Today’s Scripture

Psalm 116:12-19         Exodus 12:1-14           Mark 14:12-26

 

            God’s commands to his people, to us, continue throughout Scripture as we have found in the Together in the Word readings.  His first command is to take care of his garden, all of creation, for him.  His second command is not to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.  In these two commands he shows us the basis for all of his commands, his love to us.  You see, he wants all people to receive his goodness as was in the perfection of creation, and not to know anything at all about evil that is the cause of death.

 

            God’s will is that you do not experience death.  God’s will is to remove death from you.  Death is the result of sin.  Death is the punishment for sin.  Through Paul he states that so clearly, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” [Romans 3:23] and, “…the wages of sin is death,” [Romans 6:23].  But God still has a gift for you, eternal life [Romans 6:23]. 

 

            In Exodus we read how God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt to a free life in the Promised Land.  We see that this fulfills his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  We see how this fulfills his prophecy to Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved and mistreated in another country for 400 years and then return [Genesis 15:13].  We know this all points ahead to Jesus and how he delivers his people from slavery to sin to the free and eternal life in him.

 

            Death is certain.  God declared death of the firstborn throughout Egypt.  He commanded his people to prepare for this in a specific way.  He promised his people that in following this command, death would pass over their homes.  A lamb, the best of the flock is to be put aside, then roasted and served with bitter herbs.  Its blood is to be sprinkled on the doorpost to announce to the angel of death to not enter this house.  The angel of death will pass over because those in the house believe God’s promises and show their trust in following his commands.  They receive God’s gift of deliverance and life as the firstborn in each household are delivered from this certain death.

 

            Tonight Jesus comes to be betrayed, to allow himself to be captured, and to willingly go to the cross where he is nothing but “roasted” in front of the world.  There his blood is poured out as the sacrifice so that the angel of death will pass over all who believe in this sacrifice.  In his last instruction to the disciples, he gives his very body and blood that he sacrifices, and with it the command to “do this in remembrance of me.”  He tells us this is the new testament for the forgiveness of sins. 

 

            The Israelite people followed God’s command and saw immediately the Passover.  We learn just before they enter Canaan that God commands them to celebrate this each year at this very time to remember his promise to deliver his people, not just politically as he did from Pharaoh, but eternally as he will with our Savior Jesus Christ.  That is why we gather each year on this Holy Thursday, called “Maundy” Thursday because we celebrate Jesus’ command to us to remember his death and what he accomplished for us in it.

 

            As the people of Israel ate the unleavened bread and the sacrificed lamb, it told them of the haste and readiness to escape that night so quickly.  The bitter herbs with the roasted lamb point ahead to the bitter sufferings and death as God gave up his one and only son, whom he loved, as the price to pay to purchase us back from the eternal death of sin. 

           

            Today as we eat this bread, we too are reminded that we are to be ready at all times for our Lord to come even unexpectedly to escape from this world to eternity with him. In this bread is the body that was sacrificed for our freedom, a miracle we cannot understand but accept at Jesus’ very word. 

 

            The people of Israel knew that the blood of the lamb, the most precious of the flock, was the price paid for their deliverance from their predicament.  Today, in this wine alone, we receive the very blood that paid the price paid to deliver us from our predicament in sin and certain death to life everlasting with the “lamb” who paid this price. 

 

            Tomorrow we will witness the sacrifice.  Saturday we will remember our Lord and Savior in the tomb.  His rest on the Sabbath, a day of rest, will sanctify the tombs of all believers to be a place of rest until the day of the resurrection.  Those tombs will no longer hold them, will no longer hold you captive, but be the release to a glorified life as on Sunday, the first day of the week, the new week, we celebrate the resurrection, the defeat of sin, Satan and the grave, for all times.

 

            A command to follow, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  And we do this proclaiming Jesus’ death until he comes again [1 Corinthians 11:25].                 In Jesus’ undying love.                       Amen.