Read: Exodus 12:1–32 and Matthew 26:17–25
This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. Exodus 12:14
On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” Matthew 26:17
The two most significant events in the Bible are the Exodus in the Old Testament, and the Resurrection in the New Testament. Both events have to do with freedom—freedom from slavery and freedom from death. The exodus has been celebrated in the remembrance of Passover for as many as 3,500 years—Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples just before his crucifixion in Jerusalem. We have been celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection in Easter remembrance for nearly 2,000 years. These are both extraordinary rituals that have guided the lives of countless people throughout human history. They both testify to the fact that while bondage and death are real, slavery and death will not endure, because slavery and death have no power over God. Our Easter and Passover remembrances have a way of reminding us that what seems so frightful and unalterable to us is simply another opportunity for God to work in liberating ways in our lives and our world. Our job is to celebrate that freedom, and our God who inspires it!
Where do you need to feel free in your life?
Lord, I do feel in bondage in so many ways in my life. I long for a sense of release from the burdens I bare. I want to be able to breathe easily—trusting that somehow all will be well. I so long to feel exodus and Easter joy, where new life not only seems possible —it also is downright visible and tangible! For this I long and I pray, in Your name. AMEN.