Passover

This morning Sara and Joseph again said they want to recalibrate their lives to follow Jesus and raise their children in the teaching and knowledge of God. But parenting is hard and despite the best intentions we get distracted, we get tired, and we lose focus on the important things in life.

That is why we need to recalibrate and realign our life priorities around God’s path for us.

To do that we are going to spend the next 3 weeks looking at the Jewish festivals which were established to recalibrate and how understanding their deeper meaning is relevant in our own lives today.

We read about them in Deuteronomy 16:14-16

Today we are looking at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is also called? Passover.

If we were lining up the season with the festivals instead of our upside-down southern hemisphere calendar, Passover would have been last weekend, in Spring instead of easter in Autumn.

Each year for Passover people will come from all over to pack into Jerusalem, and there are some wonderful psalms that we can read about this journey in the Psalms of Ascent (Ps 120 to 134) which would be sung on the way.

Of course, the most famous mention of Passover is the night before Jesus was betrayed on the cross.

The night before it all goes down Jesus has one last message he wants his followers to know, however, this is not a lecture or a parable this is a moment to experience why Jesus had to come.

Being a communion Sunday I thought it would be good for us to partake in this more traditional version of the Lord's Supper for us to experience and have in mind each time we partake.

Now I would like to make it clear that this is my second time conducting this type of Passover meal and will be performing a summarized version outlined by Theologian Tim Mackie who has a PhD in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies.

Tim is also the co-founder of the bible project and I love the way those guys are helping people understand how the overall biblical story works together and leads us to Jesus. If you would like to revisit this sermon or series I can point you to what was recorded the first time I did this series on youtube.

However, what I found interesting is that the Passover is to be conducted as a series of questions from the younger participants from the family to the elder. A real handing on of the tradition from one generation to the next which is one of the important themes of Passover.

This ties into today's dedication and kids talk, the importance of welcoming children into these spaces and the whole family aligning life’s priorities.

Again as I am not an elder in this situation, I will be instead running us through the readings in Matthew 26 and share how this fits with the narrative of Passover.

So as this is not a traditional Passover meal or a traditional communion I want to invite all to respectfully partake in this meal together and take in this significant moment in history that has been repeated for the last 2000 years to recalibrate our lives to Jesus.

So let us take a moment to set up and move around the chairs to be around a table. then place the plater on the table and collect a cup.

Let me explain what you have in front of you and thank you Maureen and helpers for preparing this small meal for us.

Well in the dish is salty water, we then have sliced carrots to use to dip into this dish.

The Lemon is not traditional at all and replaces the bitter herb horseradish.

We of course have the unleavened bread and a bottle of grape juice.

Now we will be drinking from the cup 4 times and if you have some lemon you may want some more.

Usually, this meal includes s lot of singing in Hebrew and would go for 2 hours as we would read through parts of Genesis and Exodus.

This is the condensed version as I will do my best to summarise these important Israelite stories

Repetition is the virtue, Passover is to be repeated and passed on and has been repeated annually for 3500Passover years.

Raise your glass - this is the reading that is repeated as we drink:

May you be blessed, Lord our God, King of the world, who creates the fruit of the vine.

Take a drink

Now take the dish of salty water and take turns dipping your carrot, swell it around and taste.

This is the dipping of the Karpas, the oldest interpretation of why we begin with this is to enact the story of Joseph and his brothers.

First quick recap - We read in Genesis about Abraham who followed God out of his land and into God’s promise to be a nation that would bless all nations. Well, Abraham had a son Isaac, Isaac had a son Jacob and Jacob had 12 sons. One of those sons was a bit of a dobber and dreamer and had a special coat.

Joseph and his multiple coloured coat - parenting advice - don’t favour one child over the rest, it won't go well for them.

The brothers were jealous of Joseph and his special coat and the special attention he got from dad. So they made a plan to murder him, and then they changed their minds and sold him into slavery.

But they wanted to cover it up so what do they do? So that their dad believed that he was killed by a beast they slit the throat of a goat, and took joseph's special coat, dipping it in the spilled blood.

The dipping of the Karpas represents the dipping of the coat in the blood because when you bit your lip and taste blood in your mouth this should represent that taste.

That event is the event that starts the journey of the family of Abraham to Egypt. As what the brothers meant for harm turns into their redemption as God places Joseph in a position to save his family.

Genesis 50:20 NIV

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Now let’s sit with Jesus' disciples around the table

Matthew 26:20–24 NIV

When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?” Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

Take in the symbolism of this moment

The betrayal and redemption of Jesus connecting his situation to the same situation of Joseph.

The Ironic thing is that in a few hours' time they all will betray him, but the passage puts in focus Judas.

“The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.”

What Judas meant for harm, God uses for good and places Jesus in a place to save all.

Okay so now the Passover takes a moment to recount the Exodus story, the second quick summary

· Joseph's position in Egypt saves his family from the famine and all of Egypt,

· Israel move to Egypt and enjoy 400 years of growth into a nation in this foreign land.

· That’s when things turn as a new pharaoh forgets the acts of Joseph and instead sees these people as a problem and goes about eliminating them cruelly killing the boys born to Hebrew women and the nation is thrown into slavery.

That is when, Israel cries out to be saved and God raises up a leader for them, Moses.

He challenges Pharaoh to free the people and we get this epic battle of words and plagues back and forth as Pharaoh hardens his heart to God and his acts of power.

Pharaoh continues to oppress

This is a story of God breaking the chains, a story of freedom, of liberation, and this whole meal builds up to that event.

At the conclusion of the exodus story, we celebrate God’s deliverance by reciting the words from Psalm 113, please repeat the parts labelled all.

