At Wascana Fellowship we base the annual gatherings of our group on the calendar described in the first five books of the Bible. In the springtime this means that we gather on the days of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
This does not mean we are down on more normal church calendars or believe that ours somehow makes us special compared to others. (Different, yes. Special, no.) Nor does this mean that we believe these days or other Old Covenant practices to be necessary for salvation.
Passover is the actual day that Jesus died. According to the Jewish calendar Passover day begins on what we would call the evening before, so that Jesus died on the daylight portion of Passover day. Jesus had his last Passover supper with his disciples during the nighttime portion of Passover, which, for obvious reasons was the night before the rest of the Jews celebrated their Passover supper.
(Well, maybe the reason is not so obvious for modern Christians. Jesus was killed during the time the Passover lambs were being sacrificed at the Temple, so he could not participate in that evening’s meal. In other words, Jesus’ last Passover with his disciples was the evening before the official Jewish Passover supper.)
The Apostles record different details about the supper gathering just before Jesus was arrested and crucified. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record Jesus breaking bread and sharing wine with his disciples – something that John does not mention. John fills in many other details that the other three do not record, such as Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. John also records what is perhaps the longest teaching session and prayer involving only the disciples by Jesus in the Gospels on that night.
Like some other traditions we incorporate three elements of Jesus’ actions in this yearly commemoration service: 1) a foot washing, 2) breaking bread and 3) the “fruit of the vine.” (Not all traditions include a foot washing, and that is fine.) Prior to each of these we read a relevant passage from the Gospels. This year we read:
- John 13:1-17 Foot washing
- Matt 26:20-26 Bread
- Matt 26:27-30 Wine
After this we traditionally have a message based on the meaning of the day or the events of that evening. This year we focused on the meaning, starting with a question God expected his people to ask as they participated in a memorial of the Passover.
Exodus 13:14 “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
That is still an important question. So, what does what we have done tonight mean?
Let’s start with a bit of history.
By the time Israel was about to enter the Promised Land God had expanded his covenant stipulations into what we now call the book of Deuteronomy. The covenant had world-shaping implications.
In Deuteronomy 30:1-7 Moses offers bad news and good news for the people of Israel. The bad news: they will disobey and be ejected from the land, suffering under a succession of Gentile kingdoms. The good news: there will be a re-gathering of the people of God promised after the long and arduous captivity.
The “gathering” would be characterized by three things: a gathering from all nations that God has scattered them to; a change (“circumcision”) of heart leading to obedience to God; and curses being sent upon the peoples who persecuted God’s people.
The Prophet Jeremiah calls this “circumcision” a “new covenant, unlike the one God made with Israel after saving them from Egypt.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)Features of this “new covenant” include God putting his law into their hearts (instead of tablets of stone) and forgiveness of their sin, including not remembering it anymore.
Roughly 6 centuries later a Bethlehem-born Galilean prophet named Jesus, a descendant of King David, approaches a small band of fishermen. He recruits them to spread good news about the Kingdom of God in Matt. 4:18-19 with the statement, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
He gathers a group of disciples around a mountain (reminding onlookers of the gathering at Mt. Sinai) to teach them, and a multitude gathers around to listen. In his famous Sermon on the Mount in Matt. 5-7:28 Jesus’ outlines a set of principles that look a lot like covenant stipulations, including blessings and curses (warnings). Jesus later condensed these principles for his disciples during his last supper with them in John 13:34-35. “Love one another as I have loved you.”
The disciples confirm that they will obey him in John 16:29-30 and Jesus tells his Father that he accepts their agreement in John 17:6-8. This is the equivalent of their saying “everything the Lord has said we will do.”
During that meal Matthew 26:28 records in that Jesus tells his disciples that the wine they were drinking together represents his own “blood of the new covenant” which was to be shed for them to deal with sin. (Remember that the old covenant was ratified with the blood of bulls.)
For 3 hours before Jesus’ death on the cross the entire land is covered in darkness according to Luke 23:44-49. Immediately following this darkness is the death of the firstborn of God. Here we have a plague of darkness followed by the death of the firstborn – reminders of the Exodus that had also occurred during the original Passover/Exodus events more than a millennium before.
Jesus is first beaten and whipped, a punishment that was to be exacted for any Davidic king who led the children of Israel astray (2 Samuel 7:12-14). Jesus’ beaten body paid for the sins of the kingly line of Israel.
The Priests had a responsibility to keep God accessible to the people of Israel. Priests who prevented the population from honouring God, such as the priestly line of Eli in the days of Samuel, would die before reaching old age (1 Samuel 2:31-33). Jesus certainly took on that punishment as well.
Jesus dies during the time that the Passover lambs are being sacrificed for that evening’s ceremonial meal. John 19:33-35 records that Jesus’ blood was shed, just as Jesus had predicted. His blood replaces the blood of the lamb that had been placed on the doorposts and jambs to protect the Israelites from the “destroyer” of the firstborn. It becomes Jesus’ blood of the new covenant that is shed for the remission of sin for all who believe in him.
The meaning of all this is that Jesus is leading us to a Promised Land beyond death by first freeing us from the penalty for our sin. We look back on his sacrifice through the symbols of the bread and wine, representing the punishment he endured and the blood he shed to atone for our sinfulness.
Jesus is the one Moses was pointing to in the Exodus. He is the passover sacrifice, but also the one in the pillar of fire that Israel followed.
We look back at the love he displayed for all the world by dying for anyone who will repent and accept Jesus’ lordship and receive the Holy Spirit.
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it.
John Valade 
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