The

scenes in our reading for today are quite graphic, and they may be

shocking if you haven’t encountered them before. By painting the

blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their houses, the enslaved people

of Israel were spared from a plague of death. Seeing the blood on

their doorways, the Lord passed over them. But the plague took the

lives of all the Egyptians’ firstborn sons. There was wailing

throughout Egypt because the hard-hearted Pharaoh would not listen to

God’s plea through Moses: “Let my people go!”

The

Jewish Feast of Passover has been celebrated every year since that

day long ago. And it’s no coincidence that Jesus’ last supper

with his disciples was during the Passover feast. He said to them, “I

have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in

the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:15-16).

At

that supper, Jesus showed his disciples that the bread and wine of

the meal symbolized his body and blood, given and poured out for

them. And on the next day he gave up his life to be sacrificed as

“the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John

1:29). As the ultimate Passover Lamb, Jesus freed us from being

slaves to sin (John 8:34). Because he took on the punishment for our

sin, the judgment for sin has passed over us. Believing in him, we

have new life to live with joy and trust in the Lord forever!