Rethinking Lent: Passover
For the longest time I would hear the word "Passover" and it registered as a made-up idea. In my head it was a combination of people passing out and a Jewish cultural reference I didn't understand. Please tell me you have fuzzy words like this in your brain? For a long time I didn't have a handle for it and I was grasping at straws and making stuff up.
And then I read the actual Bible story and I grabbed a hold of some serious symmetry to my faith. Many Jesus-concepts fell into place. Let's see if you think so, especially the last two sentences:
“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”
The blood will be a sign for you.
When I see the blood,
I will pass over you and
no plague will befall you
or destroy you.
Jesus continues to be the lifeblood of our faith. Holding all narratives, all psalms, all history together.
And this central story is why Jesus is called the Passover Lamb. Not only did He die during the Passover in Jewish culture, but He was the final Passover Lamb. He was without blemish and innocent; and He ended all Passover sacrifices.
His blood was the sign for you and me.
His body was sacrificed so that we will not be spiritually plagued nor spiritually destroyed.
His death means that Death passes over us.
He is the pinnacle of the Passover. And if we choose to be underneath the doorpost of His blood, to be covered by His death, then we live.
Blame and shame are twins tethered to our sin from the beginning. We want to blame others for our sins or hide in shame because of them. But Jesus takes our blame and covers our shame and we are then made new.
May we all have a new handle, a fresh understanding for The Passover Lamb.
Jesus, help us grasp onto the goodness of the sign you gave and the ultimate end to this act each year. That your Son was the final Passover Lamb and we no longer have to do this ritual. You are the Final Sacrifice and we are so grateful you made a path back to God for us. It was blocked by our own bloody hands. You opened it back up by your innocent blood. Amen.