The Last Passover

This past week, Jews around the world began their celebration of Passover. They gathered with family and friends around the Seder table and they remembered ... they remembered the bitterness and harshness of Egypt – they remembered the bondage they lived in, the slave-drivers they endured, the mud bricks they made, and the many tears they shed. And then they remembered a lamb ... a lamb that was slain, so that they might live. They remembered the night the Death Angel passed over them because of the blood of that lamb applied to the doorposts of their homes. They remembered the night Egypt was struck down, so that they could be lifted up. They remembered the night they became a free people!

Hundreds of years after that miraculous night in Egypt, a man named Jesus gathered with twelve of his closest friends in the city of Jerusalem to celebrate Passover one more time ... one last time. There was nothing necessarily special about this Passover ... they set the table like they always had, they prepared the same food that they had always eaten, they planned for the same scripture reading and hymn singing. It seemed to be a Passover not unlike the many they had already celebrated, nor even the thousands that the Jewish people had partaken of since that first one. But then something changed ... in fact, everything changed.

While they reclined at the table, this man, Jesus, told these twelve friends that He was implementing a new meal, a new celebration ... that would be a memorial to Him. No longer would it be about God delivering them from Egypt ... now it would be about Him setting them free from sin and death. No longer would it be about the blood of a lamb applied to the doorposts of their homes ... now it would be about Him, the Lamb of God, and His blood applied to the doorposts of their hearts that would not just keep the Death Angel out, but in fact let God come in. No longer would it be bread that symbolized a breaking away from Egypt and a cup that signified God’s redemption ... now the bread would be about His body that was broken for them and the cup would be about His blood that was shed for the forgiveness of their sins.

This Friday, Jesus-followers from around the world, will gather with family and friends and remember ... we’ll remember all that Jesus has done for us. We’ll remember His sacrifice. We’ll remember a cross on a lonely hill called Calvary ... where God’s own Son was struck down so that we could be lifted up. We’ll remember His body that was broken and His blood that was poured out for us. We'll remember the reason that sin has been silenced and death has been defeated. We’ll remember the day that we became a free people!