The Passover Preparation

Palm Sunday: The Final Passover

The Passover Preparation
 

This Sunday marks the conclusion of our Passover Preparation focus, as we will remember Jesus' return to Jerusalem for the third and final Passover of His ministry.  During this final journey to Jerusalem, Jesus is hailed as the Messiah by great crowds of people, who wave palm branches and lay down palms and cloaks for his donkey to walk on as He travels to the holy city.

So much is in the background during this moment!  We are reminded that the immediate cause of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is His desire to honor and obey God's commandments by observing the Passover meal.  It is extraordinarily significant that the most important week and work of Jesus' life occurs on the anniversary of God's greatest work of salvation in the Old Testament.  We recognize, as well, what an incredible encouragement the reminder of God's saving power must have been to Jesus, who was preparing to face the greatest trial of His life.

Palm Sunday: The Final Passover
 

The story of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem is recorded in all three Gospels; our text for Sunday comes from John 12:12-19.  This moment in John is overshadowed by the resurrection of Lazarus (the fulcrum of the Gospel of John), which continues to add fame to Jesus, increase His danger from the religious authorities, and foreshadow His own resurrection.  

Consider the significance of this religious festival, celebrating the redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt, during a time when Israel is once again conquered, this time by the Romans.  A similar situation is found in Ezra 6:19-22, where the people returned from the Babylonian exile yet remained under the authority of yet another conquering power.  

The celebration of Passover is a reminder that God is mightier than the kingdoms of the world; yet the message Jesus conveys is a complex one.  The mighty God comes into His city during a celebration focused on His awesome power ... while riding a lowly donkey's colt.  Of course His disciples did not understand!  So often we find that the redemption we are desperately longing for is not the redemption we really need.  Which does God offer us today?
 

Extras

 
The shouts of the crowd are clearly for Jesus; however, they are not spontaneous declarations of faith.  They are quotes from a group of Psalms (120-134) called the "Psalms of Ascent."  These were Psalms sung by the pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the holy festival days.  Interestingly, the most famous shout, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD," comes from Psalm 118, just before the Psalms of Ascent.

We will celebrate the Passover meal as a congregation on Maundy Thursday, just as Jesus and His disciples would have done.  You will need to register for this meal, either on our website or by calling the church office at 715-359-6467.

Purim, Jesus' Festival of Lots

The Passover Preparation

During Lent, our Dust of the Rabbi series has been focused on the Passover Preparation.  This Sunday, in the midst of a focus on the holiday of Passover, we observe another holiday - Purim, the Feast of Lots.
    
Purim (literally meaning "Lots" in Hebrew) is the remembrance of God's salvation of His people through Queen Esther.  The holiday is so named because the enemies of the Jews cast lots to determine the day and month that they would murder all the Jewish people.  While the entire book of Esther is devoted to recounting these events, Esther 9:24-28 offers a brief summary of the events and the command to perpetually observe the holiday of Purim.

Purim, Jesus' Feast of Lots
(A Passover Story)

In Esther, we learn that Haman son of Hammedatha contrived the first genocide against the Jewish people.  During the time after the return from exile in Babylon, the Persian Empire, which conquered the Babylonians and released the Jews, remained the dominant power in the Middle East.  While the Persian Kings released the Jews from their exile, they did not make them a free people; the lands and people of Israel remained part of the Persian Empire.  Some of our ancestors chose not to return to Israel, but instead remained in the foreign cities where they had lived for the last seventy years.  Amongst those who remained were a man named Mordecai and his niece Esther.  
 
Ultimately, Esther becomes Queen of Persia by marrying King Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes) and courageously uses her new position to stop Haman's plot. Thus, Purim is a Passover story because both tell a similar tale; a foreign empire enslaved the Jews and threatened their very existence, and God responded by saving our ancestors and turning the intended violence back upon the perpetrators.  The repetition of history is clear - just as God saved the people from Pharaoh in Egypt, so too He saves the people from Haman in Persia. 

