The Power of Passover

At sundown yesterday, Passover began.

I've been reflecting a lot lately on Passover...mainly because I am going to be leading communion for a ladies' prayer retreat, I just taught on the Jewish Holidays yesterday to my middle schoolers and I went to a seder last night.

When Jesus participated in His last Passover with the disciples just hours before His death, was He reflecting on the fact that what were before Him (the lamb, the bread, the wine) were are symbols of Him? That soon, He would become the sacrificial lamb, the broken bread, and wine spilled out for us? As He served His disciples, did He silently think, "share with Me...it is for you that I will die"?

Passover has always been about salvation.
Through the blood of a lamb, the Israelites were saved. The Israelites were soon going to be freed from the rule of the Egyptians but Pharoah, whose heart was strongly against God, would not relent to God's command to free the Israelites. So God sent plagues to humble him...but nothing worked until God finally decided to kill all the firstborns (among men and animals). Salvation would be provided for anyone, both Israelites and Egyptians, if they sacrificed a perfect lamb and placed the blood on the doorways. That night, when the angel of death swept through Egypt, those with blood on the door were saved and those without, faced grief and loss. Passover was then celebrated, and still is, to commemorate God's salvation of the Israelites.
Through the blood of the Lamb, I am saved. When I choose to be identify myself through the blood of Jesus, through His death, I receive salvation. Death's power is gone. It's not that I won't still die but I will get to spend eternity with God instead of being apart from God. You see, Jesus was perfect. He never sinned, made mistakes, hated, envied, or the hundred of other battles that I personally face. He lived a blameless life and yet chose to die as a sacrifice for my sin so that I might be restored to God. How amazing is that? Even more amazing and humbling, is the fact that even if I was the only person in the entire span of time who sinned, Jesus would have still allowed Himself to be killed just for me! Who am I to deserve that? But that's the kind of love that God has for His people.

Really, it's all about identity. Just as the Israelites had to choose to put the lamb's blood on their doorway, so do I have to choose to let Jesus' blood provide my salvation. In the lamb/Lamb, there is freedom. And that is the power of Passover.