Our Passover Lamb

The way God frees the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt involves a lot of puzzling things, especially hardening Pharoah’s heart and the destructive ten plagues, but the rescue also involves a lot of symbolic things.  The Lord claims the nation of Israel as his firstborn son,  and he kills every firstborn in Egypt in the final plague to emphasize this and to finally free his people from their slavery.  He tells Moses and Aaron to tell the people of Israel to kill a lamb, spread its blood on their doorposts, and roast and eat its flesh the night before the Lord is to kill every Egyptian firstborn.  The lamb’s sacrificial blood will cause the Lord to pass over the houses of the Israelites, sparing their firstborns.

This Passover Lamb in Exodus 12 is a foreshadowing of the ultimate Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ.  The blood of his sacrifice on the cross covers our sins by forgiving them.  Because of his blood, we are spared from the death earned by our sins; we are spared the righteous judgment of God and given life instead.

I had never noticed the bit about eating the Passover Lamb.  This time when I read about the Passover and thought of Jesus as the ultimate Passover Lamb, I remembered his puzzling words in John 6: 53-55:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. ”

It makes more sense in light of the feast of the Passover.  The people ate the flesh of their sacrificial lamb.  In the same way, we feast on the flesh of our sacrificial lamb.  We let his grace, mercy, and righteousness be the substance that gives us life, strength, and nourishment.

As Jesus celebrated his last Passover feast with his disciples before his crucifixion “he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying ‘This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood'” (Luke 22: 19-20).

Communion is a picture of this feasting on the flesh of our Passover Lamb, who gave his life freely as a sacrifice for us, that we might be forgiven, spared, and rescued from slavery to sin.  Let’s feast daily, every moment, on his incredible grace, love, righteousness, and eternal life given to us in his sacrifice on the cross!  His flesh is true food and his blood is true drink because they save and sustain our souls, which are eternal.

 

On Feasting

“How precious is your steadfast love, O God!  The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.  They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.  For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see.”  Psalm 36: 7-9

After Jesus died and then rose from the dead, he told his disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”  (Luke 24:44-46)

I love that all of the Old Testament points to Jesus.  And I saw Jesus so plainly in Psalm 36: 7-9 this morning.  His body is the feast from the abundance of God’s house and his blood is the river of delights.  For in his body and blood are forgiveness and eternal security.  He is the fountain of life, forever gushing and flowing.  He is light.  In him and through him do we see things as they truly are.  In him we see our sin and unrighteousness, grievous offenses before a holy, perfect, and sovereign Creator, God, and King.  In him we also see the extravagant gift of grace and mercy – his substitutionary death that exchanged our deserved death with his deserved life.  He bore God’s wrath so that we might receive righteousness, sonship, and an eternal inheritance.  In Jesus we see suffering anew, knowing that it does not compare to the glory we will experience in heaven in God’s presence.  We see death rightly, as having no power over us and no sting.  Because Christ, who is our life, has conquered the grave!  In him we see the pleasures and riches of this world as they truly are – temporary, fading shadows of the true pleasures and riches to come!

Oh Jesus, thank you.  Thank you for giving your body and blood that we may feast on grace, forgiveness, and truth.  You sustain us more than physical food and drink.  Thank you for eternal, abundant life.  Thank you that you are the light in which we truly see.