Thanksgiving and Sacrifice

I have been meditating on a number of passages in the Bible which associate thanksgiving with sacrifice. For example, Psalm 50:14 implores us to: ‘Offer to God the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the most high’. In Psalm 107:22 it states, ‘and let them sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving and rehearse his deeds with shouts of joy and singing’. Then again in Psalm 116:17 the psalmist proclaims, ‘I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord.’

But what does this association between thanksgiving and sacrifice imply, as initially it seems like rather an odd pairing? At first blush, thanking God is not a sacrifice at all but rather simply words of gratitude born from a spiritual disposition of gratitude. Moreover, sacrifice implies a cost or a giving-up of something precious to us; whereas thankfulness – for the gifts and blessings that God gives us – surely costs us nothing.

Then as I was meditating further on these thoughts and questions and kept returning to scripture, it occurred to me that hidden within them is a much deeper truth which does indeed associate inextricably and wonderfully thanksgiving and sacrifice. Namely, that if we thank God for everything good, which of course we must – as God is the origin of all that is valuable, true, beautiful, loving, and joyful – then we can longer put ourselves centre-stage. Not putting ourselves centre-stage, though, is most profoundly the ultimate sacrifice from our perspective, as we acknowledge that the credit for anything good cannot stop with us, but instead it must only stop with God our loving creator. In short, therefore, the more we thank God the more we are at the same time invited to sacrifice ourselves.

Then, as I prayed in this new light I began to see and experience Jesus’ promise in John 12:24-25 – that if I die to myself I will produce many seeds and much harvest! This very fruitful death occurs because offering to God the sacrifices of thanksgiving does not feel like a crushing death of humiliation. It is rather a liberating death, which helps me look outwards to my dependence on the abundantly giving and secure arms of God, and not looking inwards to the fear and anxiety of my so-called self-reliance.

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