Photo from dunia-kita
All over Indonesia, Muslims are celebrating Idul Adha today. The Idul Adha is known as the “Festival of Sacrifice.” It highlights, Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael to Allah. The celebration will last throughout this weekend. It is a time where many people go back to their hometowns to visit their families.
I am slowly discovering all that goes into this celebration. One big significant part of this celebration is the necessity of sacrificing a goat or a cow, depending on what you can afford. After the prayers and the sacrifice, there is a big feast where people celebrate together. Supposedly this is the best time to get various meat products and skewers.
I couldn’t help but to think about how the Idul Adha celebration echoes Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac. But Abraham’s sacrifice was a foreshadow of God’s willingness to sacrifice His Son, Jesus Christ on the cross.
Even as the Muslims sacrifice the goats and cows today, we are reminded of how the Jewish people in the Bible sacrificed animals for the atonement of their sins. But no amount of sacrifice of animals and the blood that was spilled could remove our sins.
Only God’s ultimate sacrifice of His Son can forgive the sins of the world. This is the message that we need to share with a dying world.