A long, long time ago there was a fellow named Abram who lived with his clan by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.  . . . But then, one day Abram encountered the One, True God . . . and was captivated by His love.  And so, Abram made a covenant with the One, True God in which God gave him a new name -- God called him Abraham -- . . . and Abraham surrendered himself to God entirely; . . . Abraham surrendered himself to go wherever God should bring him.  And so, Abraham dwelt as a sojourner among the peoples of the world; . . . Abraham and all his household lived the uncomplicated life of herdsmen.  They lived simply so that Abraham might be obedient to his Lord and his God.  . . . But one day the Lord God tested Abraham’s surrender -- the Lord God tested Abraham’s love.  And today you have heard the account of that testing.

    One day the Lord God says to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering [to Me].”  The Lord God asks Abraham to seal his love for God with an offering of blood; . . . Abraham’s own blood; . . . with the blood of his son.  . . . And so, Abraham makes preparation to go and do as God has asked; . . . and for three days he goes on his way to the land of Moriah with two servants and his son Isaac.  For three days Abraham suffers in silence.  . . . Not wishing to frighten his son, . . . Abraham says nothing; . . . not desiring to alarm the servants, . . . Abraham does not speak his mind; . . . not willing to question God’s purpose in first promising Isaac as an heritage and then removing him for a sacrifice, . . . Abraham is silent before God.  . . . We would know nothing at all of what Abraham endured those three days if it had not been for Isaac’s innocent question:

“My father!” . . . “Behold, the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

Indeed, you can almost hear poor Abraham’s unspoken thoughts:  “God has provided the lamb, my son.  And what is God’s . . . cannot be withheld from Him.”
    . . . Abraham is an icon of Jesus.  Abraham is an icon of Jesus because, just like Abraham, . . . Jesus was captivated by God’s love.  And just like Abraham, Jesus surrenders Himself to His God; surrenders Himself to the love of the Father in heaven . . . so that Jesus, just like Abraham, lives among the human family with simplicity so that He might experience God’s profound love without hindrance; . . . so that He might respond to God with a like love without encumbrance; . . . so that the human family might also know the exquisite comfort of knowing the Lord God Almighty.

    And now, today we hear, in the Gospel of John, . . . today we hear that like Abraham, . . . Jesus silently endures an an ordeal which God requires.  For, here is Jesus, endowed with a humanity which knows God intimately, . . . and God demands that Jesus submit His sanctified and sacred humanity to be an offering greater than simple surrender; . . . that His love and devotion for the Lord God Almighty be sealed with blood; . . . His own blood.  . . . And what can Jesus do but obey His Lord God, keeping silence before the enormity of disordered affections by which He is slapped for speaking and whipped and mocked when He says nothing at all; . . . the disordered affections of a companion’s betrayal, and a friend’s denial.  The very people to whom Jesus has shown, by healings and by patient teaching; . . . the very people to whom Jesus has shown the exquisite comfort of knowing God; … the very people who waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna” only a few days before; . . . these very people choose to liberate a felon and chant with insane ardor, “we have no Lord but Caesar!”  . . . Just as Abraham suffered his ordeal in the silence of a remorseless wilderness, . . . so Jesus silently drags His Cross to the place where He is nailed to it and hung upon it by His remorseless tormentors.  . . . Like Abraham, . . . Jesus endures His ordeal with silence.

    . . . Abraham is an icon of Jesus.  For, just as Abraham, by his faith in the Lord God Almighty and his utterly focused love for Him which was the definition of all other loves; . . . just as Abraham’s faith and love gave reason for God to make provision for Isaac’s redemption by substituting a ram, . . . so the faith and faithfulness of Jesus . . . Whose love for God is the definition of all other loves; . . . so the faith and faithfulness of Jesus gave reason for the Lord God Almighty to make provision for our redemption by substituting His Son as restitution for our sins.

    Abraham is an icon of Jesus.  For, by reason of Abraham’s faith the Lord God Almighty blessed Isaac . . . and made of him a People whose obedience was destined to be a blessing to all nations by teaching them reverence for God.  Just as, by reason of the faithfulness of Jesus the Lord God Almighty has blessed His Church . . . and made of us a People whose simplicity, chastity, and obedience is destined to be a blessing to all nations by bringing them to know Jesus.  . . . Abraham is an icon of Jesus.  For, if Abraham had said “No” to God . . . all of humanity would have been overcome by darkness; . . . if Jesus had said “No” . . . all of humanity would be damned.  But just as Abraham, for love of God, was willing not to withhold from sacrifice even the little lamb which God had given him, . . . so God, for love of you, has not withheld His Own Lamb from the Cross.