Welcome to the New Passover

April 5 2020

Mark 11:1-11

  One of the effects of the corona pandemic is that so much of life has been turned upside down. Even little things are affected such as the phrase we would often say about a popular video or tweet, that it had gone “viral”, is just not something people want to say anymore after experiencing what going viral really means. I so want to use those phrase “going viral” today on this Palm Sunday, to put into modern terms just what has happened to the reputation of Jesus. As Jesus enters into Jerusalem, riding just as the prophet Zechariah has foretold, on a colt, crowds gather round him, the news of his arrival has traveled throughout the countryside and from all over people have come to Jerusalem to celebrate what they hope will be the arrival of the long awaited king who will set them free from Roman oppression. 

One thing that we must be clear about though is that this Jerusalem is not the city that we are headed to on our Lenten journey. All during Lent the city that we long for is the heavenly Jerusalem that us described to us in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews where we hear about the angels too many in number to count all gathered for the festival, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant  and to the sprinkled blood which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. In our scripture for today though we do see some similarities, as the people of Judaea have come to the earthly Jerusalem to gather and celebrate the festival of Passover. The heavenly image has its roots in an earthly reality but it goes beyond that reality to the hope which is our anchor of life here on earth. That hope is the hope of the resurrection where at long last earth and heaven are no longer divided but through the work of Christ have become united. The plea of the prayer Jesus taught, that what is done in heaven is done on earth, will at last be answered. Yet to get to that reality what must happen is that Jesus must endure the cross. The week that begins with shouts of “Hosanna” will end with cries of “Crucify him”. Yet Jesus knew that it must be like this. Three times he has told his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem to walk the way of the cross. Jesus could endure the cross, he could despise the shame because of the joy set before him. This is what the writer of Hebrews tells us because this is how we too can carry our cross. The joy that is spoken of is that day when earth and heaven are at long last united, the day of resurrection, the day of the great festival gathering in the heavenly Jerusalem. Now, the writer of Hebrews does not tell us just which festival it is that is being celebrated but I believe that perhaps as an echo of his last days on earth, I wonder if the festival being celebrated is the New Passover. In Mark’s account of the last week of Jesus’ ministry, the people of the earthly Jerusalem are preparing to gather together in the great feast of remembrance, the Passover. What is interesting about the festival of Passover is that when you have some understanding of what this festival is about then you begin to realize that this festival is also a way for us to understand, in a profound way, the death of Jesus on the cross. What Jesus accomplished on the cross is, I believe, like our new Passover, and this is why I believe that this is the festival we will celebrate for all eternity, because what Jesus accomplished on the cross will be our song of praise forever.

Now,  most people do not really have any clue about what Passover is or even why this ancient Jewish festival would have any importance for us as Christians today. So, what is Passover? Well, to understand what Passover is we have to go back to the beginning of the history of the people of Israel. Israel began with a man named Abraham who was called by God. Abraham had Issac who in turn had Jacob who God renamed Israel. Israel  lived in Canaan and he had twelve sons, one named Joseph. Joseph ended up being hauled off to Egypt where he ended up being second in command.  During a severe drought, Israel and his family went down to Egypt to live because Joseph had prepared for this famine by storing up food during the plentiful years. Okay, fast forward, two hundred years, Israels family now numbers in the thousands, and the kings of Egypt, the Pharaohs, afraid that the people Israel would overpower them, decided to make the people of Israel their slaves. So, the people of Israel in their slavery cry out to God and God heard their cry, God felt their pain and God called a man named Moses. Moses goes down to Egypt and confronts the Pharaoh and tells him to let the people of Israel go free. Pharaoh a believer in pagan gods, the powers seen in nature, had a hard time understanding that the God of Moses was the one true God, creator of all. To convince the Pharaoh that the God of Moses was nothing like the gods Pharaoh thought were gods, God sent a series of plagues upon Egypt. Pharaoh watched as the Nile turned to blood, as frogs and lice overwhelmed his nation, as the cattle died and the people of Egypt suffered with horrible boils.  Finally, with a plague of hail, the Pharaoh confessed his sin and there was a glimmer of hope that the suffering of God’s people was at an end. Yet, when the hail ceased the Pharaoh changed his mind, his heart was hardened and he refused to let Gods people go free. So, God sends a plague of locusts which destroys all of the food in Egypt. And still Pharaoh would not let God’s people go. God then sent the plague of darkness which lasted three days. This was to show God’s power over the sun god worshipped in Egypt. And Pharaoh still would not let God’s people go. So, God announced that there would be one last plague. This is where at last we hear about the Passover. God through Moses told Pharaoh that at midnight all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the slave girl to the firstborn of the cattle, all of these would die. The result God told Pharaoh is that he, the king of Egypt, would come and bow down before God and plead for him to take his people and leave Egypt.

