Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. – Roman 12:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 9, 2014): Romans 12

Admiral Takijiro Onishi is probably best known as being the father of the Kamikaze fighters, the tactic of suicide air attacks committed on Allied targets by the Japanese during World War II. Japanese pilots had been trained to make sacrificial attacks on enemy targets when their planes were too damaged to continue to fly and reach the homeland, but the Kamikaze fighters were different. The Kamikaze were trained to fly their flights as a first resort, and not a last one. The Kamikaze would fly their healthy planes into enemy targets resulting in what was really a human guided missile. The result struck fear into the heart of those who fought against the Japanese. Kamikaze fighters seemed to be fearless, and the tactic was one that had never been experienced before. In a normal attack, there was at least a partial plan to survive on the part of the attacker, but with the Kamikaze, the attackers had no expectation of survival.

The first official Kamikaze attacks are thought to have taken place in September 1944, one month prior to Onishi’s promotion to commander of the 1^st Air Fleet. Originally, Onishi had opposed the use of suicide air attacks against Allied targets. But as the war progressed and the Japanese position deteriorated, Onishi appeared to change his mind. When he addressed his First Kamikaze group, he apparently told them that their nobility of spirit would keep their homeland from ruin even if Japan was eventually defeated. But it appears that Takijiro Onishi never really overcame his opposition to the tactic. Emperor Hirohito gave a recorded announcement across the empire on August 15, 1945 announcing the surrender of Japan and ending World War II. The next day Takijiro Onishi committed ritual suicide in his quarters by seppuku. Normally seppuku is done with a second who decapitates the dying ensuring a swift death. But Onishi committed seppuku without a second and it took him over 15 hours to die of his self-inflicted wounds. In his suicide note Onishi apologized for the 4,000 pilots he had sent to their deaths, and urged all of Japan who had survived the war to work at the task of rebuilding Japan and remaking peace among the nations. His death was a sacrifice toward that end.

Sacrifice is something that is known in many cultures. Whether it is the blood of animals or of humans, and regardless of whether the death comes at the hands of another or at the hands of the victim (like Takijiro Onishi), the death of the victim is thought to make amends for the transgressions of those who die – as well as, often, the transgressions of those who remain alive. And it is this knowledge of the death of sacrifice that makes these words so important. Paul urges the Romans that in light of God’s mercy, literally because of the character of God, that they choose to be living sacrifices. Rather than choosing to die as an act of worship, Paul asks his readers to live. It is one of the paradoxical elements of the Christian faith – we die to self so that we can live for him.

As the blood runs off the altars of the sacrifices, we live our lives in the honor of the one who died for us. This is our most reasonable service and our true and proper act of worship.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Romans 13