Rememberance
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Passover
Passover
(NRSV)
2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.
For the people of Israel, Passover month was to be the beginning of the year. In other words, the whole idea was that they should remember why they have life.
(NRSV)
3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household.
So they got a complete instruction for what was getting ready to happen. But have you ever thought about how they understood what was getting ready to happen. We take Communion today and we are told to do this in remembrance, but how many people here understand what they are to remember?
(NRSV)
26 And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ (NRSV)
27 you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed down and worshiped. I ask you to think about this now, In that day instructions were given to the households as to what they should do and how they should do it. From how to decide how much food to prepare, how to prepare it, and even how to prepare the doorposts.
(NRSV)
4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Are we not here today to observe this day together. Together we are much greater than apart.
(NRSV)
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
(NRSV)
6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. So you may select a lamb and then care for it until on the fourteenth day at twilight you shall kill the lamb.
I don’t know about you but when we were children we hated to kill anything that we had personally cared for. Now after continually performing this act it gets a bit easier but not at first.
Remember Peter’s rebuke of Jesus when Jesus explained that he would have to die and in three days he would rise. Peter rebukes and then Jesus tells him “Satan get behind me” in other words this is something that needs to be done.
Then they are to take some blood and mark their doorposts and lintel where they are to share the meal. This meal was to be a meal where all of the meat was consumed before sunrise. Think about that for just one moment, it was to be consumed before Son”rise”.
Now we get directions on how it was to be prepared and even how we are to dress when we eat of the lamb.
(NRSV)
11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. This meal was to be a remembrance of their escape from the bondage of Egypt; how the Lord set them free. It was also to be eaten to remember that because they believed and marked their doorposts that the Lord was going to spare them. This is a statement of faith.
(NRSV)
13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
So what are we remembering? (NRSV)
14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. Now how we celebrate this occasion has truly changed over time. When we take Communion notice that we often use leavened bread. In other words we use yeast or some other agent that causes bread to rise. But the early church followed the word of God.
(NRSV)
15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel.
So the significance of leaven was that a small amount of leaven could produce a significant change in the bread, but if we compare that to evil or sin, a small amount of sin can destroy the person. So all leaven must be removed from the house and the bread eaten for seven days must be unleavened bread. To remind Israel of their sin.
Notice, (NRSV)
19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land.
Then Moses basically, after giving them the instructions, says break. We often give instructions to those who will serve the meal here today but rarely do we instruct the people how they are to receive the meal.
(NRSV)
25 When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance.
(NRSV)
27 you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed down and worshiped. Why do we remember? Because He gave us life. How did He give us life? Peter rebuked him