Holy Week - Sabbath, Passover, Communion and Sabbath

Wednesday – A day of Rest (Sabbath) during a week-long holiday

In the 23rd chapter of Leviticus, God established an annual calendar for his people, and he wanted to make sure that they took time to rest from their work, to enjoy the presence of God, and to celebrate what he had done for them. He wanted to make sure they took time to rest in his protection and provision.

In Leviticus 23 God …

23:3 – Established the weekly Sabbath – every seventh day they remembered the seventh day of Creation when God rested.

23:4-8 – He proclaimed the first Pilgrimage Feast – the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread – Seven days long

23:9-14 – He designed the Feast of First Fruits – One Day

23:15-22 – God founded the second of the Pilgrimage Feasts - Pentecost – the First Harvest – One Day

23:23-25 – God determined Rosh Hashanah – a celebration of the New Year – One Day

23:26-32 – He inaugurated Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – One Day

23:33-36, 39-44 – God instituted the third Pilgrimage Feast - Sukkot – the Feast of Booths, or the Feast of Tabernacles – This final feast was eight days long.

23:37-38 – These are the Lord’s Sabbaths

19 special Holy Days (holidays) every year, plus 52 weekly Holy Days (holidays) = 71, almost 20% of the year were days God set aside for us to rest.

Question: How many days do we rest in the presence, protection, and provision of God?

This week they were preparing to celebrate the first Pilgrimage Feast of the growing season – Passover.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday had been busy days. Now they were two days away from Passover and Jerusalem was getting crowded. According to Leviticus 23, three times a year every Hebrew male was required to journey to Jerusalem. But the disciples didn’t look at it as an imposition. These were holy days; these were holidays.

They looked forward to these feasts in the same way we look forward to Memorial Day, and Labor Day. These are days we usually don’t have to work. And now they were hours away from one of the biggest annual holidays, the week-long celebration of God delivering them from their former identity – slave laborers in Egypt.

The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened on Wednesday, but scholars believe that Jesus and the disciples spent the day preparing for the Passover and resting in Bethany with Lazarus, Martha, & Mary.

Four days earlier, in this very house, after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus’s sister Mary anointed Jesus’s feet with a perfume that cost as much as someone could earn in twelve months.

This particular Wednesday was a lull before the holiday week; like the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. On this day there were last-minute adjustments, moments of relaxed conversations, family games, and creating memories.

Jesus had developed a habit of rising early and spending time in prayer, and he likely did the same thing on this Wednesday. They would have eaten together. Maybe there were discussions about the withered fig tree, or the look on the faces of the money changers when Jesus made a whip and started flipping tables.

Maybe they discussed how everyone after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead now believed that Jesus was the Messiah King. They probably discussed the threats that the Pharisees and Sadducees had made against Jesus. Those threats extended to Lazarus and the rest of the disciples. But the Bible doesn’t tell us for sure what happened on this Wednesday.

All we know is that on this day, nothing significant happened that made it into the four gospel accounts. It was a normal day of anticipation.

Passover -

Earlier, I told you that in Leviticus 23 God established a weekly Sabbath as well as several annual feasts that functioned as times of Sabbath rest. Passover, the first of three Pilgrimage Feasts, and the seder meal that is celebrated during Passover, was instituted by God as a teaching tool for the next generation and those who “convert” to following God. So, while it is a remembrance of a solemn event in Israel’s history, it is also supposed to be a fun learning experience celebrating deliverance from slavery. It should be something everyone looks forward to, not something that the youngest ones dread.

On the table, you will see several elements of the seder meal.

The matzah, or unleavened bread, reminds us that when we leave bondage we leave in a hurry. There is no time for bread to rise. When God delivers, we must leave at once. Near the beginning of the seder, a piece of the unleavened bread was broken, wrapped in linen, and hidden. After the main meal, the children would search for this “bread that was broken.”

There is parsley on the table that reminds us of the hyssop tree that was dipped in the blood of the Passover lamb, to mark the door frame of the house. On the night they were delivered, it was marked so that God would spare every first-born person in the house when the last of ten plagues swept through the households in Egypt.

