March 27, 2023

Mariotto Albertinelli - The Sacrifice of Cain and Abel (c. 1510)

 

Jeremiah 24: 1-3

1 After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. ² One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. ³ And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life happened when I was in grad school at Regent College. I was taking an “Arts and Theology” class where we looked at the interplay between our creative abilities and living out our faith in Jesus Christ. The assignments for the class included actually doing some art of our own and presenting it to the class on a final retreat weekend at the professor’s house out on Galiano Island. I do not remember much of the various art projects we all brought forward, including my own. I think I wrote a short story. But I do remember one of the other art projects with almost perfect clarity.

One of the students, her name was Junko, asked us to meet her on the beach at sundown. When we all arrived, she asked us to gather around a fire as the sun began to set. At that point she revealed a painting which she had created as her class project, the first one she had ever painted in her life. It was beautiful, an abstract work that reminded me of autumn leaves in bright oranges, reds and yellows. We all praised her work and confessed amazement that this was her first attempt at painting. In response she began to cry a little and said in a broken voice, “When I came to Regent, I promised God I would give Him my best, I would give him the first fruits of all my labour, like those who brought the first fruits of the harvest to the Temple. I’m here to keep that promise.” Then, with tears in her eyes, she threw the painting into the fire. We stood in silence, many of us with tears in our own eyes, watching the painting burn and we understood what it means to offer the first fruits of our life.

When Jeremiah saw the vision of the figs, he was looking at the offerings of the first fruits brought to the temple. “…the Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord.” And when the vision further tells us that one basket was full of the “first-ripe figs,” and the other had “very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten,” we know that something is wrong. One offering was indeed the proper offering, the best figs that first ripened in the harvest, and the other was an offense, for they were literally rotten, the last to be taken from the field. Jeremiah explains that it is those who have been sent into exile that will be regarded by God as an offering of first fruits, like the good figs, and will one day return as his new people. But he also then explains that new puppet king and his court, the stooges of the Babylonians and Egyptians, are like bringing a rotten offering to the Lord, and they will face further destruction.

That history aside, the offering of first fruits was meant to remind Israel of the hesed love of God which brought them into the land of promise, and the first fruits – the best fruits – should be offered because God was worthy of the best. You bring the best of the harvest before him because you not only recognized that he had graciously brought the people out of bondage and into the promised land, but because you have experienced the goodness of God: “you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you.” (Deut. 26:11) When Junko burned her painting, she offered up the best of herself because she recognized God’s goodness to her in her life. It was the love she had for her God that led her to give him such a precious gift of the first painting she had created, and indeed one that was one of the best parts of herself.

In Lent we are preparing to participate, once again, in the great drama of the death and resurrection of Jesus. A story of New Exodus, and a New Promised land in Christ. And this time it is Christ who makes an offering for all, who becomes the first fruits from among the dead for our sake. The God who brough Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised land, now in Jesus Christ, has created a new humanity, who are the first fruits of his sacrifice. What of our life, then, is worthy to be offered in response to that love? What can we offer to honor that sacrifice where God the Son empties himself of the glory and communion of eternity to die and rise again as one of us? What in your life would you not offer up as the first fruits of such great love? What would you offer to express your love for him who loved you first? Perhaps Isaac Watts answered best:

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

 

- The Rev. Br. Jason Carroll