June 30 Lectionary # 380. The Akedah: test, temptation or blind obedience?

Scripture: Lectionary 380. Genesis 22:1-19 Psalm 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9.
Matthew 9:1-18.

Akedah is the Hebrew word that is key to this passage in Genesis which is
one of the most difficult for us to interpret and understand. Anyone who
has lost a son or a daughter struggles with this passage if they are
familiar with Genesis. It is undoubtedly, one of the most dramatic pieces
in biblical literature. Does it indicate that child sacrifice was current
during the time of Abraham? Or is this a test, a temptation, or a mental
problem that tortures the father of our faith, Abraham? Biblical texts are
able to be interpreted in many ways and often at the mercy of the one
interpreting them.

The passage does test the limits of human understanding of God who is our
Creator, our friend, and the one who also brings us home to himself. The
passage is an outrageous one for God has promised progeny to Abraham
through Isaac his only son. How can God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son?
Literary interpreters make a point of saying this is ONLY a test, but is
it? The context seems to present a real situation for Abraham which is
the tenth that God offers to see how strong Abraham's faith is, but does it
not go beyond what is demanded of God in the commandments that stress life
and proper behavior. Above all, one is not to kill and sacrificing a child
is an abominable ritual that today is definitely outlawed and is totally
crazy. From a moral point of view it is never to be done or thought about
in a civilized world.

The rabbinic tradition does help the reader to work through to an
understanding of the event, but this is a spiritual interpretation. We too
know the whole story and its outcome and tend then to spiritualize it also
as do the rabbis. But factually it is too much for the human mind to
understand how a God who is all merciful and loving could put such an idea
into a servant of God named Abraham. True, we are relieved when God does
come through but the agony of Abraham and the willingness of Isaac to
accept this is beyond human comprehension. Our conscience would never
permit us to offer such a sacrifice over another's life and over one's
child who is so deeply loved and protected by Abraham and Sarah.

Blind obedience is not a good way to live one's life nor a good way to make
our decisions when it comes to issues that deal with the treating of human
life especially the life dear to us and to others. Is this composition
more the creation of the human author who helps or thinks that he helps us
to make such an outrageous decision as to sacrifice to God a precious gift
of God, and the most precious of gifts, an only child?

Abraham answers with the powerful expression "HINENI" which means "here I
am" and we can add, "to do your will."
It is the same type of a response Mary gave but she was able to dialog
directly with God's messenger in giving her HENENI. We Christians
spiritualize this incident in the life of Abraham and compare it to Jesus
carrying his own Cross to Calvary where his sacrifice is salvific, but the
test or temptation or mental aberration of Abraham's understanding is quite
different and involves a paradox of God's promise through Isaac's life and
now here the demand that he be sacrificed. Humanly speaking it is too much
to endure. So we struggle with it and try to make it spiritual or say that
it is ONLY a test. Is it?

One is helped by reading about this from the Jewish Study Bible and from
the encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion which says, " The "Akedah" has
given to the Jewish people the ideals of unquestioning acceptance of the
Divine command and of Martyrdom as the supreme expression of the
Sanctification of God's name (kiddush ha-Shem). Rabbi Abbahu states at the
beginning of the New Year and the sounding of the shophar: "The Holy One,
blessed be He, said, 'Sound the ram's horn before me that I may remember in
your favor the binding of Isaac the son of Abraham, and I will account to
you as though you had bound yourselves before me." (R.H.16a).

This reading requires a lot of soul-searching and even after reading many
interpretations it is still a troubling passage. It is claimed to be
divinely inspired by both Jews and Christians but it does remain a paradox
and a test for all who read it. We strive to fathom it as we push reason
and faith together ("Fides quarens intellectum). It does push our human
reasoning to its limits and we will continue to struggle with it trying to
find our own way of making sense out of it. Amen.