A young rabbi tells a story of Morris, a survivor of Auschwitz, who witnessed “the most ruthless blow of all” in the utter humiliation and ultimate execution of his papa. Morris’ father — a proud, respected man in his Polish village — became unrecognizable as he wore down through forced labor carrying heavy rocks under the threatening command of Nazi guards. After months of harsh suffering, barely able to stand, he caught the attention of an SS officer. The officer looked at the diminished figure of his prisoner and shot Morris’ father right before his son’s eyes. (Rabbi Eric Solomon, The Jewish Week, April 8, “The Most Ruthless Blow of All”)

No memory could possibly be more bitter than the lingering scenes of such ruthless evil and injustice. One would ask, “Where is God?” Of all the words describing the Passover story is the one describing the intensity of Israel’s bondage in Exodus: bitter.

“So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.” (Exodus 1:13-14.)

Passover is the time of remembrance. It is also the season of assurance. It is a time of answers for all that has occurred. In it God provides the balm for life’s most bitter experience. The certain promise of escape and justice. In the face of bitter bondage God’s majesty and loving kindness, His chesed, is displayed. The Lord brings Israel out “with a mighty hand and outstretched arm.” After four harsh centuries the God of Israel executes judgment on the torturers. Out of bitterness and bondage Israel comes dancing “with silver and gold and there was not one feeble in their midst.” So great was that deliverance that the people who had bent, weeping, beneath the taskmaster’s whip kicked up their heels and leaped for joy as the army of darkness was overwhelmed by the Red Sea waters. And not only they, but all those of Egypt who came under the covering of the lamb’s blood on Passover eve. They were also forgiven and released. That is what you call healing of the nations!

Herein is the mercy of God revealed. He brings a complete exchange of mercy for bitterness, freedom for slavery, inheritance for abject poverty, forgiveness for sin. Passover is the remembrance of His great redemption. The lamb was the original offering for sin. It became the victim. The lamb’s blood symbolized a life given up in offering for a life. The blood of the Passover lamb became God’s vehicle of deliverance. The stroke of judgment that fell upon Egypt enforced God’s command to “Let My people go!” The stroke of judgment that fell upon our Christ our Passover has released us from the heel of Satan’s ruthless boot.

Through the blood God’s glory is revealed to the whole nation. Afterward He shows Himself at Sinai as He meets with Moses in the cloud. But He does not stand afar off. God comes home to reside permanently in His tabernacle, a table spread in the midst of His family. After that first Passover night the sin offering was to be brought before the door of the tent of meeting as a public sacrifice. The root of the word for sacrifice, korban, means “to come close.” There the person bringing sacrifice was atoned for as he laid his hands on the head of his offering. The entire process took place at “petah ohel moed”— the opening or door of the Tent of Meeting. It was a testimony—a public witness before the community and the world. Then the man went home free, unburdened, justified, released, forgiven.

In the doorway of the meeting place the priest received the offering. It was slain and offered it up on the holocaust, the altar of burnt offering just inside the door. Atonement, deliverance, redemption, reconciliation was created. That door was the place of appointment set by God. So thick was the Personal Presence of the Lord that “Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it and the presence of God filled the Tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:35).

We see this open door through the eyes of John at the entrance to the tabernacle of heaven in the book of Revelation. Just beyond the open door stands the throne of the whole universe, the bema, the seat of judgment. It is this open door through which the whole world is invited to meet with God in reunion. As we are drawn upward to this reunion the first image visible when we come close is a Lamb standing as slain in the midst of the glory. Christ our Passover has been slain and “by His blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Romans 5:8-10 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!”

We who were at one time “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world”— we who “once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, having broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, so as to create in Himself one new man that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” (Ephesians 2:12-18). From death to life we have been carried in His arms. Out of Egypt, Mitzrayim, “the narrow place,” into liberty, a wide inheritance, a possession of orchards and flocks forever.

We have access, an open door, to the Father who created us in His image and recreates us in the likeness of His Son. That open door is the blood of His Begotten One. He made Himself the exchange for us. He is our Tree of Life, the tree Moses threw into the bitter pool in the wilderness. A divine exchange made wherein the death of the bitter pool was made water of life, sweet to drink. The Passover demonstrates unmediated, open communication with our Father. Only one thing was necessary between the Deliverer and those who escaped bitter slavery — the lamb’s blood. Only one thing is necessary for you today—the Lamb’s blood! As we remember that first great event in the history of God’s redemption let us look to the Lamb Christ and enter His great salvation with joyful shouts. Two thousand years ago on this night began the greatest deliverance ever wrought. Before the eyes of his Father the Son of God suffered the most ruthless blow of all, death at the hands of sinners for our sake.

The Exodus from Egypt is a demonstration of open, intimate reunion with God. It promises restitution and resettlement in one’s own land. Before us today stands the open Door. Let us go in to the feast! As we enter in we do so in solidarity with those who gave us our redemption story. We remember Israel and the Jewish people, their suffering, and the bitterness imposed by their enemies in every age. We remember and pray in assurance and expectation of complete deliverance from those hands. And as Jewish families around the world keep the Passover feast, we pray together with them for the peace of Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital. We pray “Next year in Jerusalem!” and wish the friends of God around the world shalom on this night of remembrance.