 However, Purim is a Passover story in another sense as well.  While the holiday is celebrated on the 13th day of the 12th month (the day chosen by lot for the destruction of the Jews), the majority of the story takes place almost a year earlier, during the week of Passover.  In fact, Esther holds a Passover banquet (a meal on the day of Passover itself) to persuade the King to save her people. How extraordinary is God's timing?
 
Both Purim and Passover foreshadow God's saving work in Jesus Christ.  But Purim also makes participating in God's salvation a realistic goal for us individually - Esther is no Moses, and yet God works mightily through her. How are you called to be a part of God's plan of salvation?  Where have you been placed "for such a time as this?"  

Extras
 

This is the only holiday mandated in the Old Testament that is not ordained in the Torah (the books of Moses).  
 
Esther is the only book in the Bible that never mentions God. For this reason, many people debated over whether it was appropriate to include Esther in the canon.  Ultimately, our ancestors agreed that the absence of God by name only emphasized His obvious presence throughout this Passover story.

The Second Passover of Jesus' Ministry

The Passover Preparation

In Exodus 13:11-16, the LORD claims as his own all the firstborn males of Israel.  These are all those who would have died in the tenth plague, but for the protection God offered them and the death of the lamb on their behalf.  The LORD commands every Israelite parent to "redeem" their firstborn sons from himself; this becomes a special offering, or tax, paid to the priests for the purpose of supporting worship.  

This instruction continues until Jesus' day, when Joseph and Mary paid the redemption price for Jesus; though of course, Jesus, the LORD himself, was the first Israelite who did not require that redemption.

"When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord  (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”),  and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”  - Luke 2:22-24


The Second Passover of Jesus' Ministry

The feeding of the 5,000 occurs in all four Gospels, as Jesus miraculously multiplies five loaves and two fish into food for an enormous crowd.  In John, Jesus uses this as an opportunity to teach the disciples that he is the new bread from heaven, mirroring and yet surpassing the manna that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness after the Passover.  

This story occurs just before the Passover feast (see John 6:1-15) and beautifully connects God's redemption with his ongoing provision in our lives.  As in the original Exodus story, God saves us for a purpose, with an intent to bring joy and blessing, and as part of a larger plan for our lives.  That plan includes caring for us as his children, and providing us our daily bread.

In the Gospel of John, the immensity of this act so astonishes the crowd that they decide to "come and make him (Jesus) king by force."  Jesus, being uninterested in earthly power, withdraws.  We are often guilty of a similar mistake; after experiencing the awesome love and provision and grace of our God, we seek to use those gifts to fulfill our own dreams, rather than listening for the dream of God.

Extras

At Tagba, the traditional site of the feeding of the five thousand, there is an ancient church with a beautiful mosaic on the floor.  It looks like this picture.  Notice that there are only 4 loaves and 2 fish; the fifth loaf is Jesus himself, the bread of heaven.

After the feeding of the five thousand, there are twelve baskets of leftovers.  These are often seen as a reference to the 12 tribes and the 12 disciples.  In contrast, after the feeding of the four thousand (not recorded in John) on the Gentile side of the lake, there are seven baskets of leftovers; one for each of the seven Gentile nations of Canaan.

The First Passover of Jesus' Ministry

The Passover Preparation

Next time you feel stressed or overwhelmed with the tasks in your life, consider this; Jesus had only three years for his earthly ministry.  Three years in which he called the disciples, taught them the gospel, revealed to the kingdom of heaven, and equipped them to build the church and change the world.  That's some extraordinary productivity!  

We estimate that Jesus' earthly ministry was approximately three years long BECAUSE of Passover.  There are three Passover celebrations recorded in the Gospel of John - 2:13, 6:4, and 13:1.  The record of these annual holidays is the only means we have of measuring the length of Jesus' active season of teaching and preaching.

The First Passover of Jesus' Ministry

In this first Passover Celebration, Jesus travels to Jerusalem, as he likely did every year of his life; Passover was a pilgrimage holiday.  We are told that he entered the Temple and found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, along with money changers at their tables.  He makes a whip of cords and drives them all from the Temple grounds, and says "Take these things out of here!  Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"  (For the full account, see John 2:13-25).  

