Did Jesus Condone Sacrifice?

Why did Jesus tell people to sacrifice at the temple???

Mat 8:4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Mark 1:44 and Luke 5:14 are both very similar.

Seemingly that is a point scored for the view that God DID demand blood sacrifice I did some poking around with the help of google....and from what I read the following was what "Moses commanded"

Though healed of his leprosy, the man was not legally clean until declared so by the priest. The priest alone could readmit him to the congregation. The local priest inspected the healed leper, and if he was found clean or cured, he was purified by the use of two birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop, razor and bath. After seven days he was again inspected, and if still cured the priest repaired with him to the temple, where he offered the gift for his cleansing, which was three lambs, with flour and oil; or if the leper was poor, one lamb and two doves or pigeons, with flour and oil (Le 14:19-22).


No doubt about it....there was animal sacrifice in what "Moses commanded" but then it occurred to me when rereading the first line of the excerpt above.....

Though healed of his leprosy, the man was not legally clean until declared so by the priest. The priest alone could readmit him to the congregation.

And another excerpt I googled upon....


But what, it may be said, doth this saying, "Show thyself to the priest," contribute to the keeping of the law? No little. Because it was an ancient law, that the leper when cleansed should not entrust to himself the judgment of his cleansing, but should show himself to the priest, and present the demonstration thereof to his eyes, and by that sentence be numbered amongst the clean. For if the priest said not "The leper is cleansed," he remained still with the unclean without the camp.

what stands out to me in the above snippet is that the leper could not entrust to himself the judgment of his cleansing but should show himself to the priest......for if the priest said not "the leper is cleansed" he remained unclean. So if this leper had not submitted to the "legal machinery of the day" though healed of the disease he would have still been a leper in the eyes of the community and in the eyes of the law. He would have still been an outcast. Of course Jesus knew this and acted accordingly. In another snippet I came upon it points out the following:

At times Jesus works outside the system. He either violates or ignores ritual laws re: healing on the Sabbath or cleaning his hands. Here he works within the system. Go, show yourself. This is the difference. Whatever is best for the person involved. If there is a rule against healing and a person needs healing, he breaks the rule. People first. This time, however, it is better for the man to be identified. He has had a very serious skin ailment, one for which there was no known cure. Therefore the leper and all like him were quarantined. They had to stay away from other folks. The one who could allow him back into society was the priest. Go show yourself to the priest so he can give you the ok to be a part of society again. With the priest's ok the man can return to communal life, including life in the temple.

So it is not that Jesus is endorsing the sacrificial system as it stood...but that he was in this instance working within the system to restore the man to complete wholeness. And then I happened upon another snippet that pretty much summed it up for me...

Wherefore he saith, "Show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded." He said not, "which I command," but for a time remits him to the law.

I think the process to bring mankind out of the sacrificial mindset could not occur overnight and had to be a gradual process. That is in keeping with my beliefs that the ordinances and directives about sacrifice were to LIMIT it....not to initiate it. Sacrifice was so deeply ingrained in the hearts of men that it was an instinctual requirement of continued existence. If Girard (and like theories) are right and this scapegoating, sacred violence, sacrificial mindset was from the foundation of the world...and is what actually ensured that mankind did not destroy itself with its cycles of chaos and violence caused by mimetic rivalry then without a great deal of enlightenment, it is not something that could be eliminated by Jesus simply saying, "hey...no more sacrifice." Jesus provided that enlightenment by his example and his willing sacrifice of self to in part uncover the ugly little secret hiding in mankind's closet.....although it is a long, long process which is still in progress to this day) So anyway...that is how I reconcile those verses in which Jesus seemingly condoned sacrifice when he very clearly and blatantly proclaimed, ""But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless." -- Matthew 12:7