Mining the Riches: Feasting with Our Lord

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.

Exodus 12:3–14 ESV

By Rev.Thomas Messer

From the beginning, our God has desired His people to live in harmony with Him. Even after Adam and Eve brought sin into God’s perfect creation through disobedience, God still had this desire. It really is rather amazing when you think about it. God could have scrapped the whole project and started over, but He didn’t. He still loved His creation and desired to have a relationship with His people, so He put His plan of salvation in place. He set about to fix what His people had broken. He promised to send them a Savior who would save them from their sins and restore the perfect, harmonious relationship they were created to have with Him.

We witness God working out His plan of salvation throughout the Old Testament, always pointing His people to the promised Savior that they might believe in Him and be saved. He even established a liturgical calendar for His people to follow for this purpose, complete with specific feasts to be celebrated at appointed times each year (see Leviticus 23). God used these feasts to meet with His people on a regular basis and give them the forgiveness, life, and salvation He promised them.

The first of the feasts God appointed for His people to observe was the Passover, or Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Exodus 12; Leviticus 23:4–8). This feast served as the most significant observance on the liturgical calendar for it was celebrated in remembrance of God’s awesome deliverance of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt. They were to recall how God struck down the firstborn in Egypt but passed over their homes because of the lamb’s blood spread on their doorposts and lintels.

The Passover was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites were to slaughter and eat an unblemished, male lamb along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. During the Passover meal, they were to recount the story of that fateful night in Egypt when the Lord rescued them. The next day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. This was a seven-day feast in which the Israelites were not permitted to eat leavened bread. While all seven days of this feast were set apart as holy days, the first and seventh days were especially important. On those days, the Israelites were to refrain from doing any ordinary work and a holy convocation (i.e., Divine Service) was held. Eventually, the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread became one of the great pilgrim feasts in Israel, and many Israelites would travel to the temple in Jerusalem for the Feast.

The significance of this feast and, indeed, of all the feasts God appointed for the Israelites, is seen more by what they foreshadowed than by what they commemorated. All of the feasts pointed forward to the Savior to come: Jesus Christ. This is vividly clear in the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread. The countless, innocent lambs that were sacrificed by the Israelites year after year find their fulfillment in Jesus, who is the holy, innocent Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The blood on the doorposts and lintels of the Israelites’ homes on that first Passover in Egypt pointed forward to—and received its saving power from—the blood Jesus would shed on the cross on the eve of the Passover in Jerusalem. Jesus is our Passover Lamb and, through faith in Him, we are covered by His blood, so that we are passed over by death and live forever in His Kingdom.

But what about the unleavened bread? What is that all about? Leaven is a symbol of sin in the Bible (see Luke 12:1), so abstaining from leaven symbolized the new life lived in Christ, having been cleansed from sin by His atoning blood. Thus, the Feast of Unleavened Bread pointed forward to the eternal life God’s people will enjoy with Him in the new Jerusalem (see Revelation 21) where sin and all of its devastating effects will be no more.

Do we still celebrate the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread? Yes, we do! We celebrate our Lord’s fulfillment of this feast each year during Holy Week and Easter. But, more than that, each time we gather together for Divine Service, we behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. We eat His body and drink His blood for the forgiveness of our sins. We remember what He has done, and continues to do, for us. Our God, who has always desired to live in harmony with His people, meets us in the Divine Service to give us the forgiveness, life, and salvation He promises us in His Word, which was foreshadowed in the Old Testament feasts and fulfilled by His Son, Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb and Lord. Next time: the Feast of Booths.

Rev.Thomas Messer serves as pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Alma, Michigan. He can be reached at pastormesser@gmail.com

Studio of Godfrey of Huy (d.1173/1174). An Israelite marks the door with the blood of a lamb. 3rd quarter 12th CE. Meuse valley. Champleve enamel plaque. Inv. N.1150. Louvre, Paris, France. Photo: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY