'Holy Communion and the Passover Meal '

If you have the opportunity to participate in a Christian Passover meal, I urge you to do so. It will open your eyes. I want to point out a few things about Passover: 

Passover is a reenactment of how God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. They tell the story and have symbolic acts which connect them to the story both in memory and in the present. God sets this ritual in Ex. 13:14, ‘“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’” Ever since, the story is told as our story. Jesus is connecting His disciples to the great story, the story of God doing what we could not, of God rescuing the least and the lost, of God choosing to bless a people, our people. Then Jesus makes it the story of Himself and His disciples. 

The Passover meal requires a sacrificial lamb. The lamb is to be slaughtered and its blood smeared across the mantle of their home. That was a sign that they had faith in the God of salvation. Death did not enter their homes because of their act of faith. Jesus identifies Himself as that sacrificial lamb. “This is my body” sacrificed for you. “This is my blood” placed upon the mantle so that death will not touch you. 

They roasted the lamb and ate it as a family and with neighbors. It was a feast that nourished them for the long journey ahead. It was a feast in God’s presence as a celebration of His saving power. Likewise, Jesus’ body and blood both nourishes us for our spiritual journey with Him and celebrates that God has saved us by His mighty and outstretched arm. 

 The story of the Exodus of the Israelites is our story. Every time we have Holy Communion, we participate in that story. Communion reminds us that only God can rescue us from slavery to sin and death. The nourishment from the lamb of God gives us strength to flee from slavery to sin and death. Finally, it is a feast of thanksgiving that God has promised us new life, in a new land, as a new creation.

Blessings in 2023,

Jonathan