Referenced Messianic Jewish Review Blog

The official blog of the Referenced Messianic Jewish Review. The Referenced Messianic Jewish Review studies the history, composition and theology of the Messianic Jewish movement.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Do You Own Jesus?

I often hear from Messianics about how Jesus was their perfect sacrifice. This past Shabbat, my rabbi made an interesting point regarding sacrifice and why Jesus cannot be a sacrifice. Certainly, there are problems with Jesus being a sacrifice because the sacrificial item is incorrect (human vs. Biblically-approved animals, birds and flour), the sacrificers are incorrect (Romans vs. High Priests), the location is incorrect (away from the Temple vs. at the Temple) and the method is incorrect (cross vs. Biblically-mandated methods such as using a knife). However, my rabbi pointed out one other issue that I had not thought of. The only way you can sacrifice an animal for a sin, such as a lamb, is if you are the owner of the animal. If you did not own the animal, you cannot use it as a sacrifice. The person offering the sacrifice is literally offering something from their personal ownership to for the sacrifice. This ownership is based on laws of commerce. So, if you claim Jesus to be your sacrifice, when did you buy him? How much did you pay for him? Since no one is claiming to have literally owned Jesus by any laws of commerce, he cannot have possibly been a sacrifice.

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