Lesson 2-25, "The Law of Sacrifice"

With this lesson, we continue our discussion of doing hard things for the right reasons. In our ward, I heard a terrific talk on this subject recently. Ostensibly it was a talk about patience, "waiting upon the Lord" and trusting in Him, and the speaker talked about the scripture in Luke 21:19 "in patience possess ye your souls." Ironically, or counterintuitively, we "possess" our souls only by giving them entirely to the Lord. I think sacrifice contains a similar paradox, that when you truly sacrifice in the right spirit and with the right intent, it doesn't feel like giving anything up, because you lose all sense of possessiveness over the thing you are sacrificing.

Which makes me wonder the following--and I'm not being flippant, because this is something I've never really felt like I've been able completely to grasp about sacrifice. The lesson says, "It is hard and may hurt a little, especially if what we are giving up is very dear to us." So doesn't that mean that we're not sufficiently mature, or consecrated yet? Isn't feeling that sacrificing something is hard a sign that we're not quite doing it right?

The lesson also claims that "We might say that it is giving up something good for something better." Honestly that doesn't sound like sacrifice to me, that sounds like a simple tradeoff, or a utility-maximizing rational decision, rather than something that wrenches the guts or truly tests one's faith and commitment.

When people talk about the sacrifice of the pioneers, for instance, they often say that it looks impossibly hard TO US. But surely pioneers thought about it differently from we do—for example their expectations about (say) physical comforts and financial security were quite different from ours, and if you go by the story in the manual about the broken china for the Kirtland temple exterior plaster, those pioneers might have found it hard at first to give up something valuable but they gained perspective or appreciation for the reasons they were being asked to do so or for the growth and transformation that resulted.

Here's something I find interesting. On the surface the law of sacrifice in the time of Adam and the early patriarchs seems totally foreign to the law of sacrifice I am asked to follow. The Mosaic law of sacrifice was frequent/repetitive, ritual, seasonal, public and (let’s be honest) somewhat gory and very physical. In almost total contrast, our latter-day law of sacrifice is episodic (or even one-time), not usually part of formal ritual (except for the sacrament, which is the subject of next week’s Lesson 26), not tied to calendar, personal and private, internal, and needn’t take any particular physical form. Yet in the temple we covenant to obey that same law. The equipment, if you like, to keep that law looks very different. I do not need an altar, a knife, an animal, a basket of grain, or a fire. So although the lesson has a very pronounced "then v. now" structure, I’m actually far more interested in the underlying fundamental integrative principle or law that underlies sacrifice then and sacrifice now. If it’s the same law and God is the same for ALL people in ALL times, then what does that really mean? What does that feel like? What is the spiritual reality that takes physical expression in such vastly different ways in different eras? What is God really asking me, and Adam, to do deep down in our souls?

Of course, this is probably all far too existential and philosophical and high-falutin’ for a 25-minute YW lesson. What they will need is relevance, not my arcane doctrinal treatises. They need a way to make the law of sacrifice not an abstract but something alive and real and immediate, and to apply it to their lives right now, this week. So, take this post for what it is – simply the late night musings on a rich and complicated topic rather than any particular practical direction for your lesson. I’d love to hear your thoughts about what the law of sacrifice means to you, and how you think it can apply to the girls you teach.