Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Exodus 12:11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
EASTER ROOTS
Today we begin again a journey we make every year. Not so many weeks ago we went in heart and mind from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary and Joseph to behold the miracle of God made flesh. We came with the shepherds to see again what the Lord had made known to them. We came a third time with some Magi from the East.
But today we begin the journey--not to Bethlehem--but to Jerusalem, to the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, Calvary, the cross, and the grave. As we prepared to celebrate Christmas during the Advent season, so also we prepare for Easter during the season of Lent.
But just as the roots of our Christmas celebration went deeper than many people realize, firmly fixed in ancient prophesy, so also the roots of our Easter Alleluias extend far beneath the surface celebration. Our deliverance in Christ was pictured in many ways for the Old Testament believers long before the events of Jesus arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.
One of the most famous of these portrayals was the Passover. The first Passover was not just something that happened, which was then commemorated by the Israelites. It was something planned and accomplished by God Himself. So also with our redemption in Christ Jesus: It was not just a miscarriage of justice which happened once, and now we remember it (like the holocaust) hoping that it might never happen again. The Suffering and Death of Jesus was God overcoming the wickedness of mankind, delivering us from the effects of our wickedness forever.
