I Will Pass Over

Something strange was happening in the slave’s back yards 

It was about 6pm. Two million Israeli families had fired up their BBQs and were all cooking lamb. The smell and the smoke filled the air over the Egyptian city.

An Egyptian soldier yelled over the fence, “What are you guys doing?” There was no answer. “No wonder you guys are slaves!” Another soldier laughed and yelled, “Trying to make a ‘smoke plague’?” The soldiers just looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They couldn’t figure it out, but God had it figured it out.

There had already been 9 plagues that had come upon the Egyptians as Pharaoh persisted in his stubbornness to release the Children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. Instead of just rolling right along into the next plague, God instructed Moses, “We’re going to set something in place right now that will be a memorial forever of how I do things.”

A new calendar was created, and from that point on every family was to select a lamb. Not just any lamb, but a special one without spots or blemishes. It had to be a “perfect lamb,” and it had to be only one year old.  Hebrew tradition tells us that they would take these lambs for three days and examine them very thoroughly all the way down to the eyelids. This ensured that there were no blemishes.

Something you wouldn’t want to kill

Imagine, the kids have been cuddling with this lamb and playing with it for three days, and now it had to be killed. Then a hyssop plant would be dipped in its blood and put it on their doorpost

God said told them the reason, “I’m going to come that evening, and if I don’t see the blood I will kill the firstborn in that household. But, if I see the blood, then I will pass over.”

The practice of Passover went on year after year for hundreds of years. Between the book of Malachi until the time of Jesus, millions of Jews would come into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. 

One day John the Baptist was baptizing people. Someone caught his attention. He stopped and pointed, “Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.”  And for the next three years, Jesus was exposed to the world, just like the lamb was exposed to the family for three days. 

Something strange happened one Passover 

Jesus and the disciples had celebrated the Passover before together, but something was very strange about this one. Jesus was leading the Seder; he lifted the matzo bread and blessed it,

“Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu, Melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz”
(Blessed are you oh Lord God, King of the Universe, Who brings forth bread from the Earth)

As he broke the bread and served it, Jesus said something that wasn’t part of the Seder Haggadah (script),

This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
(Mark 14:19) 

The disciples looked around at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Then Jesus took the Seder cup, blessed it, and said an even stranger thing, 

This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
(Luke 22:20) 

They couldn’t figure it out, but God had it figured it out

Jesus goes that night to Gethsemane. He mentions the cup three times. He’s arrested after betrayal. He’s tortured and beaten all night long. What’s going on?  They’re down to checking the “eyelids” now. “Let’s see if we treat Him wrongfully if He’ll sin. Let’s see if there are any flaws or blemishes in Him.”

But nothing wrong can be found. Jesus said, “the wicked one has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). Pilate then says, “I find not fault in Him”. Later, Judas says, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”  Why are these things said?  This was to certify that this Lamb was without spot or blemish, and underserving of death.

Jesus was then crucified at the same time as the Passover Lambs were being killed for sacrifice (9AM).  At noon we’re told, “there was darkness” which was a dramatic physical manifestation of God’s judgment of all the sins of the world put on one man in one place.

Then at 3PM, Jesus lifts his head and says, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” It was in this moment and place that fulfilled God’s covenant with His people. The blood from this Lamb is now applied to the doors of people’s hearts. God tells us why, “I’m coming again, but not as a lamb of sacrifice, but as the Judge of the living and the dead. If I don’t see the blood you will die. But, if I see the blood, then I will pass over.”