Redefining Passover

Intro:

I have a question this morning, to get started I need some participation from you. How many of you, by a show of hands, are Marvel fans? It’s ok if you aren’t but that tells me a lot about who I’m preaching to today. Thank you for that! But everybody knows what I am talking about right? All the Marvel superhero movies- the Avengers!

So, if you think about it, it’s CRAZY to realize what they have done. It’s literally called the Marvel Cinematic Universe because they have made their own universe of stories that all tie together. Characters, struggles, themes, ideas, symbols all work together across a total of 55 movies and tv shows that make up the Marvel universe. Not to mention the multiple marvel video games that also play a part of the story! Now, the most recent Marvel show that came out was called Secret Invasion.

Jenna and I are pretty big Marvel fans. So, when it came out, we watched the first episode and there was a problem. NOTHING made sense. WE were so confused with what was going on we honestly finished the show and said, ok that wasn’t very good. And the next day at church we were talking to Matthew and Rosie, and I told Matt about our experience with the show and he asked me, “Did you ever watch the Captain Marvel movie?” and I said no, that didn’t look that interesting so I never saw it. And he was like yeah, you won’t understand Secret Invasion until you watch Captain Marvel- everything going on comes from that movie.

So, of course we went home and watched captain marvel, and then went back and watched secret invasion and suddenly it all made sense. We knew who the people were, we knew the words they were using, we knew the main conflict and picked up on all the same themes and symbols from the movie. See, now, we could appreciate the details in the show because we knew the whole story!

Now, thank you for letting me sound like a marvel nerd for a minute there, but I think that example clearly illustrates what we are going to see in our passage for this morning.

In order to fully understand and appreciate a significant moment, or symbol, in a story- you have know the WHOLE Story and understand how it all fits together!

Turn with me to Matthew 26. Before we leave this morning we will be taking the Lord’s Supper together. As we prepare for that time now, we will be looking at the story of when Jesus actually led his disciples in the first instance of what we now call the Lord’s Supper.

It’s important that we realized Jesus wasn’t starting something new at this meal. He was redefining something that was already in place. In case you didn’t know, Jesus was taking the Passover Meal that began in Exodus, and redefining it with Himself at the center of it all. Jesus was depending on his disciples knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament in order to help them see what he was doing with this meal. But like we said, if we want to fully understand and appreciate a significant moment and symbol, we must understand how the whole story fits together.

We will mainly be focused on verses 26-30, the actual meal, but I want us to start a while before to get the full context of what is happening!

Read with me in Matthew 26:17-30 and then we will go back through it together.

Matthew 26:17–30 (CSB)

On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

“Go into the city to a certain man,” he said, “and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time is near; I am celebrating the Passover at your place with my disciples.’ ” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. When evening came, he was reclining at the table with the Twelve. While they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

Deeply distressed, each one began to say to him, “Surely not I, Lord?”

He replied, “The one who dipped his hand with me in the bowl—he will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had not been born.”

Judas, his betrayer, replied, “Surely not I, Rabbi?”

“You have said it,” he told him.

As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. But 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.” After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Now, I want you to notice, before we even get to the meal, there are 3 references to the Passover in this passage and 2 more earlier in the chapter just before the verses we read.

That is a huge flag to us that we better understand the story of the Passover because Jesus is about to do something with it!

Exodus Story:

So, what is so big about the Passover?

We have to go back to the story of the Israelites in the Pentateuch/Torah. The first five books of the Bible tell us the story of how God created everything, including humans who are special and set apart as God’s image-bearers. However, as we know humanity rebelled against God, sinning and beginning the downward spiral of destruction and chaos in creation.

But even in this moment God promised to send them a savior one day who would deliver them from the curse of sin.

Fast forward a bit in the story, and you see God make a promise to a man named Abraham, that he would build his family into a great nation that would bless all the people of the world, the savior one day would come from his family!

Fast forward again, and this family of Abraham that was meant to bring blessing and salvation to the world finds itself trapped as slaves in Egypt! They are being abused and killed by the King of Egypt, called Pharaoh.

It was so bad in fact, that at one point Pharaoh ordered an entire generation of Israelite boys to be killed on the spot!

But God doesn’t abandon his people, he uses a man named Moses to go before Pharaoh and demand that He let the people of God go free.

Pharaoh continued to resist God, and his heart was hardened, and so God began to send the different plagues to punish Pharaoh for not releasing the Israelites. They got increasingly worse, until the final plague that would lead to Israel’s freedom. The death of the first born sons in Egypt. Like Pharaoh had killed off a generation of sons born to the Israelites, God was going to kill the first born sons across Egypt. I realize this is hard for us to think about, I don’t want to minimize that but we also don’t have time to dig into that well this morning. Give me a call, or let’s meet up sometime and we can talk about this if you are struggling with it! But here’s one major difference in how God brings this plague, he actually provides a way for people to be protected. He gives them instructions to take an unblemished lamb, slaughter as a sacrifice and take the blood from the lamb and spread it over their doorposts of their homes.

