Death Passed Over

This is Holy Week, for Christians the most important week of the Christian calendar. We celebrate Christmas, of course, because it remembers the day our Savior was born. But we remember the events of Holy Week because it is the week when God kept His promises.

Those promises were given way back in the beginning. Not too long after Creation, actually. Adam and Eve lived in the Garden and had an intimate relationship with God, they sinned, they had to leave the Garden, but God promised someday a savior. Then many years passed and there was much water under the bridge and much ground was covered and God's chosen people, Israel, found themselves slaves in Egypt.

It's the story of Moses and Pharaoh and the Ten Plagues, but I want to focus on the last one.

God sent boils and frogs and darkness, and the hard-hearted Pharaoh still wouldn't budge. So God told Moses to tell the Israelites to prepare for the final plague. The Death of the Firstborn. The first son of every family. The firstborn in the cattle shed. More painful than boils and more devastating than darkness, the Pharaoh was going to lose his son, and unless the Israelites wanted to be caught up in it, they had to follow God's directions.

This is where the Israelites of ancient times and the Jews of today get the celebration of Passover. But I'm not Jewish, so what does it matter?

Have you ever wondered why Pharaoh was so stubborn? The Bible tells us that God hardened his heart. Why would God do that? He wanted Pharaoh to release the Israelites, so why harden his heart to prevent that? I believe it was because God wanted to get to the Tenth Plague. He needed to, because this was how He would Israel He hadn't forgotten His promise.

The Israelites has to sacrifice a perfect lamb, a lamb without blemish or disease. They had to put the lamb's blood on the door frame. They all gathered inside before sunset and stayed inside all night. The Angel of Death would journey through the land and kill every first born, son and animal, but he would pass over every door with blood on it.

The Jewish Passover generally falls somewhere near Christian Easter, and for several years, my dear friend Beki has included me in her Christian Seder. It is at this meal where we observe the Jewish symbols and relate them to our Christian faith.

For that was God's point. That's why there had to be the Tenth Plague. The Passover points forward several centuries to Jesus and His death on the cross. Jesus is the perfect Lamb that was sacrificed so we can be spared death and eternal separation from God. On the Thursday of Holy Week we remember the Last Supper, and at every Communion table on a Sunday, we remember what Jesus said. "And when He had taken some bread and 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 in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood." Luke 22: 19-20

Through all of history, from Creation forward, everything has pointed to that moment on a cross, when God's Son was sacrificed in our place. Whether or not you participate in a Christian Seder, whether or not you observe Maundy Thursday or the Stations of the Cross, remember what Christ has done for His people Israel. And for you.

in the fullness of time