Jesus was not sacrificed to any god - pagan or otherwise!...

We need to get this straight – Jesus was not sacrificed, not even executed (because that implies a crime committed), but used as a ransom to free Barabbas and then murdered!

Jesus: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many!" Mark 10:45

Let's say someone is taken hostage and a ransom is demanded for his release. If the ransom given-in-exchange is a person rather than money, and the person, the ransom, is then murdered can you possibly call that a sacrifice? In the case of Jesus certainly a self-sacrifice as He said, "Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends!" John 15:13

And as Paul re-iterated, "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" Romans 5:7, 8

And if you recall, this is exactly what happened to Barabbas...

"But the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus put to death.

“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.

“Barabbas,” they replied.

“What then should I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked.

They all answered, “Crucify Him!”

“Why?” asked Pilate. “What evil has He done?”

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!”

When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but that instead a riot was breaking out, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “You bear the responsibility.”

All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

So Pilate released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed Him over to be crucified." Matthew 27: 20–26

Jesus was obviously the Ransom in this transaction. And Barabbas (representing us) of course was the one held hostage and set free in exchange for the Ransom Jesus. That's how it went down and it was recorded in all four of the Gospels! The fact that Jesus was thereafter murdered by crucifixion does not mean he was sacrificed on some kind of an altar to a god! Tell me, do we really want a god whose rage against us would be appeased by the sacrifice of his son? The prototype we are expected to undersign is that Abraham heard a voice in his head that he took to be God demanding that Abraham prove his loyalty by sacrificing or killing his own son! What on earth is wrong with the churches that they would preach this as some exemplary behaviour of Abraham!? Without question today, if someone did this and made the claim that they heard God tell them to murder their son to prove loyalty, they would be locked up either in prison or in an insane asylum! What a disgrace to the true Heavenly Father of Jesus who, exactly like Jesus, is all Love, Grace, Mercy, Compassion and Forgiveness! Have we not turned away from Jesus in buying into this worst-of-all-lies fed to us over the centuries by organizational Christianity!? And honestly, how stupid and sheepish are we for going along with this and not pushing back against the church 'authorities' or against even the claim that we need to accept such atrocity because it is "written in the Word of God"'!? Especially as Christians for whom the only true Word of God without substitute is Jesus and His resurrected Spirit present and living within our hearts and minds!

The most important takeaway from this post it is this - there was indeed a sacrifice, Jesus gave Himself, sacrificed His life to free us! Free us from who, God? Well what did Jesus say? - "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the Shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock. The man runs away because he is a hired servant and is unconcerned for the sheep!" John 10:11-13

Who does Jesus rescue us from - God? Is the 'wolf' a metaphor for God or for Satan? Was Barabbas rescued from God? Are Rome and Pontius Pilate good representations of God when the Patron of Rome was Satan or 'Samael'!? Jesus sacrificed Himself to rescue us from Satan who has legitimate claims over us for our crimes, for our dealings with him, for whenever and however we did Satan's work for profit or gain! Yes, Jesus cancelled our debts - all of the claims Satan had against us. Jesus gave Himself as THE RANSOM to free us from possession and enslavement to Satan that resulted from our dealings with him whether or not we were even aware of such dealings! And let us also understand that the Roman Empire that held Barabbas prisoner awaiting execution, is the same Empire that exists today as the British and now American Empires. The genealogy of political power here on Earth is no fiction and is easily traceable to ancient times by anyone who cares enough to research. The 'projection of power' across the Earth is no new phenomena and can be traced back long before even the British or Roman empires. Jesus challenged those powers and ultimately defeated them by His Ransom, His self-sacrifice, His Martyrdom! Jesus was murdered precisely because He would not bend the knee to Satan but remained loyal to His Heavenly Father. This was as intolerable then as it is today as we have clearly seen over the past five years! If we do not understand this, we understand nothing about Jesus, nothing about the powers that have ruled supreme over Earth, powers that have zero tolerance for any challenge to their authority especially by One claiming to be King and in the service of His Heavenly Father who is above all powers and above the Roman powers that ruled supreme when Jesus lived on Earth. These are the powers that Jesus defeated by His Ransom, by His death and the Resurrection that proved defeat, not only of Earthly powers but of death itself! For those ignorant of anything beyond the life of the body, the death of the body is the end. And when I say 'ignorant' I mean 'ignoring' because everyone knows the reality of God their Maker. At the point of imminent death, everyone believes in and calls upon the name of the Lord!

In closing, we need to stop being suckered back into exactly what Jesus lived and died to change! Jesus gave His Life to rescue us from Satan but He also came to correct the fallacies concerning His Father and to put an end to any further defamation of His Father who is exactly as the Son Jesus is as He told Philip, "I have been with you all this time Philip, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father!" John 14:9

Yes we have a lot to unlearn and re-learn - as Bob Dylan sang - 🎶 Don't want to learn from nobody, what I gotta unlearn 🎶 - if we are going to be able to follow Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, Rescuer and Good Shepherd King going forward!