Jesus has likely seen these money changes and sacrificial salesmen in the Temple literally hundreds of times throughout his life; but now that he has officially begun his ministry, he asserts his authority and seizes this opportunity for teaching and instructing the people.  

Why is Jesus so offended and angered by this "marketplace" atmosphere?  We are not given great clarity on this question.  The salesmen and money changers are serving an important, functional purpose; they enable those who travel a great distance to purchase animals for sacrifice.  Perhaps it is the commercialization of what was once a sacred act that strikes him as so abhorrent.  

In the book of Exodus, we are instructed to cleanse our homes before the Passover, not unlike Jesus cleanses the Temple.  In Exodus, however, it is leaven that must be purged.  Passover is immediately followed by the "Festival of Unleavened Bread," during which no leaven can be found in the home of any Israelite, upon thread of exile from the community.  The first instructions for this purging come from Exodus 13:1-10.  The roots of this practice stem from the first Passover, when the Israelites left Egypt in such haste, "the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their cloaks on their shoulders" (Exodus 12:34).  But by Jesus' time, the purging of leaven had become a spiritual exercise as well as a physical one; "leaven" came to refer to any sin or uncleanliness that needed to be removed from our homes or lives.  Thus, in "purging" the Temple, Jesus is also claiming it as his home - "my Father's house."

Extras: 

Scripture speaks of both the Passover and of the Festival of Unleavened Bread.  Technically, the Passover is a one day event on the 15th of Nisan (the first month of the Hebrew calendar).  However, the Passover is followed immediately by a 7 day celebration called Hag haMatza, or the "Festival of Unleavened Bread."  So the entire holiday season spans 8 days.

There is one unnamed festival in the Gospel of John, found in John 5:1.  It is possible that this is a Passover celebration, which would mean that Jesus' ministry was four years rather than three.  However, most scholars assume this was a different pilgrimage holiday, either Weeks (Pentecost) or Booths.  

The cleansing of the Temple occurs in all four Gospels.  However, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the cleansing happens in the last week of Jesus' pre-resurrection life.  In John, the cleansing happens at the beginning of his ministry, rather than at the end.  Several possible explanations exist for this.  One is that John the Evangelist places the story here to teach us something unique about the significance of Jesus' work in the Temple.  Another is that Jesus simply purged the Temple twice, years apart.  This might further explain the dire consequences that befall Jesus after the second cleansing.

The Passover Lamb of God

The Passover Preparation

Central to the Passover story is the Passover, or paschal, lamb.  In Exodus 12:1-13, the Israelites are instructed to take a young lamb, a year-old male, and to slaughter it at twilight before the Passover.  Over time, this becomes known as "Preparation Day."  

They are then instructed to take some hyssop, dip it in the blood from the lamb, and cover with blood their doorposts and the lintels of their homes.  This blood becomes the protection for the Israelites when the destroyer comes to strike down all the firstborn; he will see the blood on the doorframe and "pass over" that home, sparing all inside.  Significantly this is the only plague of the 10 where the Israelites are required to take any action on their own behalf.

The Passover Lamb of God

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is explicitly connected to the Passover Lamb.  When John the Baptist first encounters Jesus in that Gospel, he exclaims, "Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (See John 1:19-34).  That proclamation continues to reverberate throughout the Gospel.  Jesus is crucified in John on "the Day of Preparation" (John 19:14), the same day upon which the lambs would be sacrificed.  As he hangs on the cross, a branch of hyssop is used to covey a sponge of vinegar to Jesus' lips (John 19:29).  Again and again, we are reminded in John that Jesus fulfills the role of the Passover lamb; through his blood on our lives, we are spared from death.  Jesus' death on the cross causes Death to "pass over" us forever.

Like the plague of Passover, this salvation is the gracious act of God; we cannot earn it.  However, also like the Passover, this salvation does require our response and acceptance.  We cannot make the destroyer pass us by; but we must cover the doorframes of our hearts with his life's blood to be saved.

