'The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month will stand at the head of your calendar; you will reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every family must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a household is too small for a lamb, it along with its nearest neighbor will procure one, and apportion the lamb’s cost in proportion to the number of persons, according to what each household consumes. Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You will keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole community of Israel assembled, it will be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They will take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They will consume its meat that same night, eating it roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or even boiled in water, but roasted, with its head and shanks and inner organs. You must not keep any of it beyond the morning; whatever is left over in the morning must be burned up. This day will be a day of remembrance for you, which your future generations will celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord; you will celebrate it as a statute forever (Ex. 12:1-10,14). '
Yahweh (the name for God under the Priestly tradition) introduced the rites of the Passover Lamb and unleavened bread to the Israelites through Moses. God was beginning to form the Israelites into a religious community. The sacrifice of a Lamb was connected to the Exodus and made a memorial. God commanded the Israelites to celebrate the escape from slavery in Egypt every year and that became the central liturgical event stemming from the Exodus. The blood of an unblemished lamb protected the Israelites from physical death. For the Israelites the Passover is celebrated at home as a family meal and a memorial of deliverance.
The Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples was celebrated at Passover. Christians are commanded to celebrate their freedom from slavery to sin through the sacrifice of the true unblemished Lamb, Jesus; 'Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me (Lk. 22:19).”’ The blood of the unblemished lamb protects Christians from spiritual death. For Christians, the Passover is celebrated communally where all partake of the one body (1 Cor. 10:17). Through his death and resurrection Jesus passed over from death to life with His Father and is preparing a place for us (Jn. 14:2-3).
Almighty God, strengthen us with the same spirit with which you strengthened the apostles that we may perpetually celebrate the memorial of the death and resurrection of the spotless lamb with reverence and gratitude. Through your grace may we live in your truth and be brought safely to the mansion your Son has prepared for us. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Faculty, Navarre Theological. The Navarre Bible: Joshua to Kings (The Navarre Bible: Old Testament). Revised, Scepter Pubs, 2003.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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