The Altar
The patriarch Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac, his son. It was God’s command: “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there” (Gen 22:2). There was, of course, an altar involved. “When they came to the place which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar” (Gen 22:9).
Isaac was not killed. At just the right moment, the angel prevented it: “Abraham! .... Do not lay your hand on the boy … for now I know that you fear God” (Gen 22:11-12). It’s a haunting, mysterious story.
All this happened in Moriah ― where the mountain was. It was this same mountain that, later, had the Jerusalem Temple constructed upon it. “Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah” (2 Chr 3:1). This was where Israel’s massive bronze-grated altar rested. The spot was chosen precisely because of Abraham and Isaac.
Of course, the Israelites were not sacrificing their sons and daughters on their Temple altar. The moment Abraham set down his knife, he found a ram to offer instead of Isaac (Gen 22:13). Likewise, in the Temple, for hundreds of years, oxen, goats, and sheep were sacrificed.
What use are these altar offerings? “I have no need of a bull” God says in the Psalms, “or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills…. The world is mine” (Ps 50:8-10, 12). “What, to me, is the multitude of your sacrifices” (Is 1:11)?
It was never the animals that mattered most. At bottom, it was always about Abraham. Abraham was willing to place in God’s hands that which was most dear to him ― “[his] son, [his] only son, whom [he] loved” (Gen 22:2). This mattered. This was why the Israelites built the Temple at the place Abraham nearly lost his son. They wanted to somehow channel the spirit of his act. They wanted to present upon their altar, not so much the blood of goats, but somehow, mystically, Abraham’s desire to give God even that which would be most painful to give. They wanted to make Abraham’s desire their own desire, even if all they could give was an ox or a lamb — items valuable in their culture.1
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The Samaritans do not believe Mount Moriah is in Jerusalem. They believe Isaac’s near sacrifice took place on Mount Gerizim in the north. They built their own temple and altar there. When Jesus went to Mount Gerizim, he spoke about the dispute: “Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (Jn 4:21).
There is a connection between Jesus and Isaac. If you read the story closely, you’ll notice that it was Isaac who carried the wood up the mountain (Gen 22:11-12). It was the same with Jesus who “went out, bearing his own cross” (Jn 19:17). Like Isaac, Jesus carried the wood for the altar he was to be killed upon. For that is what the wood of the Cross was ― an altar. Jesus finished the sacrifice Abraham and Isaac started. “It is finished,” Jesus said, as he breathed his last (Jn 19:30).
The Israelites understood the altar of the Jerusalem Temple to be the place where the act of Abraham’s love and his trust in God were somehow channeled. It was where his willingness to sacrifice even what he most loved was re-presented. It is the same with the altars in Christian churches. They are the place where, not Abraham’s, but Jesus’s sacrifice is made present again. It is where the Crucifixion is channeled.
We do not need to be in Jerusalem, or on Mount Gerizim. This mystery is now bound neither to “this mountain nor [to] Jerusalem.” “Moriah” is everywhere. The Cross is everywhere.
There is a reason Christians bow to the altar when they pass by. No small mystery occurs upon it. Writing to the Church at Corinth, Saint Paul said “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you show the Lord’s death” (1 Cor 11:26).2 We see shown upon the altar the sacrifice not of Abraham’s son, but God’s. The altar is the place where the Lord’s death is shown. Indeed, the altar is nothing less than the Cross.
See Robert Hayward, Divine Name and Presence: The Memra (Totowa, NJ: Allanheld, Osmund, 1981), 96-106.
Most modern English translations have “proclaim the Lord’s death.”