Friday, April 22, 2011

I Will

Because Sunday is Easter, I thought it would be appropriate to have a special lesson in lieu of the regular one. The references used are Beth Moore's Jesus The One and Only and Ann Voskamp's blog.


Find Luke 22, the scene of the Last Supper, in order to use it along with the Scripture below. The four cups of wine served at the Passover meal represented the four expressions, or "I wills" of God's promises in Exodus 6:6-7:
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

Christ and His disciples observed the entire Passover meal together. He instituted the new covenant, which was represented by the bread and the wine. Christ knew He was the fulfillment of Passover. A commited Jewish family would observe the Passover each year. Not only was it a time of family worship, but it was also a time of teaching the children the significance of each part of the Passover. Let's visit the upper room with Jesus and His disciples during the Last Supper they had together. What was it like?

1. I will bring you out-Cup of Sanctification

At sundown, Christ and His disciples,  gathered around the table. There were four cups sitting on the Jewish Passover table. Christ took the father's role in the observance. Soon after they gathered together, He poured the first of four cups of wine and asked everyone to rise from the table. Then, He lifted His cup towards heaven and recited the Kiddush, or prayer of sanctification similar to this:
"Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who createst the fruit of the vine. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, Who hast chosen us for Thy service from among the nations... Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who hast kept us in life, Who hast preserved us, and hast enabled us to reach this season."
It was likely the blessing He recited in Luke 22:17.
Sanctification means "set apart" for service to God. What did God do for us? He created all things, chose us for His service, He kept us in life, and He preserves us.

Following tradition, the group would have taken the first cup of wine, asked the above blessing, observed a ceremonial washing, and broke the unleavened bread. Immediately to follow would have been a literal enactment of Exodus 12:26-27. The youngest child present asks the traditional Passover questions, provoking the father to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. (John may have been the one to ask such questions at the Last Supper because of his position at the table (John 13:23) or his being the youngest disciple.

2. I will deliver you-Cup of Deliverance

At this point in the meal, Christ poured the second cup of wine and narrated the story of Israel's exodus in response to the questions. Here was Christ, the Lamb of God, sitting at their table, telling the redemption story! Recounting the story was a preview of His fulfilling it at the very next sundown.

God delivered the Hebrews, His children from the bondage of slavery after four hundred years. He also delivered them from the ten plagues which came upon Egypt. The blood of the lamb was sprinkled over the doorposts of the house where each Hebrew family was staying, before the meal was eatten. The Lord passed over that house when He saw the blood, thus the first born of that Hebrew family did not die that night. They were under the blood.

Jesus, the One sent "to proclaim freedom for the prisoner" (Luke 4:18), told the story of captives set free, spared from death by the blood of the Lamb.What a perfect plan of redemption, secured before God ever breathed a soul into man. He provided a "way of escape" for all who would choose it. Christ was named the Lamb slain before the creation of the world (Rev. 13:8).

Jesus and His disciples ate the meal between the second and third cups. Exodus 12 gives the details of meal. They ate roasted lamb, see Ex. 12:5 for requirements,  (Jesus is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, as John 1:29 stated.) did not break any of its bones (Exodus 12:46), as none of Jesus' bones were broken (John 19:36) because He was dead already when they came to take Him off the cross, so they ramed the spear into His side; unleavened bread (leaven represents sin) with bitter herbs-the whole experience of the release of the Hebrews was bitter (a modern cracker dipped in horseradish, eatten with a sweet apple would signify the bitter and sweetness of the exodus).

"Why a Christian Family May Celebrate Passover" a post on Ann Voskamp's blog:
(Ann's children ask the questions.)
Question 1: Why are we eating unleavened bread, or matzah, tonight?
                   "Because tonight we remember Jesus. By whose stripes we are healed. Yeast  
                   leavens, puffs up, as pride and sin inflates our hearts. Tonight we eat unleavened
                   bread, bread without yeast, to remember Jesus who was without sin."

These questions are so we know where we come from. These are questions to know that, because of Him, all of life's answers are now possible.

Question 2: Why are we eating bitter herbs?
                   " Lifting a small, silver spoonful of horseradish, I trace time's prints back. Exodus
                   12:8 and so we do too. To remember the bitterness of the cruel slavery of the Israelites to
                   Pharoah, to recall the bitterness of our relentless, ugly bondage to sin. We eat the bitter
                   herbs with the matzah to remember how Jesus, our Bread of Life, has paid the price and
                   absorbed our bitter sins."

Question 3: Why tonight do we dip our herbs twice?
                    Picking up the evergreen parsley, I close my eyes, as my husband speaks the scene, "Our
                    fathers dipped hyssop branches into the blood of the Passover lamb, that they might
                    mark their doorposts."
                    He dips a parsley again, this time into a small glass dish of apples and raisins. "But now
                    we have hope. Because of the blood shed by the thorns piercing Jesus' brow. Because of
                    the blood from the wounds of the nails, that we, in faith, mark on the door of our hearts.
                    Now we wipe away our tears, for we have glorious, endless new life in Christ. We have
                    been rebirthed into His hope."

Question 4: Why are we eating this meal reclining?
                    "Because our Passover Lamb has brought our freedom. Tonight we remember that we
                    are no longer slaves, but children of the very King of Kings. Free men, royalty, reclined
                    while eating. So as Jesus who reclined at the Last Supper, we too recline tonight, for we
                    are free to come before God who is upon the Throne."

In the culminating twinkling of toast glasses, so come my answer to why we keep Passover. It isn't about keeping laws and regulation. It isn't about keeping our burdens. It isn't about keeping some empty, meaningless customs. On the night of the four question, the answer gurgled in the stream of time: Keeping Passover is about keeping our way down this river of life. It is about the questions that keep time to the beat of our children's heart:
Why am I here? What does all of this living really mean? Where am I headed? When will I be all that I am to be?
And this story, His story, His 3,000 year old Passover story has answers, told on a quiet evening in spring when the trees are budding under nesting birds. When all the rivers run alive and swift and forever, free...
(Thanks goes to Ann for sharing her family, her faith, her blessed writing abilities.)

3. I will redeem you-Cup of Redemption
 
This cup could be the symbolic cup to which Christ referred  later in the garden of Gethsemane when He asked God to "take this cup from me" (Luke 22:42). This was a cup He could partake only with outstretched arms upon the cross.
The imminent fulfillment of the cup of redemption signaled the release of the new convenant that would be written in blood. Christ didn't leterally drink this third cup because He stated in Luke 22 that He would not drink of another cup until the coming of the kingdom of God. In essence, He would become the cup and pour out His life for the redemption of man.

4. I will take you-Cup of Praise

In Exodus 6:7, God says He will take us for His people. We are Christians because we become Christlike when we accept His sacrifice.
When the meal was ended, the disciples sang Ps. 118 as they left. This was the cup of praise, acceptance, in gathering. Verse 24 states "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

In Luke 22, they partook of the Lord's Supper, where the bread represented Jesus' body that He freely gave as our sacrificial lamb to take away our  sins, and the wine represented Jesus' blood that He shed for us. Jesus is our Bread of Life and our Living Water.

Reflecting on this whole story is not only a sad time but a rejoicing time for Christians. Jesus is our Bread of Life. He gives abundant life for those who take of this bread. His blood, the essence of life, was shed for yours and my sins. His blood covers us, spiritually making us clean, so we can come before God in prayer.

Have you come to This Savior Who gave His very life for you? All you need to do is believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died in your place, ask His forgiveness of your sins, calling upon His name. Then you will have the best Easter you ever had!

JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN!

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