Day 31
Exodus 12:14-13:16; Matthew 20:29-21:22; Psalm 25:16-22; Proverbs 6:12-15
Passover
Perhaps you have had the privilege of sharing in a Passover celebration with a Jewish family, or perhaps your family or church participates in the “Seder Suppers” which have become common during Holy Week in Christian circles. Passover has become familiar to us, so familiar that we can be inured to its original meaning. It’s so familiar, we can be shocked by the awesome solemnity of verses like these:
“Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame. Not one of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and the sides of the doorframe, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.’” (Exodus 12:21-23 NIV)
What a long, strange night that must have been! We must remember the howls of sorrow that accompanied the liberation of Israel. It is no small thing, to be free! It is no easy matter, to be saved! It all comes by a dreadful cost.
The Rev. Kevin Holsapple