Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8
The Passover story is an old one, a powerful one, and one that Christians often put to the side as we celebrate the sacrifice of the Lamb who is Christ. Our Jewish neighbors still hold it up as important, if that that isn’t important to us, Jesus held it up as an important celebration. That should get our attention.
This celebration is tied to the 10th plague. It is tied to death, loss, fear, and anger. It happens as a dividing line between life and death – both in terms of marking the homes and in terms of freeing the people of Israel from slavery and delivering them in the direction of the promised land. The feast is one of remembrance in later practice – to remember God’s mighty deeds, and God’s deliverance.
The meal isn’t one that we relax and eat. It is a feast of unleavened bread, when there hasn’t been time for the bread to rise. It is a feast on the go – a feast with a need to leave right after to go and be a part of God’s plans. From the celebration of the Passover feast, and the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus goes right out, is dragged right out, to be executed. What is it that we are going right out from this table to do? What sense of urgency sends us from this table, and what is it we tell our children and our world on this day about what the Lord has done for us?