As God told Moses:

"Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night…that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life." Deut. 16:1, 3

This year, for the second time in as many years, the Christian feasts and celebration of Good Friday through Resurrection Sunday coincides with the Jewish Pesach. Twice in the last two years these events coincide on our calendars. It speaks to us that God is making one new man. We celebrate in solidarity with the Jewish people and with Israel as we pray for them, for our families and look to God for the fulfillment of His covenant promises in Abraham, through Christ our Passover who has been slain. You're invited to the feast.

The feast of Passover described in Exodus 12 sets forth God's command to Moses when He said, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be sacred assemblies, these are My feasts'” (Lev. 23:1). In Hebrew, the phrase “sacred assembly” means a rehearsal. All the feasts of Israel are about Jesus. They all point forward to Him and are fulfilled in Him. This is especially true of the Feast of Passover. God was rehearsing in advance what He was to fulfill in Christ our Passover — our deliverance from bondage, sickness, disease and death that He demonstrated in the midst of men in the world when Jesus the Nazarene came.

At the Feast of Passover every family was to take a lamb, an unblemished lamb, a lamb without defect, and the lamb was to be slaughtered at the door of the house. Its blood was collected and then with a bunch of hyssop, which is a symbol of humility, applied to the doorposts and lintils of the house. The door was literally beaten with the blood-dipped hyssop, much in the same way that they beat His body until it sprinkled us. When the Angel of the Lord saw the blood, as just judgment came for redemption's sake upon the Kingdom of Darkness and all its powers, He would pass over that house, and the whole house would be delivered. The death that had been the sentence for every first born would be canceled.

The blood was upon the houses of the people who exercised their faith in the lamb. As they slew the lamb and put his blood on the door posts, they were indicating that they believed God’s promises were true— that He would spare those that trust in Him. Have you believed? He will spare you. Trust in the Lord. Those who hope in Him will not be made ashamed.

Passover, at the time of Jesus, was a national festival. The priest would gather in those days at the temple and the High Priest would slay one lamb on behalf of the whole nation. They would keep the feast in family groups. Jesus presided as the Father with His disciples as His family at that event of the Last Supper. Our Heavenly Father presided over the Feast in His Son, breaking unto us the very bread of life; offering unto us a full cup of the very blood of salvation. His own blood shed to the last drop. They ate the bitter herbs. They ate the unleavened bread. They drank four cups of wine. No wonder John and Peter fell asleep in the garden! And at a certain point in the meal, He lifted up one of those cups, the cup called in the festival the cup of redemption, and with it lifted up the bread without leaven, bread that was striped, pierced and roasted. He said this is my blood, this is my body, it's for you. And so it is for us today. We are all invited to the table of the Lord.

Our Passover was so completely fulfilled in Christ that on the tenth day of the month, the day each family would have chosen their Passover lamb according to the law, Jesus came into Jerusalem. After being chosen, the lamb would be inspected for any blemish. Only if it were perfect would it be acceptable to serve as a lamb for Passover. Jesus was introduced into the midst of men. John said, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.” There was no spot in Him.

On the day of preparation for the Passover, the fourteenth day of the month, the High Priest would bring that chosen lamb that had been introduced into the community and inspected by all. They would tie him to the altar at nine o'clock in the morning, and he would be tied there until twilight, staked out for slaughter. At that very hour, the high priest was staking out the Passover lamb on the altar in the temple at Jerusalem, Jesus was bound and led outside the city to be crucified on a Roman cross. The killing of the lamb would be done by the high priest, and as he slit the throat of the sacrifice, he would carefully recite a holy document, the words of which ended with, “It is finished.” And indeed, that day, at three o'clock, just beyond the walls, our High Priest, fully offering Himself to the last drop of His blood, gave up His Spirit and cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished!”

Christ our Passover has been slain. This salvation which we have is perfectly perfect. It is completely complete. And while certain trials, tribulations or challenges may make it seem our salvation is not completely evident in your life today, we want to declare to you, we have been invited into a living feast for participation in this Spirit, the very life of God that raised Christ from the dead. Because of the blood, He dwells in us and shall quicken our mortal bodies. Our full salvation is life eternal through the forgiveness of sins. Our full salvation is a new body in a new kingdom in a new heaven in a new earth with the same ancient King who is First and Last, Alpha, Omega, eternal God, I Am that I Am, forever and ever the same. He is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He is the Bridegroom rejoicing and receiving His Bride, who is without spot or blemish, because He is without spot or blemish.

Christ our Passover has been slain. We invite you to the feast. Join us at our Seder Table as we review a little of what will be happening all around the world in Jewish homes on this Passover night and walk you through the emblems of Christ that are in this great festival.

Come to the Table of His Perfect Provision. Apply His blood afresh to the doorposts and lintils of our house with this declaration and step into His deliverance and salvation!

Through the Blood of Jesus I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil. Through the Blood of Jesus all my sins are forgiven. Through the Blood of Jesus I am justified, made righteous, just as if I had never sinned. Through the Blood of Jesus I am sanctified, made holy set apart to God. My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit redeemed, cleansed, justified, sanctified by the Blood of Jesus. Therefore, the devil has no place in me, no power over me, no unsettled claims against me. My body is for the Lord and the Lord is for my body. My members, the parts of my body are instruments of righteousness, yielded to God for His service and for His glory. I overcome Satan and all the powers of sin and darkness by the Blood of the Lamb. This is my testimony and the life that I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved and gave Himself for me. Christ our Passover has been slain!

As we reflect on our Passover Lamb and His Resurrection we wanted to share with you a poem from one of our faithful watchmen:

Pesach