Now on this same evening, the people of Israel were commanded by God to take a male lamb, one year old and they were to kill this lamb at sundown. Then they were to take the blood of this lamb and put this blood on the doorposts and the doorframe on the houses where the lamb was going to be eaten. The lamb was to be roasted because the people were to be ready to move as soon as Pharaoh said they could go. They were to eat with their sandals on and their staff in their hand. The importance of the blood is that when God saw the blood he would pass over that house and the plague that killed the firstborn of Egypt would not destroy the firstborn of the people of Israel.

This then is a plain account of what Passover is but if you dig a little deeper you begin to see the power of what was happening. If you look at the gods that the Egyptians worshipped, what you find is that they worshipped a god named Khnum who had the head of a ram. Khnum was the god who was thought to be the creator of the bodies of children. So, imagine the people of Egypt watch as the people of Israel slaughter young rams and blatantly smear the blood of what they considered to be a god all over the entrance of their home? What the people of Israel did was an act of defiance, a blatant killing of what the Egyptians held sacred. To take and paint the blood upon their doorway was a way of saying that inside the houses of the people of Israel were those who had chosen the one true living God; all others were dead to them. When the people of Israel crossed their thresholds they crossed a line, they had made a choice they were saying that they were the people of God.

On that night, remembered at Festival of Passover, death came to every house in Egypt including the house of Pharaoh. Pharaoh summoned Moses and told him to go out from the people of Egypt, him and the people Israel. At long last, the people of Israel were set free from their bondage. This is what they remembered every year, the bitterness of their slavery and how God had told them to kill the lamb, put their blood upon their doorways, to eat in haste and how at midnight death had passed over them but had devastated the Egyptians resulting in their freedom. 

What is important to remember, is that when we read in scripture about our redemption, Passover is the event that is being referenced to. For example, when Paul writes in the third chapter of Romans that “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…”, Paul in speaking of redemption is speaking of Passover. Redemption is a word that means setting a slave free just as what happened with the people of Israel. Yet, with Jesus and his death upon the cross, the redemption Jesus made possible was not a liberation from a superpower nation but instead the superpower of sin. As Paul explains in the sixth chapter of Romans, the sixth and seventh verses, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For the one who has died has been set free from sin.” Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world went to the cross to shed his blood so that his blood might cover over us just like the blood of the Lamb upon the doorposts, and under this protection we might have life and freedom.

The blood of Jesus represented his life, the life of the flesh. The importance of remembering this is what Paul tells us in the third verse of the eighth chapter of Romans that “God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh.” When the blood of Jesus was poured out, it revealed that Jesus did not live his life in the power of the flesh but lived solely through the power of the Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews in the ninth chapter of his letter, the fourteenth verse, states that it was through the Spirit that Jesus offered himself to God.”  So, as the blood of the first Passover portrayed the death of the Egyptian idol so too the blood of Jesus portrays the death of the root of all idolatry, the reliance upon the power of our flesh. To trust in our own strength, to seek ways to make our own selves stronger this is the source of all idolatry. God calls us to instead rely solely upon the power of the Holy Spirit. Only through the power of the Spirit can we, like Jesus, offer ourselves without blemish to God.

The purpose of the first Passover was so that the people of Israel would be free to serve and worship God. Passover, the event that established the people of Israel as God’s people was to lead to where Israel could meet with Godard establish a relationship with him. This is why after the people of Israel entered into a covenant with God at Mt. Sinai, the first thing God told Moses was that Moses was to build was the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting. Here, in this Tent of Meeting, Moses could meet face to face with God. The place where this encounter happened is in the inner most chamber of the Tabernacle, the place where the Ark of the Covenant rested. The Ark of the Covenant was gold plated wood box which held the Ten Commandments (Side note: If you want to see a Hollywood version of the Ark check out the movie Riders of the Lost Ark). The cover of the ark had a special name. In English it is often called “The Mercy Seat” yet it is not technically a seat. In Hebrew, this Ark cover was called the kapporeth. This name comes from a root word which means to cleanse or purge. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the sin offering and sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat. This would purify the sanctuary so the place where God’s glory came to dwell could be kept pure. This place, this kapporeth, was the place where heaven and earth met in covenant bond.This is where God met with his people and the priest knew that in order for a holy God to meet there the place had to be cleansed from all pollution. The cleansing agent was blood which symbolized a life poured out, a life offered up.        

