A Very Good Friday

            It had been a strange and solemn evening.  Jesus and His disciples had gathered in an upstairs room to celebrate Passover, a feast filled with symbolism and meaning.  Jesus knows that His time left with these twelve men is short, and He focuses His teaching on them alone.  After supper, Jesus plays the part of a servant, washing each of their feet.  He returns to the table and reveals that one of them will betray Him, and then sends Judas away to do what he will.  He teaches them about the Holy Spirit, and about abiding.  He reminds them that the greatest gift and act of obedience they can share in is to love each other.  He tells them He is going away and that they will mourn.  He prays for them, and for us (John 17:20).  In the midst of this, His farewell teaching, He tells them to take courage, because He has overcome the world.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

            Strange words, these, coming from a man who has just sent Judas away to betray Him.  Strange words from a man who is about to die. 

            When we think of overcoming, we think of strength, of commanding power.  We think of might.  We don’t think of blood.  We don’t think of dying.  We don’t think like God does.

            In God’s definition of overcoming, the distinction between overcoming and being overcome seems to blur.  Power is displayed in suffering.  Death is conquered by the One who embraced it, absorbed it, yielded to it, and then rose beyond it.  In Revelation the only one found worthy to open the Book was the Lamb, humblest of animals, looking as if it had been slain (Rev. 5:6).

            Jesus overcame the world.  He took on the form of man, setting aside His power and majesty.  He lived as one of us, was tempted as one of us, and became sin for us.  He rose and conquered death, so that we too could overcome.

            Too often we choose the wrong weapons with which to overcome our world.  We fight with willpower, with words or anger, or strength of sheer determination.  God says not my might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.  He tells us to overcome with love and by the life we live.  To be overcomers, we must do things His way, with His weapons, even when it seems foolish and weak to us and to those around us.  To be overcomers we must learn to value the things He values, and to think in a way that is contrary to our nature.

To be overcomers, we must take on the mind of Christ.

“To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.”  Rev. 2:7b

Our Passover

Today is the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Millions of Jews and Messianic Christians worldwide will prepare their homes and will gather for this eight-day celebration. The Passover is a celebration of remembrance for the events of the first chapters of Exodus.

The people of Israel, the sons of Jacob and their families, had settled in Egypt to escape the famine that had nearly killed them. Joseph had ensured that they had land to graze their sheep on, and that they were cared for and largely left alone. Years had passed. Joseph had died, and a new Pharaoh had come to power, a Pharaoh who didn’t know anything about Joseph. He looked at his people and he looked at the Israelites, and he became afraid. God had blessed the Israelites, and they were now a great nation in and of themselves, to some estimates of over two million people. Pharaoh began a governmental program to ensure his power over Israel. He made them slaves. The oppression of Israel was so intense that she began to call out to God.

God raised up Moses as their reluctant deliverer. Moses was raised in the palace of Pharaoh himself but also probably knew his heritage, as his nurse was his own Israeli mother. He had the best of everything, including education and healthcare, and then spent forty years in the desert learning humility and hard work. God gave him a clear calling through the burning bush, and empowered him for the work he called him to. Moses went before Pharaoh and demanded that Pharaoh let God’s people go.

Pharaoh was not so inclined. His “NO!” was firm. Moses and Pharaoh engage in a tug-of-war that left the Egyptians smarting. God sent a series of plagues that assaulted and defeated a number of the Egyptian gods. Flies covered the land. All the water turned to blood. Frogs filled their kitchens and beds. They were covered with boils. The land was covered with a darkness that could be felt. Some of the plagues affected both the Israelites and Egyptians alike, but the most oppressive were for Egypt alone. The last of the plagues was the death of every first born, both animal and human. It would be a clear sign to Pharaoh that God was sovereign. It spoke a few things to the Israelites as well.

God told his people to take a perfect, defect-free lamb, one per household. They were to slaughter the lambs together at twilight and take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses. They were then to roast the lamb and eat it, along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. They were to eat the whole thing, and any that was left was to be burned in the fire. They were to eat it in their traveling clothes, sandals on and staff in hand, ready to depart. On that night God would pass through Egypt and strike down every first born as an act of judgment. The blood would be a sign, and where the blood was, God would pass over that house. No harm would touch them.

And that’s exactly what happened. The people ate in obedience, with the blood on their door. God traveled through the land of Egypt, taking every first born as his own. There was loud wailing in Egypt, and Pharaoh let the people of God go.

The feast of Passover has been celebrated ever since as a remembrance of God’s deliverance of his people from slavery and oppression.

Passover has great symbolic significance for the Christian. We were in slavery to sin. We were oppressed and unable to free ourselves. The Lamb was slain, the blood shed to cover us, the wrath of God now passes over us, and we are free, delivered!

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. I Cor. 5:7-8

Just as the Israelites were to eat the lamb in their traveling clothes, so we are to be prepared to leave. Jesus will return and take us home. Just as the Israelites ate the unleavened bread, so we are to be rid our lives of the leaven of sin. Just as only God could deliver the Israelites, so only God can deliver us. We must place our faith in him and live for him.

This is the beginning of Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. My prayer is that I will remember this week, and always, of the sacrifice of our Lamb.

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth ad wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever! Revelation 5:12-13