Tuesday: On the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb... for a sacrifice... This animal must be a one-year-old male... with no physical defects. Exodus 12:3-5 (NLT) As he was coming close to Jerusalem, on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of followers began joyfully shouting praise to God for all the miracles they had seen. They said, “God bless the king who comes in the name of the Lord! There is peace in heaven and glory to God!” Luke 19:37-38 (NLT) Reflection: So when it comes to understanding how Jesus fulfilled the symbolism of the Passover and recognize what that means for me I think it’s important to follow the Lamb. The lamb (I’ll use a lower case “l” when I’m talking about the wooly quadruped that the Jews ate at their Passover meals and I’ll use an upper case “L” when I’m talking about Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, ok?) was the star of every Passover celebration and it was incredibly important for the Jews to make sure and focus on the Lamb as they prepared to celebrate. The first step of the Passover was to select a lamb. Each family was to choose a lamb without physical defects to be the star of their feast (the lamb didn’t know that this “celebration” wasn’t going to be such good news for him but that’s the thing about most sacrifices, they don’t know they’re going to be sacrificed). If you had a small family you could go in with another family to share a lamb. This was an incredibly meaningful moment in Jewish families. Choosing a lamb was something that they did with care and honor. It was important to them. They didn’t know why God asked them to do this every year (although that’s probably unfair to say. They probably THOUGHT they knew why God had them do this every year... it was simply to remember which as it turns out wasn’t the only or even the most important reason) but they knew it was important so they carried out the ritual with the utmost care. On the 10th day of the fist month of the Jewish calendar year the nation of Israel selected their lambs for the Passover. Do you know what happened on the 33 year of Jesus’ life on the 10th day of the first month of the Jewish calendar year? The nation of Israel selected their Passover Lamb (upper case “L” in case you missed it). We call it Palm Sunday now. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey as people sang and laid palm branches down for Him to ride over. And the song they sang was not just nice song with a catchy tune. It was what was called a “messianic song”. A song that the Jews sang looking forward to their Messiah coming. When the people sang “God bless the king who comes in the name of the Lord! There is peace in heaven and glory to God!” they were shouting out their belief that Jesus was the Messiah. The Savior. The Lamb (although they wouldn’t have really connected the Passover lamb with the Messiah... but God did and they’d see it later). And Jesus knew exactly what they were doing. So did the Pharisees. They told Jesus to ask the people to stop. Jesus said, “If they didn’t sing then the rocks would cry out” (I’d like to see that... but I digress). On that day, the nation of Israel selected their symbolic Passover Lamb. It was a great day. It was a feel good day. But it wouldn’t last. Tomorrow we’ll talk more about the Passover but for today, ask yourself if you’ve ever really selected Jesus as your Lamb. Have you given Him the authority to lead you into the life He dreamed of when He created you? And if you have done that in the past... how’s it going today? Prayer: Father, today I select Jesus as my Lamb. As my Savior. As my Messiah. I don’t always do a great job of following Him, in fact some times I really stink at it. But today I resolve to once again follow Him. In Jesus Name, amen.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 13:00:01 +0000
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