ending up required primarily of Jesus and later the underclass, is just not
glorious enough for, hopeful enough for, or even befitting the marvelous
creation that we are all a part of. To those who cling to Anselm’s understanding,
I would say, as J. B. Phillips wrote many years ago, “Your God is too small.”
Far too many evils have been committed in history under the manipulative
cry of “sacrifice,” usually violent and necessary sacrifice for an always “noble”
cause. (Just go to any Veterans Day parade and you’ll see that sacrifice unites
both liberals and conservatives rather quickly.) But I believe Jesus utterly
undoes the very notion of sacrificial requirements for God to love us—first in
himself, and then in all of us. “Go, learn the meaning of the words, what I want
is mercy, not sacrifice!” Jesus said throughout the Gospels (Matthew 9:13, 12:7).
He was quoting the prophet Hosea, who further added, “I want knowledge of
God, not your holocausts” (6:6). Notions of sacrifice keep us in the retributive
justice framework and outside of the essential Gospel of grace and undeserved
love. This is major for understanding the Gospel. French philosopher and
literary critic René Girard (1923–2015) goes to great length to demonstrate that
Jesus puts to an end all notions of sacrificial religion, which only maintain our
quid pro quo worldviews.*2 I highly recommend him.