Leader:

1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord.

All:

2 Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore.

Leader:

3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

All:

4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens.

Leader:

5 Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, 6 who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?

All:

7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

All:

8 he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people.

9 He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children.

Praise the Lord.

May you be blessed, Lord our God, King of the world, who creates the fruit of the vine.

So now there are 3 things that need to be done in order to observe Passover

1. Eat the unleavened bread

2. Eat the bitter herbs (or Lemon)

3. Eating the Passover lamb

So here we have the bread, the whole feature of it is that it is unleavened bread which means? Without yeast, that is why it is thin and not a loaf of bread.

They didn’t have time to wait for it to raise and unleavened bread was good traveling food.

Exodus 12:39 NIV

With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

Like power bars and food for the road.

How do we make bread? we take it knead it, stretch it out put it in the oven.

How often do we need it? daily, I think I probably have at least one meal every day that includes some sort of bread. Yesterday, I had bread for each meal of the day.

When Pharaoh decided they could leave they had no time to wait. They needed to take food with them and this was the fastest way they could start their journey and have the sustenance for their journey.

Break it up and hand it round

May you be blessed, Lord our God, King of the world, who brings forth bread from the land.

Jesus says it a little different, “you are eating my body”

Matthew 26:26 NIV

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

What is he saying?

This is what will happen to Jesus' body, it will be pounded, stretched out on the cross, and go through hell.

But also that His body will become a source of life for us on the journey. His life is all we need. (Pause)

So now time for the lemon

You suck as much or little as you need! the point is we cry

So why do we do this?

Exodus 1:14 NIV

They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

Every generation is to partake in this meal, and every generation is to see itself as the generation that comes out of slavery.

For the Jewish people participating in the Passover - this part of taking the bitter herb is to remember where they came from and the oppression that still occurs today.

To Remember God redeeming his people, and we cry because of the tragedy of the human condition.

We cry because of the innocent deaths of our ancestors, we cry our own people (the kings of Israel, the western world) became as bad as pharaoh and killed innocents. We grieve because every generation becomes its own pharaoh and hardens its heart. We all need God’s redemption that comes through God's Grace.

(Pause)

Where is the Lamb

No lamb in the communion story but that is intentional, The Lamb is an important part of the meal, interesting that it is missing in Matt 26. Again Jesus is using symbolism.

Recap last plague – taking the blood of the lamb

Matching Pharaoh's act of cruelty.

God takes on evil in a just and right way but provides a way out for everyone, not just the Hebrews (anyone that had blood on the door post was passed over).

And as far as we can tell Jesus' Meal has no lamb,

Instead, he raises the 3rd cup

Matthew 26:27 NIV

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.

May you be blessed, Lord our God, King of the world, who creates the fruit of the vine.

Then he makes His final crazy claim

Matthew 26:28–29 NIV

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Jesus is saying that just like the lamb’s blood was used to seal the covenant of freedom from oppression by absorbing the consequences of evil. So Jesus blood is going to be all over the place, on the ground, on his body, on the cross, sealing the new covenant of freedom from oppression and absorbing the consequences of evil.

And Jesus is not done there, he sees a new celebration on the other side of his death that will unite people.

These elements are what Jesus gives his disciples to endure the horror of the next few hours and gives us to endure what happens in life for us.

And that is the end of Jesus' Passover meal.

Jesus here is taking a meal that has a deep tradition and brings new depth and meaning around his death and resurrection. Entwining the meanings and symbolism of the Jewish culture to now serve as a blessing to all nations.

Through the Lamb, God rescues the Israelites, from slavery to Pharaoh.

Now

Through Jesus, God rescues the World, from slavery to sin and death.

repeat

And Jesus doesn’t want us to just grasp the concept and move on but to regularly participate with him in this. To eat this story, to know it deeply by repeating it. Repetition is a virtue.

Every generation that partakes in Passover is to see itself as the generation coming out of Egypt, Every Jesus follower is to see communion as the next generation sitting with Jesus in this final meal, and participating with him in it.

We distill it. To a wafer and juice but each time it is to ground us to Jesus, seating at the table with him. Each time we recalibrate to this moment with Jesus, reminded of his willingness to give his body to be beaten to be a source of life, his blood split so that we can leave the things oppressing us and be forgiven for the times we have been the oppressor.

Jesus believed that the human heart is in slavery to selfishness, following our own desires which leads to hurting others.

We are daily wrestling with this nature, being strangled by the stories that surround us. Stories that say it's okay to…

Gossip, to build our own kingdom of comfort, to use people to build our empire like pharaoh, and to keep things from changing.

But when we sit with Jesus we are reminded of his sacrificial love, and as Jesus' disciples, we are encouraged to get up from the table and carry our cross. To transcend any labels, nation or tribe that we might call ourselves.

This is the picture that Jesus sees on the other side of his death, a time of unity, this is what we put our Hope in and he will drink with us this fourth cup.

So as we come to drink the final cup.

I don’t know where the Holy Spirit may be challenging you today in your journey with Jesus and as you reflect on these elements.

Whether you are feeling oppressed or being the oppressor, we can all have times of being Pharaoh and cruel to our fellow human beings or we can be tasting the bitterness of someone else’s cruelty.

Right now, take a moment to sit with Jesus. Is there a sense of confession needed, that you may have betrayed Jesus these last few weeks?

Do you need to be grounded again in Jesus' deep love for you, a reminder of His body given as freely as bread and blood to cover us in the new covenant?

Reflect on these things, then drink the cup when you are ready.

May you be blessed, Lord our God, King of the world, who creates the fruit of the vine…