Reflexive Sacrifice

I’m guessing many of society’s problems with violence can be traced to the lack of clarity with the English word “sacrifice.” Unfortunately, it comes packaged with ambiguity. As a verb, it can be non-reflexive, something done to someone (Ex: the girl is thrown into the volcano) or as reflexive, something one chooses to do (Ex: the girl jumps down into the volcano voluntarily to save someone).

I hope you are connecting the dots…
Reflexive verb gods make reflexive verb followers. Non-reflexive verb gods make non-reflexive verb followers.

If we had got this one thing right in the beginning maybe we wouldn’t have left a trail of violence (trail of tears?) behind us. Or maybe we wouldn’t still be pursuing violence in our politics, political, or policing systems now. Share the news far and wide: Jesus didn’t have to be a victim and therefore neither does anyone else.

-Richard Cocks has some interesting stuff to say along all these lines.