' This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply..."
How cool is that? Quoting an ancient philosopher (and foreigner) whose handiwork he had used as a proof text? I love it! So now let me Connect The Dots. Let me explain why I love these stories. Each of these are redemptive analogies.
The book Peace Child described how the Sawi tribe came to realize that they no longer had to give up their children to the other tribes, permanently, in order to make peace. Instead, the Creator God of the Universe had already done that for them. He had given up HIS only son, Jesus, as the ultimate Peace Child, to end the perpetual war.
The book Eternity in Their Hearts describes how the Athenians learned that the unknown god no longer had to be appeased with the sacrifice of sheep. Because his OWN son, Jesus, had already been offered up-- once for all.
And in the book How the Irish Saved Civilization, Saint Patrick explains to the Irish that this ritualistic self-sacrifice... this WILLING OFFERING OF ONE'S SELF to be sacrificed, was no longer necessary. Jesus already did that. It was over. It was done. They didn't have to do this anymore to appease the gods, because God had already taken care of it. It was finally over.
They got it.
You can find each of these books on Amazon, and I hope you read them!
❤️
You know I suddenly figured out a personal truth. Throughout my life I have known many men (and women) who claim to be Christians. Very few of them actually knew God.
Some did. My adoptive father was one such man. Another was my best friend Wolf. Another is a man who never wavered in his friendship toward me even though the clouds were somewhat stormy around me. These persons have a character that reflected the savior they know (knew).
I've marveled over these individuals many times because I haven't chosen to be particularly religious in my life but for the most part, neither are they. They simply chose to take a stand on a belief and saw past the religion…