Tuesday, March 5

The Mystery of Our Exodus 

We, Too, Came Out of Captivity!

If you speak with your more conservative Jewish friends as they are celebrating the Passover, they might give you this important detail: during the Passover Seder we are instructed to collectively say: “Because of this, God acted for me when I came out of Egypt.” (See also Exodus 13:8.)

God instituted this Passover meal as a remembrance. But it was more than a remembrance. By physically going through many of the practices that occurred in the original Passover (purging the house from leaven, eating a similar meal to the original meal in Egypt, only permitting Jewish people to participate in the sacred meal – which indicated the faith of the Jews versus the unbelief of the Egyptians (Exodus 12)), the Passover Seder doesn’t just remember these events; it is as though the people are participating in the Exodus all over again.

When Jesus said, “This is My blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins,” (Mt. 26:28) He was reminding the disciples of how they participated in the Exodus from Egypt – while at the same time He was offering them something new. This was a new Exodus, from the captivity of sin, death, and the tyranny of the devil.

Jesus was instituting Holy Communion as the new Passover. Therefore, St. Paul would write in I Cor. 5:7 “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”  This covenant, and the blood of Christ, are timeless. He instituted it before He died on the cross. Yet we learn from many verses (Hebrews 4:3; Revelation 13:8;  II Timothy 1:9; Isaiah 45:17; I Peter 1:19, 20) that the blood of Christ shed on the cross outside of Jerusalem in the first century had mysteriously been applied by God across the centuries  – before and after His death –  over the door of the hearts of those who would trust in the Lamb of God.

The Old Testament people of God were looking forward to salvation in the coming Christ, while we look back at our salvation in Him.  But God was looking at all of history through the lens of His Love.

If you ever sign a promissory note or cosign a loan… and you privately think, “If Stella defaults on this, I’m never going to pay this back.” Of course, you are being disingenuous. Why sign or cosign, if you have no intent to pay the bill.

God is good for His Word. In fact, His Word is Who He is! (John 1:1) His promises cannot be broken. He knew even before He created Adam and Eve that they would sin, and He would have to redeem them. It’s like parents who know, before the baby is born, there will be scraped knees to come, yet we have the children, anyway, because of love. God created because of love, and He knew that the redemption was as good as done. This is the mystery of our perfect and timeless God, and the love of Christ, given to us in Holy Communion.

In our baptism we came out of our captivity. As we commune with Christ, we say in our hearts, “This is my protection! This is my Passover! This is my freedom! This is my forgiveness!”