It is Holy Week. Last night, we led our students in a Seder, the Passover meal which Jesus was observing with His disciples the night He was betrayed.

“But you aren’t Jewish.”

You are right, dear reader. However, as Christians, their history is ours. They lived in the roots of this Gospel. We live in its branches. There is beauty in remembering the early signs of the One who would save. All of scripture points to Jesus. He is first mentioned as the savior in Genesis 3. We see Him as Abraham obediently moves to sacrifice his own promised child. And we see Him again and again through the story of the Israelites. Perhaps the clearest evidence of Christ in the Old Testament is the beginning of Passover in Exodus 12.

Passover celebrates the past and looks to the future. We’ve addressed this remembering once before.

In a Seder, a child is to ask four questions that are given a broad answer which then unfolds with detail as the meal progresses. Here are the questions:

• “Why do we eat unleavened bread, matzah, tonight instead of regular bread?”
• “Why are we eating bitter herbs?”
• “Why tonight do we dip our herbs twice?”
• “Why do we recline while we eat this meal?”

And the short answer, on this side of the Resurrection, is, “Because, the Israelites, the children of God, were slaves in Egypt and all of us were enslaved to sin. God, by His great mercy and mighty hand, redeemed us, saved us from sin just as He saved the Israelites from Egypt.”

The meal is full of reminders of how this rescue played out. If blogs were books and I were a scholar, I would walk you though the entire meal. However, because I am no expert, I will share only what I have learned about the Passover lamb.

At the Passover table, there is a platter displaying all the elements of the meal. One of these elements is the shank bone of a lamb. It is called the Zero’a. The odd thing about this name is that it doesn’t mean bone or lamb. It means “arm”. It signifies the mighty arm of God. It is a phrase used throughout the Psalms as the writers celebrate the outstretched, the saving, the powerful arm of God. The Israelites recognized that the lamb was the arm of God rescuing them, pulling them out of bondage, sparing them the death of rebellion. They can claim it and we can claim it, “We were slaves but we were saved by the blood of the lamb.” The old never gives way to the new without judgement. So, the lamb who died took the judgement from the Israelites, and Jesus, the Lamb of God, took the judgment from us. In Isaiah 53, Jesus is the powerful arm of God, reaching out to save.

The Israelites had to completely identify themselves with the lamb. They had to be in the lamb (in a house marked by the blood of the lamb), and the lamb had to be in them. They were instructed to eat the lamb. It is this complete identification that allows them to walk in freedom. Be under the blood, and let the lamb be in your blood. Be covered by the blood of Christ, and Christ will live in you. This is our Passover instruction.

One other thing I want to highlight. The Passover Seder includes a song called Diaynu. It is a declaration that God is more than good because of what He has done for us. Parts of this song proclaim, “If He had judged Egypt but not their gods, it would have been enough. If He had split the sea for us but not allowed us to see the other side, it would have been enough. If He had given us the Torah and not taken us to a new land, it would have been enough.” The theme, for them and for us, is this, “We deserve nothing. Just a glance from Him is grace but He poured out abundant grace…He sent a Redeemer!”

And so, we part today with the closing prayer of Passover.

We are bound to thank, praise, laud, glorify, extol, honor, bless, exalt, and reverence Him, who performed for our fathers and for all of us these miracles. He brought us out of slavery into freedom. He brought us out of sorrow into joy. He brought us from mourning to celebrating, and from darkness into great light. He brought us from bondage to redemption. Therefore, let us sing a new song in His presence. Hallelujah!

Gracious, loving, and merciful God. Those lyrics from “O Little Town of Bethlehem hold so much meaning…The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

Just as it was at the first Christmas, this is a time for many filled with heartache. We have seen division, hatred, darkness this year globally and for many, personally. And so, Christmas is marked by pain, loneliness, fear, and confusion. But, you are familiar with this sorrow. At the time of your arrival as a baby, the world was full of these things. Parents were losing children because of a government that was threatened by the promise of you. A young girl was facing rejection because of her choice to be obedient. Her family was turned away because their presence made people uncomfortable. Your people, The Israelites, had been waiting for a word from you for 400 years.

And your answer to their heartache was for The Word they waited on to be wrapped up in flesh. The one who had been the agent of creation, who had been and still holds all things together, left his throne to become man. We are grateful that you never gave up being God, but that you did see fit to also become like us, to step into skin, into the mess we made of your perfect creation…and by being both God and man, you created the possibility for us to be reconciled with our Creator.

This is the beauty of Christmas. That, at just the right time, according to Your plan, Father, you sent your Son, to become like us. To walk among us. To feel pain, loneliness, fear, confusion. Not to fix our mess from afar but to walk with us in it. The story of Christmas without the context of Easter is lacking. We have hope not only because you put on flesh and came as a little baby, but because you lived a life we had no hope of living, you chose to face death on our behalf, and you conquered death when you rose again. Your birth, life, death, and resurrection, gave us hope and it continues to give us hope.

We pause now and ask that you would breath hope into the hurting places we carry with us tonight and pour your light into the darkness that seems so heavy in our world right now.
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Thank you that joy is possible even in sorrow because we have a high priest who knows what it is like to walk this road. Thank you that joy is possible because you have defeated the power of sin and are still offering new life to those who believe. Thank you that there is reason to celebrate now and every day because you came to reconcile, you came that we might have life to the fullest. And that life is only found in you.

Just as you, Christ, came to dwell among men, all those years ago, You, Holy Spirit, dwell among us now. So when we seek satisfaction in things that will not satisfy, when we search for solutions that will not bring peace, remind us, that our satisfaction, and the ultimate solution invaded this world as a baby…and all authority rests on HIS shoulders. We can cease striving because He is sovereign. And while our God is not tame, He is good.

And Lord, we confess that all too often we find ourselves wrapped up in defending your character rather than reflecting your character. You have asked us to live out the beauty of Christmas in our lives, to follow your lead as we step into the hurting world around us. To love others, not because they value the things we value, but because we find common ground in our inability to rescue ourselves. We find common ground in our need for a Creator who became the creature so that we might find a place in the family of God. Help us, as your people, as a church, as individuals, to echo the beauty of Christmas all year long. The hopes and fears of all the years are still met only in you.

Amen