Passover: The Event and the Meal

Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we just read a lot of Scripture. I intentionally selected a very long Scripture reading this morning, because the Passover is a complicated event. On top of the Biblical description here (and in various other passages, of course) has been layered a whole world of additional meaning, practice, and celebratory rites. For instance, suffice it to say that our Jewish friends today typically celebrate Passover not with a lamb, but with a chicken or turkey. We have come a very long way in the 3500 years since the night when God passed over the Jews but slaughtered the firstborn of Egypt. There's a lot of material here, of course, and my text is far too long to preach the whole of it. Rather, this morning I want to look at two aspects of what we read: the event itself, and the meal celebrating the event. In order to understand the words Jesus spoke at the Passover meal He celebrated with the disciples, we need to get into our minds what Passover is. We need to know that Passover was an event in which God took a lamb instead of His people's lives, and that He called His people to celebrate that gift of life every year thereafter. Passover is where God saved His people, and He called them to celebrate it annually.