Extras

The term "Agnus Dei" has become famous in Christian art and music.  The painting above of the lamb prepared for slaughter is called "Agnus Dei" and was painted by Francisco de Zurbaran around 1635, for example.  Contemporary Christian music and hymns often use this title as well.  It is simply Latin for "Lamb of God."

In the Book of Revelation, John sees "a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne" of God (Revelation 5:6).  This is the title that Jesus retains for the rest of Revelation 5 and 6.  There is a powerful and fascinating dichotomy from the "Lion of Judah" and the "Lamb of God," and yet both titles are used in this same passage to refer to Jesus.  Jesus' identification with the Passover Lamb stretches even to Revelation and heaven itself.

The First Passover

The Passover Preparation

 We are now in the season of Lent - the forty day period during which we prepare for the death and resurrection of our Lord.  The beginning of Lent also connotes a new section of our Dust of the Rabbi series: The Passover Preparation.  The Passover story is an extraordinary one.  For both our Jewish ancestors, and Christians today, no event in the Old Testament is more significant than the Exodus; it is the account of salvation that prefigures the work of Jesus.
 
Just as we annually look towards to the Easter story, so too our Rabbi looked ahead each year to a holiday celebrating God's salvation of His people.  As we focus on the Passover this season, let us marvel at the wondrous plan of God; the same Man who celebrated the salvation of Passover each year of His life would Himself become the Passover Lamb who provides salvation for the world.  

The First Passover

The Passover is a challenging story for our modern sensibilities.  The Israelites, who entered Egypt during the lifetime of Joseph and Jacob, had grown into a numerous people.  Four hundred years later, their sheer size had sufficiently intimidated the Egyptians into taking preventative measures; the Pharaohs enslaved our ancestors and put them to forced labor.  God, who hears the cries of His chosen people, sends Moses to Pharaoh to demand that the Israelites be released.  When Pharaoh refuses, God through Moses performs the Ten Plagues.  The last of these plagues is the Passover, where the angel of death comes and strikes down all the firstborn throughout Egypt, both human and livestock.  The Israelites, however, are not killed, because the angel "passes over" the houses who slaughter a lamb and put blood on their doorframes.  For the full account of this plague, see Exodus 12:21-41.
 
This punishment seems severe, even in light of the previous genocidal behavior of the Pharaoh who commanded the murder of every Hebrew boy (Exodus 1:15-22).  Yet the focus of the story is not on the suffering of the Egyptians, but the protection offered by the blood of the lamb for the Israelites.  God's love for the Israelites is personal; in Exodus 4:22 God instructs Moses, "Thus says the LORD: 'Israel is my firstborn son.'"  The line is drawn; either God's firstborn son will go free, or Pharaoh's firstborn son (and those of his people) will die.  Ultimately, God saves and protects His firstborn son, Israel, from even the angel of death.  
 
In this context, the familiar words of John 3:16 take on a radically new shape.  In Exodus, God saves Israel, who He calls His firstborn son, from the final plague of death in Egypt.  In John, God gives His only Son, Jesus, unto death on a cross, for the sake of God's love for the world.  In the first account, God saves His son from death by the blood of lambs; in the second, God's Son saves us from death by His own blood.  The story is different, and yet the same.
 
We are a people of Passover.  Thanks to the Son, we are daughters and sons as well.  Thanks to the Savior, we are passed over by the death we deserve.  Thanks be to Jesus for the good news: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
 

Extras 

The Seder meal, which we will celebrate on Maundy Thursday, and which our Lenten Small Groups are studying during this season, was a creation of rabbis in the early 1st and 2nd Centuries AD (and some elements were added even centuries later).  The development of the Seder came partly from the rabbi's desire to teach Torah to everyday Jews outside of the Temple system, and party as a needed replacement for the Temple observance after 70AD, when the Roman armies destroyed the Second Temple.

Because the Old Testament requires Jews to travel to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices in the Temple there, it is no longer possible to follow a purely Biblical Passover celebration.  However, the meal that Jesus shared with his disciples in the Upper Room on the first Maundy Thursday most likely had many of the elements of the modern Seder.