It's twilight in the ancient Egyptian city of Goshen.
All across the land, faithful families are slaughtering spotless lambs, spreading blood on their doorposts, and eating dinner with haste before huddling indoors to wait out the most terrifying night of their lives. Egypt has been plagued by sickness, boils, lice, flies--all signs of the wrath of God unleashed as the Pharaoh refused to free the Hebrews from bondage. Now the final plague is at hand and the angel of the Lord has been dispatched to pass through the land at midnight. Mothers look nervously at their firstborn children, silently breathing prayers that Moses was right. That God would spare the children of His faithful ones when He saw the blood of the lamb on their doors.
In Miriam's hut, Moses and Aaron huddle around a table with sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, and share a meal that has symbolic meaning in each morsel. Bitter herbs to represent the pain of bondage, unleavened bread to represent haste, and roasted lamb, it's blood spread across the door as a covering sign. This would be a holy assembly, a feast that would carry throughout the generations, as Israel remembered year after year how God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, causing His Wrath to pass over those who belonged to Him (Exodus 12). The people ransomed by the blood of a spotless lamb.
It's centuries later, at twilight in Jerusalem, and Jesus of Nazareth gathers in an upper room with His twelve disciples to celebrate the night of Passover. His Heart is twisting inside out. In a matter of hours, He will be betrayed by someone at the table and dragged away to be beaten, spat upon, and nailed to a cross outside the city. And His Father, with Whom He has always existed in perfect Oneness, will unleash the full fury of His Wrath against sin onto Him. Sweat already beads His brow in anticipation of the agony.
But right now, as the sun slips away in the West, Jesus just leans back, taking in every face at the table. "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God."
Reaching out for the cup from which the Israelites have been drinking for centuries, Jesus makes history, declaring, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My Blood. And this bread is My Body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:14-20).
Knowing that the Father had given all things into His Hands, knowing that His hour had come...having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end (John 13:1,3).
Though He trembled to drink the cup of the Father's Wrath, He humbly laid aside His own Will to embrace the Plan of Redemption--the Plan that had been born out of the Father's great Love for the world. The Love that laid down His own Son that whoever might believe in Him might never perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
By laying down His Life as the sinless, spotless Lamb, slaughtered outside the city gate at twilight, Jesus connected us all to Passover, becoming the ultimate propitiation for our sins and the source of life to all who will believe (John 1:4; 1 John 4:10). And this Sunday, we celebrate the end of the story--His Resurrection, which was just the beginning!
If you are a believer, this Passover, purpose afresh to live your life in remembrance of what Jesus did for you. If you don't know Him, consider yourself invited to come and know Him. His Arms are open wide and His Love is revolutionary, transforming us into who we were created to be.
~Because He lives, we live.
~He gave us a Helper to be with us forever, the Spirit of Truth
~In His Love, the Father loves us and manifests Himself to us
~He gives us Love that we may love one another
~He is the one and only Way to the Father and has gone to prepare a place for us
~He is the True Vine, without whom we can do nothing
~He is the perfect Peace that guards our hearts and minds amidst the clamor of the world, the flesh, and the enemy.
~He gives us victory over the devil and every manifestation of evil
~His Resurrection Power lives in us, giving life to our mortal bodies as well as our spirits
~If we abide in Him and His Words abide in us, we may ask anything and it will be done, that the Father may be glorified.
John 13-15
Glorify Him with your remembrance. For He is worthy of all Praise!