The parsley is also dipped in the bowl of salt water you see on the table to remind us of the bitter tears we cry when we are enslaved to sin. Take some of the parsley, dip it into the salt water, and eat it.

The fruit and nuts on the table are usually ground into a paste that resembles the mortar used to bind the bricks they used when in slavery. You can eat some now if you want.

The egg is usually roasted and reminds us of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. I would resist eating these eggs.

Traditionally there are cups of wine (today it is grape juice) and you would drink from the cup four times during the seder. The first time, you drink from the Cup of Freedom and read the first part of Exodus 6:6, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them.” The second time, you drink from the Cup of Redemption and read from the last part of Exodus 6:6, “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.” We’ll talk about the third and fourth cups later.

At some point, they would pause the “memorial” portion of the seder, and eat the main meal.

Communion -

The conclusion of the memorial portion of the seder would come after the main meal.

The children would search for the hidden “bread that was broken” and the one that found it would “win” a prize – usually a valuable coin. Like the children, we are awarded a prize when we seek the “bread that was broken” – eternal life. When the children returned to the table the family would break off pieces of the unleavened bread and eat it, which represents the Passover Lamb.

This is the point of the seder where Jesus forever transformed the script and said, “This is my body, broken for you. Every time you eat this, remember me.”

Usually, when they drink the third cup, called “Taken of God,” they read the first part of Exodus 6:7: “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.”

But Jesus changed the script once again. This time he lifted the cup and said, "This is my blood, which is poured out for many. It marks my new covenant with each of you. As often as you drink it, remember me."

The fourth cup, the Cup of Consummation, is usually filled and consumed after they read the last part of Exodus 6:7: "Then you will know that I am the Lord your God." But Christ never took the fourth cup that night. He said, "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God." On that day, we will consummate our "wedding vow" to the Groom-of-grooms when we all see him face-to-face, and "know that He is the Lord our God."

For the next few minutes, read through the script found on the table in front of you, and receive communion together as a family group.

Communion

After singing a hymn, they went to the Mount of Olives to a garden called Gethsemane. As you move back to your seats sing with me …

Saturday – Sabbath, a day of rest?

If they slept at all, they woke up after the execution of Jesus on the Sabbath. But I’m sure it didn’t feel like a day of rest.

Jesus’s body was still in the tomb. I’m sure the disciples were feeling all of the negative emotions – anger, depression, betrayal, finger-pointing, questioning the previous three years, was he really the Messiah? Was what they had given up, worth what they received by following Jesus?

None of this would have happened if they had only stayed in Galilee. If they had only stayed on the mountain where they saw Moses and Elijah, things would have been different.

If the Roman execution had happened on any other day of the week, they could have distracted themselves with work or holiday festivities. But today it was Sabbath, there would be no distractions. They were forced to ponder all of their questions and deal with all of their emotions.

Even God didn’t work to raise Jesus from the dead on THIS Sabbath. Thousands of years earlier, THIS day had been decreed as a day of rest. A day of resting in God’s protection and provision. But where was God’s protection yesterday? They were beginning a week of celebrating God’s deliverance of his people from the oppressive power of Egypt, but why had God not delivered his Messiah from the oppressive power of Rome?

The truth that Jesus had revealed was now in question. “Was any of it true? Were we fools for following a rabbi who had no home of his own?”

Were they next to be arrested by the Jewish leaders and put on trial? Would they be allowed to go to the temple and worship? To offer sacrifices? Or would they be cut off from their own people – thrown out of the Synagogue? If they went back to fishing, would anyone buy from them, or would they be “canceled” by their culture?

Matthew couldn’t go back and start collecting taxes again – what would he do now? Simon the Zealot would not be welcomed back into the ranks of the militant opposition to Rome. Fear would have been added to their depression and disillusionment.

Sabbath is designed to bless men and women with a day of rest. It may have been very quiet, but nothing on that day felt restful. There would be no distractions. Nothing to fill the aching void. There was only emptiness and chaos.

It felt like the earth again was without form and void. Darkness was over the face of the whole world, but where was the Spirit of God? Would there ever be another day when the Creator of the world spoke the words, “Let there be light!”

Those words would not be spoken today. Another night was coming. Everything they had experienced told them that the dominion of darkness had won the battle.