“On the day of
Eid al-Adha, we wake up to the sound of each family in our neighborhood
slaughtering a ram,” shares Alexis, a Frontiers worker.
Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, is the biggest holiday on the Muslim calendar. It also marks the end of the hajj, the annual religious pilgrimage to Mecca.
During the three-day celebration of Eid al-Adha, Muslims slaughter a
ram to remember how Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son—and how God
intervened by providing a sacrificial ram instead.
As long as Muslims don’t know the final act of God’s Son, then the story of Eid al-Adha remains a tragedy.
Muslims believe this is where the story ends—a ram offered as a blood sacrifice in place of a prophet’s son. But they’re missing the final act, in which God willingly provided His own Son to be the ultimate sacrifice that covers all sin. Abraham’s sacrifice foreshadowed the sacrifice by Jesus Christ.
As long as Muslims don’t know the final act of God’s Son, then the
story they retell on Eid al-Adha remains a tragedy. They need someone to go and
bring them the rest of God’s story.
“It amazes my teammates and me that this holiday, the Feast of the Sacrifice, is so much at the heart of Islamic practice all around the world,” Alexis says.
Eid al-Adha offers workers like Alexis a profound and obvious bridge for the Gospel. It leads naturally into sharing the Good News that God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all (Romans 8:32) as a sacrifice to redeem all people from sin and death.
Alexis shares, “Most of our neighbors have never heard the great story of behind the holiday—even though they celebrate it every year.”