[Passover 2024]

We celebrate our Christian Passover-feast.  It might sound like a contradiction in terms because the death of a person is not  a reason for celebration.  Nowadays, people conduct a funeral as a celebration of life.  The nature of such a ceremony has changed significantly over the years, from a very somber occasion to something that one would think fits more with the things we as Christians believe about death.

Death has always been so final and so beyond human control that we would do everything to seek to control it.  Medical services cost thousands upon thousands in any currency to cover the expenses of keeping a body going.  Along with that, people take it upon themselves to decide about the life of a baby and the elderly – the beginning and end of a person’s life course.  Humanity insists on controlling what is actually God’s realm.

Yet it is impossible to create life.  Only God gives life.  Research has advanced far, down to all the components of a living cell, yet the composition of everything leads to nothing – there is no life.  We can destroy life – very effectively.  Modern weapons and modern medicine testify to this.  However, the source, the creation of life, eludes the brightest of our research abilities.

We know God is the Source of life.  God’s breath is the breath of life within us.  God breathed into Adam, Jesus onto His disciples, and established the wellspring of all life – the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, we truly live at rebirth when the Holy Spirit revives our spirit.

If God creates life, He is also the sustainer of life.  He does not give something that we must wrestle with in our insignificance and limitations without His provision and protection.  Famine is always a result of sin and mostly a judgment on wickedness and idolatry.  A blessed harvest is one of the miraculous promises of a divine life.

Bread is the basic food to sustain life and a symbol of God’s Provision.  It is a concrete feature of the relationship between God and humanity.  Bread in your hand is tangible evidence of the invisible God.

Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life (John 6:53-58) – one of the seven I AM-statements in the Gospel of John. We, His Church, are bread.

For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:17)

We live from the Bread of Life, we are one bread, and we receive bread from the Hand of God as provision for our lives like the manna in the desert (Exodus 16:33), and the multiplication of the bread on the mountain for the crowds where Jesus in His boundless grace provided abundantly (John 6).

Moreover, our souls are nourished with the Word as depicted in the symbolism of the showbread, of which the priests displayed twelve on the table in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle.  Along with oil and incense, the grain offering was brought to God, an offering from His provision.  The grain offering was a mix of oil and wheat, baked on the altar so that the people could enjoy its delightful aroma.

Therefore, Bread is part of our Passover.  Jesus’ body, of which we are a part, was torn and broken to open the Veil to the Most Holy Place.  Every time we eat the Bread of the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim the death of Jesus. (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Shall we then also acknowledge the Giver of Life, true life, the moment we take the Bread of the Lord’s Supper in our hand?  Just as the travelers to Emmaus so long ago, when they, in blindness and despair, told the story to the stranger walking with them – their disappointment with the tragedy of the past days, the cruelty of a Roman cross, the scornful jeering of the crowds still fresh in their memory with a dull, uncertainty about the interpretation of it all and so much doubt in the hope they had cherished. The bread in Jesus’ hand tore their “veil” to “see” into the Most Holy Place with understanding.

“See” the Bread in Jesus’ hand, which He serves to you and “see” the wonder of the Feast.  Can our fleshly desires die with the grain of wheat and rise up in a new life with Him? (John 12:23-24; Philippians 3:10-11)

Likewise, the cup of the Lord’s Supper.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16)

Wine, along with water, was a common and daily drink, symbolic of divine grace.  Wine is symbolic of intimate love in the Song of Solomon. (1:2,4; 4:10; 5:1; 7:9; 8:2)

Just as wine in the Bible symbolizes joy and festivity and even spiritual enlightenment and insight, it also plays a role in the entire faith image, when associated with God’s wrath. (Revelation 14:19-20)  In various places, it is mentioned in connection with judgment and punishment.  It reminds us of God’s justice that deals with sin and wickedness.

In Proverbs, it is often mentioned in connection with festivity celebrating wisdom and spiritual guidance. It symbolizes the pursuit of wisdom and the discernment of choices that lead to a life of righteousness.

Likewise, the Bible warns against the abuse of wine to chase after the physical effect of the fermentation process.  There are also cases where total abstinence from any wine is prescribed. (Leviticus 10:9; Judges 13:2-7; Luke 1:11-17; Luke 7:33)

In the last Passover that Jesus celebrated with his disciples, He presented the wine as the symbol of his Blood, linking the Cross to the miracle of salvation.  It is the greatest miracle ever.  His Blood was shed to accomplish our salvation.  Therefore, every time we take a sip of wine, it is a sacred moment to remind us of the Cross, in a tangible way.  The Blood that makes our rebirth as a Child of the Most High God possible.

Our rebirth enables us to live the “new wine” of Jesus’ teachings.  The full revelation of who God is that Jesus came to live among us, could not be contained in the wine skins of traditional prejudices and superstitions of the leaders of Judaism.  Fermentation is symbolic of change and renewal.  Just as grapes are crushed and processed, so are we transformed in the course of our walk with Jesus.  The process requires the shedding of old habits and thought patterns and a whole new way of living.

When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, He demonstrated His superior power over the processes of nature.  It was the first miracle.  He thereby announced a whole new dispensation.  Rebirth and the change within us are just as much a miracle as the water in the jars turning into wine in an instant.  No one saw what happened.  The result was overwhelming.

Let us rejoice as we hold the Bread and the Wine in our hands and celebrate the Cross of Jesus – death that conquered all death, physical and spiritual.  Because He died and rose again, we can die to our old life and rise to a new life – the true Life that no death can ever take from us.

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:11)

It is made possible by the Crucifixion of Jesus.  This is also visibly and concretely manifested in our baptism ceremony.

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)

What a privilege to celebrate our “death feast” with all the symbolism of new life and not with skeletons, graves, and ghosts.  We are the salt and light of our world, our “otherwise-ness” for the salvation of everyone around us.

Be greatly blessed this Passover!