Not since Odin decided to see what a tire swing felt like and tied himself by the neck from the lower branches of Ygdrassil (sp?) had the world (as far as I know) had a deity dead on a tree.

Mind you, in light of the above, it makes you wonder about Judas, don't it? You don't suppose the author(s) was taking a poke at the Old Ones, do you?

Anyway, in the context of the Jewish faith, and to a certain extent, the Samaritan faith, Yeshuah Von Nazareth was a fellow who was not guilty, yet who served as a scapegoat for the entire world. I'm trying to find a way to work Sisyphus and Atlas into this, but I can't. You'll have to settle for Heracles and Ulysses. And no, I'm not going to mention Oedipus, but I might take a stab at Mithras. Happy, now?

As I was saying before I was interrupted, the sacrifice that was mandated in the early books of the Talmud was also invoked in Yeshuah's death, but in a strange manner. The items demanded for the tabernacle and temple sacrifices were to be of value to the giver, items whose loss to the family larder and budget would be missed. You weren't allowed to just grab up any four legged-critter, chicken or basket of fruit or grain on your way out through the front yard, it had to be the best. Now, some might say that this was a priestly interpolation and insertion, to make sure that they got some compensation for dealing with every Bert and Ernie and their wives who came along and wanted something burnt to celebrate that they had just had their eighth or eighteenth child and wanted a blessing... Yet, I say that in the allegorical atmosphere of the Bible, the fact that YHVH was willing to send his "first-fruits" (how this is possible without a previous birth for Yeshuah, talk about being 'born-again', is beyond my theological training wheels ability to travel), his "unblemished lamb", his "white dove", as a sacrifice to end all sacrifices should be a rather mind-rattling concept.

While the concepts of tit-for-tat, one hand washes the other, and other prosperity theological jokes exist in the Old Testament, nobody expected (despite conspiracy theorists contentions to the contrary) that G-D would return the favor. Because he doesn't have to. He doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want. So, you can pray and dance and burn things and write Psalms and Proverbs and inspirational books like "Matzo Balls for the Soul" and it won't make any difference if he's got his mind made up. At least, that's what the rule book says.

So while old Pillar of Fire was provoked to press the flush handle when he saw the iniquity of the creation in the Old Testament, in the New, we are given a different flood, a flood of forgiveness. While both the original inundation and the second one involved a Second Chance, in the case of the first one only a selected few were spared and they turned out to be less than the pick of the litter, also.
You ever notice how mental density seems to be a recurring theme in the Bible? Noah, Moses, Jonah, the arm chair Lawyers around Job, King Saul, and, to skip a few dozen, John the Baptist's Daddy, and then the Twelve Apostles all provide some comic relief in the midst of all the Holy goings-ons. Maybe there's a message there. Particularly since Saul/Paul was supposed to be a graduate student. Hmm?
Emmanuel (wonder if that was on the birth certificate?) was supposed to be a human rainbow to usher in the New Creation, a new promise that his Pa wouldn't destroy the world again... huh? ...as he had during the Deluge.

In return for an unnecessary gift freely given, what did the Creator of the Universe ask for in return? Not much for himself, as everything already belongs to him, but a little for your fellow humans. He asked, as he had asked of his Son, that you not only forgive your enemies, but love them. There is that factor of value in the sacrificial item again. Anyone, as old Sermon on the Hillock said, can love their friends and hate their enemies. But it takes a conscious daily effort to love your enemies because once you love everybody, who's your enemy? I, for one, am not going to go looking for one just to keep him happy.