God said, as he passes through the land, he will kill the first born sons in Egypt, but He will pass over any home that is marked with this blood.

Exodus 12:13 “The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

And that is exactly what happened. The Israelites in Egypt made unleavened bread as God commanded them to so that they could leave quickly for their journey when God told them to, and they slaughtered the necessary lambs and spread their blood across the doorposts of their homes to be protected from the plague of death.

And we should all know the story from there, after this plague Pharaoh did release the Israelites from their slavery and God delivered them out and began to lead them to their new life in the promised land.

That is where the Passover celebration began. God commanded them to keep this time every year set apart to eat unleavened bread and have a meal that commemorated Passover together as families in their community. And during this meal they would retell the story we just ran through of their family history and God rescuing them out of Egypt. And they would look forward to the future Messiah, the savior God would send one day.

It is no accident that it is during Passover season that Jesus is about to be arrested and killed on the cross. This was the plan all the way from the Garden, this was God’s plan as he led the Israelites out of Egypt! Jesus was here to give the passover its real meaning!

The Passover meal reminded us of our need for a savior, and the Lord’s Supper declares that we HAVE ONE!

Back to our passage this morning.

His disciples have brought him to a home that is ready for them to celebrate Passover together. This was usually a positive occasion as they would remember God’s salvation and celebrate their freedom and look forward to the savior to come. But here Jesus takes a different approach…

Matthew 26:21 CSB

While they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

The feast begins and he says I am about to be betrayed.

That is one easy way to put a downer on a party. If you are ever trying to kill the mood just pull that one out- Hey one of you is about to stab me in the back! That’ll ruin Thanksgiving real fast this year!

He has told them over and over again that he will die soon, he is telling them now it is because he is going to be betrayed. But they clearly don’t understand why he keeps saying these things.

They all start saying surely it isn’t me! I would never...

But here’s the irony… in just a matter of hours who will betray Jesus? Yeah, Judas we know that. But who will betray Jesus in other ways than his arrest? All of them… they will all leave Jesus. They will sleep while he is praying, they will flee when he is arrested, they will deny even knowing him…some won’t even show up to his crucifixion…

Of course, Jesus knows Judas, specifically, will betray him, and this moment does point Judas out, and Judas even leaves the gathering at this moment to go betray Jesus. But what’s so powerful about this moment is the realization that all of these people are going to turn their backs on Jesus when the going gets tough and yet Jesus is here sharing this special meal with them- the ultimate act of hospitality, love, and fellowship. Jesus knows what must be done.

He has to die for them. Not just despite their sinfulness but because of it!And he wants them to understand this before it happens. But Jesus doesn’t sit them down and walk them through a step by step theology of atonement. He doesn’t hand them a theology text book about his death and resurrection.

Bible scholar Tim Mackie puts it this way:

“When Jesus wanted to give his disciples a rich understanding of why he was going to die, he didn’t write them a book, he gave them a meal, a symbolic meal.” - Tim Mackie

This meal, the Lord’s Supper, is an invitation into Jesus’ story of Salvation.

Let’s finally look at this meal.

Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel, who Paul says he learned under when he was growing up, said that a proper passover meal has to have 3 parts to it:

The bitter herb- now this isn’t explicitly mentioned in this passage but it definitely would’ve been there- it may even be what they were dipping into. But they would eat an extremely bitter herb that would bring tears to their eyes- and they would remember the harsh and bitter life that they had as they suffered as slaves in Egypt.

The unleavened bread- as the Israelites quickly got ready for their Exodus from Egypt, trusting that God would deliver them, they made their unleavened bread and ate it for the week.

Here, Jesus takes this bread and says, it is his body that will be broken for them. Likewise he takes the cup in front of them and says it is his blood that will be pour out for them.

Now, at this point everyone there would be saying- what is going on… this isn’t the passover story. Jesus is doing passover wrong based on the 1500 year tradition that had been going on before this moment!

But they wouldn’t have just noticed that Jesus was doing something different with the bread and the cup… there aas a third essential piece of the passover meal. What’s missing? THE LAMB! If you were hosting passover you would have the bitter herb, the unleavened bread and you HAD TO HAVE A LAMB!

That’s kind of the point of the whole thing!

So, Jesus redefines the crucial symbols at the meal, and leaves one out entirely! What is going on?

Well, Jesus knows that in less than a day, he will be arrested, he will be beaten and bloodied, he will be hung up on a cross and killed. Jesus knows that he is the lamb, he is preparing for his own death and it will be his body and blood that cover their sins.

