Definition of biblical sacrifice
Many Christians associate the value of a sacrifice with its cost. An act or decision isn’t a real sacrifice unless it’s painfully costly. But is that how the Bible treats the word?
The dissonance I’ve felt equating sacrifice with cost is that it doesn’t match the Levitical sacrifices. The LORD’s directions about sacrifice seem to prioritize participation and significance over price. Some sacrifices have alternatives for the poor. I have not found a reference to sacrifice as a painful, costly decision anywhere.
Sacrifice does relate to cost, but not as its primary meaning. It happens that there’s a cost involved in sacrifice, but that’s not the purpose for the sacrifice nor how it might be evaluated.
Thomas Merton has a clarifying definition which restores the purpose of sacrifice to its core of worship.
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A sacrifice is an action which is objectively sacred, primarily of a social character, and what is important is not so much the pain or difficulty attached to it as the meaning, the sacred significance which not only conveys an idea but effects a divine and religious transformation in the worshipper, thus consecrating and uniting him more closely to God.
Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, pg. 167
The Bible Project explores the meaning of the Levitical sacrifices in their series on Leviticus (which starts here). There are two facets of the sacrifice which shed great light on the topic of sacrifice.
First, it was a cost to offer a sacrifice. This innocent animal’s life-blood is being spilt, and that’s evidence enough that things are not okay in the world. For an Israelite, an animal represents a significant capital investment. Most sacrifices in Leviticus, however, do not require that the offerer lose the benefit of the animal; usually they’re allowed to keep substantial amounts of meat to consume themselves and with others.
Second, the animal itself becomes a representative that rises in the smoke into God’s heavenly presence. It’s blood, considered the very life of the blameless animal, is assigned to be my representative at the laying on of hands and rises into the closest presence of Yahweh in my place. In this way I am able to be near to God, by the blameless representation of another. The death of the animal as a puntitive measure, it dying in place of me, is secondary to this feature of Levitical sacrifice as a righteous representative. In particular, the giving up of one’s life most fits the animal to be closest to Yahweh.