When Abraham walked up the mountain ready to sacrifice, from the other side of the mountain the Lord sent up provision. It is clear that the God of promises is ever ready to greet our sacrifice with his provision. Out of Abraham’s willingness to part with what was most precious to him came the Lord’s favour: generational blessings and unimaginable goodness.

There is often a temptation to hold tighter to the promise than to the Promise Keeper. To Abraham, Isaac was more than a son, he was the fulfilment of a promise, and the answer to a prayer made decades before. Isaac was the evidence of the Lord’s faithfulness. To give him up, was to give up all this. Abraham’s conviction of God’s goodness was so strong, that he was certain that his faith could handle this sacrifice. For, he was in relationship with the Promise Keeper, not the Promise.

We know that to be godly is to know sacrifice, for even God sent his son to be sacrificed. Jesus chose it and became the sacrifice which bought our freedom. The power of the resurrection poured out as a result of his willing sacrifice.

Today’s Gospel proclamation shows that the ultimate sacrifice was indeed a person. After Jesus revealed his glory to the three disciples, it says “they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.” True relationship with Christ must convince and convict us that he alone is enough, that there is only room for One upon the throne, and that he is Sovereign Lord. True relationship with Jesus must lead to a heart that sacrifices not because it has to, but because it longs to. For as the disciples realised, there is truly none but Jesus.

Every sacrifice we make is a declaration that Jesus is worthy of all. The Psalmist writes, “To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the Lord.”

Sacrifice shifts our focus to the Promise Keeper. With everything we offer, we are proclaiming ‘Lord all I have is yours, because you alone are my everything’. We can then say: ‘O take the whole world, but give me Jesus, though none go with me, I still will follow’.

What will be our sacrifice? What will we place on the altar today? What will we carry up the mountain?

PRAYER: Abba Father, grant me the grace to hear and respond to your voice. Amen.