Jesus’ passover meal doesn’t need a lamb because he is the lamb!

To simplify it all down, here’s what is happening in just 2 sentences;

Through the Lamb, Yahweh rescued the Israelites from slavery to Pharaoh.

Through Jesus, Yahweh rescued the world from slavery to sin.

Again, The passover reminded us of our need for a savior and the Lord’s Supper declares that we have one!

So, why? Why this meal?

It could’ve ended but it didn’t…

It is an invitation to participate in Jesus’ story of Salvation.

Just as the passover meal was meant to invite every generation of Israelites to view themselves as the generation that God delivered out of Egypt- The Lord’s supper invites each of us to see ourselves in Jesus’ story of salvation, to see the blood of Jesus the lamb, was pour out for us, and sets us free from the curse of death brought about by our sin!

It’s such a powerful moment. You don’t get it if you aren’t thinking about the rest of the story, but once you put it in context- the Lord’s supper is one of the most significant symbols of our entire faith!

The Lord’s Supper invites us to participate in Jesus’ story of Salvation.

Not just know it, or understand it, but participate in it! We are called to live not by the stories of this world. In Christ, we get to live in a different story all together! IN the Story of Jesus, we are broken, rebellious, slaves to our sin, BUT because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection- anyone who comes to the Lamb can be saved, set free from their sin, and delivered into new life in God’s Kingdom!

This is our story in Jesus, and the Lord’s supper is our invitation to live in that story!

As we close, what do we do with this picture of the Lord’s Supper?

3 things: 1. Remember the Savior.

The passover reminded us of our need for a savior but the Lord’s Supper declares we HAVE ONE! Remember that you were once lost in your sins, and under the curse of death, but Jesus came to set you free and give you new life! Remember you have a savior who bled and died and rose again for YOU!

2. Walk in Freedom.

THen, walk in that freedom that was purchased for you on the cross. Repent of your sin and daily walk in the Freedom that Jesus paid for on the cross. God didn’t leave you as a slave in your sin, he sent a savior to lead you out of your sin and death and into brand new life in his kingdom. So, stop turning back to sin, stop living like it still has power over you- it doesn’t! Walk in the FREEDOM of JESUS! Who the Son sets free, is free indeed! God set you free, walk in that Freedom!

Finally,

3. Live with Hope.

Jesus finishes the meal by saying that he will not drink that cup with them again until he drinks it with them new in the Kingdom of God. This is a reference to the banquet that we see in the book of Revelation. See the Passover ended with the hope of a Messiah, a savior, that would come one day. Jesus’ meal here ends with the hope that He will come back again one day and all of the effects of sin will be wiped away, and we will step into new creation with Him that is free from sin and any of its effects for the rest of eternity! The Lord’s Supper invites us to live with hope, because no matter what you are walking through right now, no matter what is going on in our world, we are living in a different story, the Story of Jesus and that story isn’t over yet- and it’s got a very good ending.

The Lord’s Supper invites us to participate in Jesus’ story of Salvation!

As we come to the bread and the cup We can remember the Savior, Walk in Freedom, and Live with Hope!

Bow your heads and close your eyes with me, let’s respond to this powerful story of Jesus together!

We are about to take the bread and the cup together. But this practice of the Lord’s Supper is only for people who have stepped into the Story of Jesus’ salvation. By taking it, you are saying yes that’s my story and you are participating in it!

GOSPEL INVITATION

So, is there anyone here today who hasn’t turned to Jesus to be saved. That’s what this is all about! Maybe you’re here today and you are still lost in your sin, looking for a way out. LIsten, you won’t find it in yourself or this world. God loved you so much that even though you are sinning against Him, he sent Jesus to come be the Lamb to take away your sins. JEsus lived a perfect life you could never live, he died the death that YOU deserved on the cross, and then he rose from the grave! Anyone who will turn away from their sin and follow Him will be saved! Don’t wait, let the blood of the Lamb wash away your sins today!

If that’s you and you want to follow Jesus and be saved today, when we sing in just a moment come talk to me or one of our other pastors up front here and we would love to pray with you!

For those of us here already following Jesus, during this time of response I want to encourage you all to ask God to remind you of the story you are in. That you were lost in your sin, but found freedom in the Savior he sent! Remember your Savior. Repent of any sins you have been walking in and need to be free from! Ask God to remind you of the hope you have in Him today! Hope that this isn’t the end of the story, Jesus is coming back one day to bring the fullness of the Kingdom of God! Let us be ready for that day!

I will pray for us and then as we sing, you respond however you need to. We will be up here at the front to talk or pray through anything you need!

PRAY and then INVITE PEOPLE TO STAND!