Sacrifice

It is loud. It is busy. Blood, warm and fresh, pools on the ground around bare feet. Children push to the front, standing on the fence, straining to get a better view of the slaughtering. The men's hands move methodically, quickly stripping each animal of its hide before moving on. The bull chewing cud in the corner is next, restrained with ropes its life is brought to an end. Its blood poured out. This is the courtyard of the mosque, the sacrifices of the Muslim holiday Idul Adha. It is how Muslim's remember Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son, Ishmael (not biblically accurate).

Seeing the sacrifices in the courtyard of the masque for Idul Adha made me think about the sacrifices in the OT temple. I've always had this picture in my mind of the OT temple being sort of like St Paul's Cathedral in London -- big, open, clean, quiet, beautiful. I mean after all, the supplies used to build the temple were cedar, pine, bronze, and gold. Carvings and engravings of cherubim, palm trees, open flowers, lions, and wreaths decorated the walls and doors. There were even pillars with tops shaped like lilies surrounded by pomegranates. Everything was made of gold: sprinkling bowls, wick trimmers, lamps, tongs . . . everything (1 Kings 5-7). However, I think the temple was much more like the mosque I visited for Idul Adha and much less like St Paul's Cathedral. 

At Idul Adha it took at least half a dozen men to hold the ropes for a single bull to be slaughtered. On the day Solomon dedicated the temple there were twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats sacrificed as fellowship offerings (1 Kings 8:62)! It must have taken hundreds of men slaughtering from sunrise to sunset to accomplish the offerings that day. The temple must have been a hoppin' place with all the sacrifices made on a daily basis. It must have been loud and dirty. With animal sacrifices there would have been no way to avoid the stench of blood and dung.  Blood -- it must have been everywhere! In the tabernacle, the temple's precursor, blood was sprinkled on the sides of the altar, blood was sprinkled in front of the curtain, blood was put on the horns of the altar, and blood was poured out at the base of the altar (Leviticus 3-7). When Aaron and his sons were ordained they had blood put on their ear lobes, thumbs, big toes, and garments (Leviticus 8). So much for the starched white robes of holiness I imagined!

Women, in the same courtyard as slaughtering were cutting up the meat to sell or give to the needy. Really sanitary right? 

While the courtyard of the OT temple may have been messy, there was a place set apart from the chaos and the noise. This place was known as the Inner Sanctuary or Holy of Holies. There the Ark of the Covenant was kept and only the high priests entered once a year (Hebrews 9:7).  I saw this idea at the mosque as well. Through a doorway from the courtyard was a place set aside for prayer, a place of cleanliness, quietness, and beauty. 

A sacrifice is a chilling event to watch. What moves and cries out in one moment has no breath in the next. After visiting the mosque at Idul Adha, I can no longer read the scriptures about sacrifices the same way. A sacrifice is messy, awful, and such a high, high payment. One life given for another. Christ came to be a sacrifice, my sacrifice. Hebrews 10:10 says, "We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Willingly, out of love for us, Christ suffered the brutality of crucifixion. He endured a flogging so severe he medically should have been at the point of collapse or death. He was then forced to carry his own cross and was nailed to it until death. This sacrifice was horrific and bloody. 

Today is Thanksgiving and I am first of all thankful for Christ's sacrifice on my behalf. The animal sacrifices were never designed to remove sin, but rather to remind us of our sin and the debt we owe (Hebrews 10:3-4). My sin, offensive to a righteous God, had payment. It was not a clean or quick payment, it was barbarous. His life for my life. His breath for my breath. His blood for my freedom. I am SO thankful. I owe him EVERYTHING! I needed this reminder today, to be once again awakened to just how great a price Christ paid for me. 

Lord, help me grasp just how much you have done for me. Make the gravity of Christ's sacrifice fresh in my mind. Do not let me become accustomed to it. Do not let me take it for granted. Remind me oh Lord, that you took my place that it may spur me on to live radically for you. Amen.

Below are some pictures of more localized cultural customs being mixed in with Idul Adha:

Bare feet . . . Indonesia.

We talked with these girls for an hour or more.

Mountain of food, given to the poor

Supposedly, these were baskets full of sticks that symbolized fertility or something...?

Everyone racing to get their stick of fertility, haha, I really don't know what the sticks were for but everyone wanted one!

Batavia

Wow this post is a long time in coming. Back in September, at least I think that is when it was, I took a trip into Jakarta to tour the old city, Batavia. Through out history Jakarta has been under the control of various colonies and had many names. During the time Jakarta was under the Dutch colonial empire it was known as Batavia. I believe today when someone refers to Batavia they are specifically referring to a portion of Jakarta surrounding the former city hall pictured above. While my friends and I were there with a national friend, a true Indonesian who could tell us the history, we were immediately swept up by a "tour guide." 

Right from the get go I could tell this would be no ordinary tour and was I ever right! I mean this was my first tour where I was referred to as "my sister." His name was Jansen. We went from one room to the next. He was a fireball of energy. He sang, he saluted, he squatted, he jumped, he mimicked a mosquito, there was nothing Jansen would not do. His dramatic expression was certainly helpful as his accent was thick. For most of the tour I felt as if we were playing an intense game of charades. Every now and then a word would pop out that I understood like, "Obama," or "superhero," or "Madonna." In fact, I am not even sure how much of the tour was about Batavia . . . anyways, I found myself always staring intently at Jansen trying desperately to make sense of what he was saying. Thats when it happened. He called me a tiger! I know right?!? He said my eyes were intense and I could control others with them. Oh my. I began to feel as if maybe this was not a real tour, especially with all the glances we were getting from other people. Finally, after what seemed like an hour our "tour," or rather game of charades, came to an end. Of course, we paid Jansen, but found out later there are no tours for the city hall. That's Indonesia for you :) 

At the end of our tour Jansen took us to where one of his friends was making traditional puppets. If I had written this post sooner I might have remembered something about the puppets, but I don't. I do know that they are quite time consuming to make and the detail on them is amazing. You can shine a light behind them and have a puppet show on the wall. The story that goes with the puppets is some how connected with Hinduism, but I don't remember the details. 

In addition to looking through the puppet museum and the former city hall we went to lunch at Cafe Batvia. So now I can say that I have done something that was in a travel book! I tried my first gado-gado which is kind of like an Indonesian salad. It consists of boiled vegetables served with a peanut sauce. Afterwards, we went to see the Monas which is Indonesia's national monument. It was built shortly after Indonesia obtained independence as a symbol their fight for freedom. Unfortunately, it was closed and we were unable to climb to the top. 

My day in Batavia was fun. It was so different touring an Indonesian museum. There were ropes, but no one paid heed to them, I mean Jansen even started to take apart one of the bed frames!! There were no camera signs, but everyone was taking pictures. I learned that you pay someone to help you park or to pull out into traffic. Things here just constantly amaze me. I'm certainly having an adventure!

Do you like how "secure" this is? Haha.

Bikes for rent, with matching hats!

A puppet made from the wrong material will eventually bend.

Beautiful details

Borobudur

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to see the sunrise from the top of one of Indonesia's ancient temples, Borobudur. The 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple, located in Central Java, is Indonesia's most visited tourist attraction. As I wandered around Borobudur's walkways, I was amazed at the intricate wall carvings. I realized this temple had been a place of worship for an untold number of people. A place of pilgrimage and spiritual significance. Being a polytheistic religion, Buddhists worship numerous gods. Looking at the 500+ Buddha statues on Borobudur, I thought how difficult it must be to have so many gods. I found myself thankful I worship only one god . . . or do I?