The story of the Passover is a familiar story; one I have told, and you have heard countless times before. But since the LORD thought it beneficial for His chosen people to hear this story every year, I thought you might indulge me.
The Passover story begins with the LORD’s people enslaved in Egypt. For four hundred years the Israelites suffered at the hands of their Egyptian slave masters. At long last, the Lord sent Moses to deliver them from slavery in Egypt. Moses stood before Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘Let my people go’”[1] Pharaoh replied to Moses, “Who is the LORD that I should obey him and let Israel go?”[2] When Pharaoh did not recognize the LORD’s authority and refused to let the Israelites go, the LORD sent ten plagues upon Egypt. The first nine plagues devastated the land and decimated both the crops and the livestock of the Egyptians. But it was the tenth plague that brought Pharaoh and all of Egypt to their knees.
The LORD said, “‘4… About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.”[3]
When the Israelites learned about the tenth plague, I imagine they were terrified. Pharaoh might not fear the LORD, but the Israelites did. The people must have been on the brink of panic when Moses told them what the LORD was about to do. But Moses told the Israelites, Go and select a lamb that is full of life and free from defect. Take that seemingly innocent and seemingly perfect lamb and slaughter it. Paint the lamb’s blood on the doorframes of your houses and “When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.”[4] What an anxious night that must have been. As the sun set and the time of judgement drew near, I imagine there was but one question that was on the mind of every Israelite, “Will he see the blood?”
Surely you must have asked yourself the same question. You who have allowed yourselves to become enslaved by the sins of your flesh, you who so often resemble a hard-hearted Egyptian who fails to recognize the LORD’s authority over your life and have dismissed the LORD’s ten commandments more often than Pharaoh dismissed the ten plagues, you who’s sin has invited the destroyer to hover over your house, surely you have asked, “will He see the blood?” Will He see the blood of the sincerely innocent and sincerely perfect Lamb of God that was painted on the cross? Will the LORD see the blood of Jesus and pass over me?
What a horribly anxious night that must have been for the slaves of Egypt. “29 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.” But the LORD saw the blood of the seemingly innocent and seemingly perfect lamb that covered His people and He passed over them. As a result, the LORD’s people were set free from slavery and delivered from death. The LORD told His people, “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD – a lasting ordinance.”[5] The LORD never wanted His people to forget the night that the blood of a seemingly innocent and seemingly perfect lamb was shed to set them free from slavery and deliver them from death.
I tell you this story because it was on this night when the LORD’s people were remembering how the LORD saw the blood of the lamb and passed over them that Jesus took bread, gave thanks and offered it to His disciples saying, “take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you” and then took the cup, gave thanks, offered it to His disciples saying “drink for it all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of your sins.” As they were remembering the seemingly innocent seemingly perfect lamb that was slaughtered to save the Israelites from slavery and death, Jesus identified Himself as the sincerely innocent and sincerely perfect Lamb of God Who was sacrificed to set them free from sin and deliver them from damnation.
Jesus told His disciples “this is my body”, “this is my blood”[6] eat and drink “in Remembrance of me”.[7] Jesus never wanted His disciples to forget the night that the blood of the sincerely innocent and sincerely prefect Lamb was shed to set them free from sin and deliver them from damnation. He wanted His disciples to be reminded again and again that the LORD has seen the blood; He has seen the blood of the sincerely innocent and sincerely perfect lamb that was painted on the cross. The LORD has seen the blood, the destroyer will pass over them.
Tonight, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper; we eat and drink the true body and blood of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ in with and under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the shadow of the Passover to be reassured that, though our many sins have invited the destroyer to hover over our house, we have no reason to be anxious because the blood of Jesus, our Passover Lamb that has set us free from our sin and delivered us from damnation has stained the cross and the LORD has seen the blood. Amen.
[1] Exodus 5:1
[2] Exodus 5:2
[3] Exodus 11:4-6.
[4] Exodus 12:23
[5] Exodus 12:14
[6] Mark 14:22&24
[7] Luke 22:19