The cross where the Lamb of God was offered up was the place of our redemption, our Passover. The cross was where Jesus put to death the power of the flesh symbolized by his blood poured out. When we are crucified with him, putting to death our flesh, we are no longer enslaved to sin; we have been redeemed. Yet the cross of Christ, like Passover, was meant to do more. The Cross of Christ is not only to set us free from sin but it is also to lead to a meeting together of heaven and earth, God with us in relationship. After Paul writes about the redemption in Christ Jesus, in the third chapter of Romans, the twenty fourth verse, he goes on to that God put forth Jesus as a propitiation by his blood. The word translated as “propitiation” is the Greek word for kapporeth. It is not hard to understand Paul’s train of thought once we know that he has used the Hebrew word for the purified, cleansed, place where God and people meet. Paul is saying that it is Jesus is the new kapporeth, the place cleansed by his own blood where God and people can meet in relationship.

In the book of Deuteronomy, what is a constant concern throughout this book is the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel. No matter how clearly God spelled out the demands of their relationship, Israel simply could not be respond with a steadfast love for God. This unfaithfulness of the people was always a constant in their relationship with God. Looking back on the waywardness of the people of Israel throughout history it should come as no surprise that in the end they would cry for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be crucified. Yet, in the book of Deuteronomy, we find that there was hope that Israel could one day be transformed and be the faithful obedient God expected. In the thirtieth chapter we read, “ And the Lord shall purge your heart, and the heart of your children, to love the Lord your God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that you might live.” What was humanly impossible was going to be made possible through an act of God. The word purge in this promise is similar to the cleansing that happens at the meeting place, the kapporeth. The hope of this promise of Deuteronomy then seems to imply that one day God would cleanse our heart so that they might be the new kapporeth, the meeting place where heaven and earth could meet. This hope that God would one day purge the hearts of his wayward children became a reality in the life and death of Jesus. What cleanses our hearts is the unbelievable faithfulness of Jesus who remained faithful to his Heavenly Father even unto death. When in the light the faithfulness of Jesus upon the cross we come face to face with our own unfaithfulness, and in this moment our hearts are crushed by our unworthiness of such a great mercy, all for us. The powerful truth Jesus always taught, that those who are forgiven much, love much becomes a reality for us. At the cross what we suddenly realize is that all of us have been forgiven much than we ever could have imagined. In this way, the mercy of Christ puts a desire within us to be merciful. It is here, at the point of mercy, where God’s mercy creates in us a heart of mercy, that heaven meets earth. Here in our hearts, cleansed by the blood of Jesus, heavens mercy comes to life in our earthly acts of mercy. In this way, our hearts become the new kapporeth, the new meeting place made possible by the blood of Jesus. So, we have not only been redeemed, set free from the slavery of sin, in the New Passover, but this same blood has cleansed our hearts by his mercy. Through his mercy, we become merciful; having been forgiven much, we now love much. 

This is the victory of the king who rode into Jerusalem that day on the back of a colt to the shouts of “Hosanna” , which is a cry for someone to came and save us, please!” This cry of “Hosanna” was a part of the hundred and eighteenth psalm which was sung as the pilgrims came into Jerusalem. What is interesting is that the very next line after “Hosanna” was “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”.  Here was Jesus hearing the cries of the people, crying out for someone please come and save them, and here was Jesus the very one who came in the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord was his very essence, his unchangeable character, which throughout scripture was always steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus is the one who came in the name of the Lord. Jesus came in steadfast love, the greater love which lays down their life for their friends to set them free from the slavery of sin. Jesus came in faithfulness to do the will of his Heavenly Father, faithful even unto death. This is why in Jesus we are blessed. To bless is to kneel, to lower oneself in order to present a gift and the gift Jesus gave upon the cross is life. Jesus the king, did save us. He was a king who did not come to liberate his people from their enemy, the Roman army. Jesus was the king  who won the victory over a far greater enemy, the enemy of sin. The freedom this king won came upon a cross at the cost of his very blood. This blood condemned sin in the flesh redeeming those enslaved by sin. This blood was the blood of the Lamb of God, the Lamb of the New Passover, the blood which covers us so that death might pass over us. This blood was the life of Christ poured out, showing that he was faithful unto death, willing to withhold nothing to prove his mercy to us. In the light of his faithfulness, we can see how truly unfaithful we are and how much we stand in need of his great mercy. When we gaze upon the cross, we know ourselves as those who are forgiven much and now by the mercy of Christ we will have treasure become those who love much. This is the victory of the king who walks the way of the cross. May we be faithful to always follow him in this way. Amen!