“The Promise of Passover” Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8

At my last appointment, one of the things I did to intentionally engage the community was to serve as a volunteer chaplain at the state university. I led Bible Studies, had an intern, and had a time when people could just come chat with me. But perhaps what brought me the most joy was planning worship. We would have special services throughout the semester, especially during the season of Lent, when students and faculty would come together to be fed on the Word. It still brings me a sense of awe to think about the rooms where people came to meet and worship God. 

One particular worship service that I participated in wasn’t one that I had to plan or even one that I led. It was led by a group of Jewish students, who graciously offered the university an opportunity to come together and celebrate a Passover Meal. 

Friends, if you have ever celebrated a Passover Meal, it is not something you quickly forget. It is the bedrock of our Jewish brother and sisters faith - that God brought them out of Egypt and led them into the Promised Land. 

But what made that particular celebration of Passover special is that it was in the midst of the Christian Holy Week. In the midst of a time when we come together and also remember. Remember how Jesus gave his life for us, died our death and rose again all for our sake. 

Passover and our celebration of Holy Communion are intimately linked. 

So I can think of no better text to gather around this day than the story of the first Passover, found in Exodus. Especially as we join our brothers and sisters around the world in celebrating the Lord’s Supper on this, World Communion Sunday. 

But before we get to Exodus, Chapter 12, we have to go back. Have you ever been with someone and you realize that you entered in half-way through a story? They are getting to the crux of what they wanted to say - but you had no idea how they got there or why the story they were telling is important to them? It’s a little bit like that when we start with the Passover story. So let’s take a step back. 

The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. They were being driven harder and harder by the oppressive hands of those who enslaved them. And they found themselves crying out to God for deliverance. God sent Moses to them, someone who was raised by the Egyptians but was a Hebrew, to deliver them from the Pharaoh. God also raised up Moses’s brother, Aaron to help communicate the message God was sending them with - to let God’s people go. 

Pharaoh went through cycles where he would turn Moses away only to find himself and his people afflicted with plagues. He would say that he changed his mind, only to never actually let them go. And this cycle repeated itself over and over and over again until we get to the moment in today’s scripture passage. 

The people of Israel were instructed to take a lamb for each family, and slaughter them all at the same time. They were to paint the blood from the perfect lamb over their doorposts and lintels of their homes as a sign. A sign for God to pass over their homes when the final plague would come - the killing of the firstborn in each household.

They were then instructed to eat the lamb in a certain manner. 

This is what became known as the Passover meal. This is the beginning of the flight of the people of Israel from Egypt to the Promise Land. 

Did you notice that what the people of Israel come together and celebrate is the beginning? They are celebrating the meal that came even before their liberation because it is a turning point in their story - a turning point in their history. 

Year after year after year they came back and had this celebration. Why? To teach their children, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ To teach their children their story. 

Friends, we, too, have a story of liberation that we tell our children. A story that helps us be anchored and remember - the story of Jesus’s final meal with his disciples. The Passover meal. But as he celebrated it with them, he took it and gave it new meaning as he took the bread of the meal and said, “This, this is my body given for you. Do this is remembrance of me”. And taking one of the cups used to celebrate this holy meal, he gave it a new meaning as he proclaimed, “This is the blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Rituals are important, friends. Gathering around the table is important. Telling the stories over and over and over again, passing them down for generations is important. 

But perhaps is what is most important in these particular stories is telling anew how the symbols - the passover lamb and unleavan bread, the cup and the bread - point us to the story of God. A story that we may not always understand, because parts of it remain a mystery to our human perception, but an important story none-the-less. 

Because the symbols point us to remembering the deliverance of God. 

The grace and salvation and hope that come from God alone. 

Friends, sometimes we need a reminder of that deliverance. Sometimes we need a tangible way to remember the mercy of God, especially when times are hard. This past Holy Week was one of the hardest of my life, and I know many pastors that shared that sentiment. It was hard because we could not imagine how we tell the story of what happened on that Holy Thursday when Jesus shared his final passover meal with his disciples, without sharing in these symbols - this bread and this cup.

But as I was reflecting on how hard that was for me, I was equally struck by how hard it must have been for our Jewish brothers and sisters to not be able to join friends and extended family around the table to share in the Passover Meal. 

At times when we cannot share in our rituals - how do we remember the deliverance of God? We keep telling the story! At times when it seems like the foundations of the world are sharking - what can we do? We can re-member. We can be the people who boldly proclaim that while we may not be able to remember together in the ways we are used to - we are still a people of the story. A people who tell it over and over and over again. 

But here’s the thing my friends - the story - the story doesn’t end with the Passover meal or with the Lord’s Supper. Passover led to the Promise Land, The Lord’s Supper led to the empty tomb and the statement that we celebrate this meal until when? Until we feast together in the Heavenly Kingdom. 

Symbols help us tell the story, but they aren’t the story itself. They may not even be the storytellers. Friends, we are the storytellers. The question is - what story are we telling? Amen.