First Sunday in Lent February 17-18, 2024
“One and Only” Genesis 22:1-18
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Sometimes reading the last chapter of your novel, first, is the wrong thing to do. Sure, you know how the story ends but it takes away the suspense and the surprise.
You know this story about Abraham and his son, Isaac. You heard it and you know that all’s well that ends well. But there is more to this story than the ending. Listen to it. “When they came to the place on which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’…Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.” (Genesis 22:9-13)
Whew!! But when you read the entire story, before we get to the good ending, it is a horrid story. God tells him, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” (Genesis 22:1-2)
Some of you have kids – you’re not going to do that. Even when my dad said to us kids when we were making the annual vacation trip unbearable, “If I have to stop this car, you’re in trouble.” – even then, he wasn’t going to do that. I don’t think!!
Abraham had another son, Ishmael. He had this child through a slave. But he had been told that this wasn’t the child of the promise. He had told Abraham that He was going to make his name great, that God was going to give him as many descendants as stars in the sky. All nations would be blessed through him.
Isaac was the child of a miracle. Abraham 100 years old. Sarah 90 years old. Well past the natural ability to have children. But God did a miracle. What surprise. What laughter. This was Isaac!! This was “your son, your only son Isaac, the son whom you love.”
Don’t fall in love with this story. It is meant to be repulsive. It is meant to shock you.
You know another story about another “One and Only”. I’m glad you do. I’m glad someone told you of it. You know the ending for that One and Only. “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb…” Two men, in clothes that gleamed like lightning said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead. He is not here; he has risen.” (See Luke 24:1-5) Aah – the resurrection of Jesus.
Good ending. Perfect ending. But that isn’t the whole story. I love seeing our church full on Easter. But those who come only on that day don’t get to read the whole book, they have skipped to the last chapter.
The story about the “One and Only” has a great deal of sadness to it. “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and offer him on a mountain of which I will tell you.” It truly is a horrid story. It will shock you. It is an account that is repulsive. But that story isn’t completed with Isaac; it reaches its fullness in Jesus.
Isaac carried the wood on which he would be sacrificed. Jesus carried His own cross. The cross beam was laid upon His shoulders. This One and Only – Jesus – knew about the mountain He would climb. It was called the “Place of the Skull”. The previous day Jesus said, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” (Matthew 26:39) When He was on the cross He moans, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Isaiah 53, the prophecy about Jesus who would receive our sins says, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)
When Abraham, the father, raised the knife to kill Isaac, God held his hand back. A ram was caught in the thicket and he offered it instead of his son. But this time, on Good Friday, for the One and Only, the very Son of God, nobody stopped the death. Why? A sacrifice had to be made. A death had to occur. “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) had to die. Paul says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II Corinthians 5:21)
There is no one like Jesus. He is unique. From His birth by a virgin mother, to an atoning death, to a conquering resurrection, everything about Him is unique. Look at these words which tell us that Jesus is not like any other:
- This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (I John 4:9-10)
- Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
- God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)
- What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things. (Romans 8:31-32)
When Isaac is mentioned as the one and only, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and sacrifice him…” we are to read that story with shock. Who would do such a thing? When Jesus is mentioned as the One and Only, we are called to an amazement that this Divine man has the name that is above all names.
But there is another one and only. It’s you. It’s me. But it’s not because of us but because of Him. He values each person personally. He calls each person individually. He has good plans for each person, one by one. Jesus said, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? (Editor’s note – that was before inflation!!) Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7) This morning I counted the hairs on my head. I have 29. But He knew that before I did.
One and only. Thinking that God cares about our individual lives takes faith. Do you know that Abraham in his obedience to God’s command to sacrifice Isaac had faith that God would take care of his one and only, his dear son? In Genesis 22:5 we read, “Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.’” He didn’t say, “I’m going to come back to you.” No, “I and the boy will come back to you.” In Hebrews 11 the writer says this about this incident, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead.” (Verses 17-19)
Faith in our God is living and lively, daring and confident. When God provided a substitute for Isaac, Abraham called that mountain, “The Lord will provide.” (Genesis 22:14) On that day God provided what was needed for Abraham and his son. In Jesus we have our needs met because He is God’s One and Only. And we with bold faith live knowing God will provide for us because He treats us as His one and only. Amen!!
