Speaker 1: 0:13

Hello Northgate. I'm Angelina Corbin. I go to Venetia Middle School, I'm in 7th grade and I'll be reading Matthew 26, 17-30,. The Last Supper, on the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked when do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover? He replied.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Evening came, jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve and while they were eating, he said truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me. They were very sad and began to say to him, one after the other surely you don't mean me, lord? Jesus replied the one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The son of man will go, just as it is written about him will betray me. The son of man will go, just as it is written about him. But woe to the man who betrays the son of man, and we'd be better for him if he had not been born. Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said surely you don't mean me? Rabbi? Jesus answered you have said so.

Speaker 1: 1:32

While they were eating, jesus took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying take and eat. This is my body. Then he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying drink from it. All of you, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you. In my Father's kingdom, when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. That was the word of the Lord Thank you.

Speaker 2: 2:11

Thanks. Be to God. Good job. Thanks, angelina. All right, I'm not sure what Megan was talking about. She said something big's coming out. I will go on a diet. I know I was like what is it? Hey, I'm glad to be with you. My name is Lawrence, one of the pastors here. High schoolers just got back from camp. You survived, you're here. They came straight here to hop in to worship with us and then naps later for sure.

Speaker 2: 2:37

We have been going through the gospel according to Matthew and we are in chapter 26, and we are also literally in the last hours of the life of Jesus and we're going to do something a bit different today. I think it's going to be fun. It's going to be a little bit more experiential. It looks like the middle school is leaving. If you're a middle schooler, if you want to go hang out with them or you guys can stay. It's going to be a fun service to learn some new things. Specifically, I think that if you are new to church today, you are going to maybe learn some things about our history, why we do some of the things that we do and participate in some of the things we participate in, and if you are not new to church today, I'm really I got a sneaky suspicion. You're going to learn some things and why we do some of the things You're going to go. Oh, that makes more sense about what we do.

Speaker 2: 3:24

I'm not sure how many of you follow the flow of the Christian calendar Nowadays, like if you have a calendar, it automatically populates a lot of the dates and things that are going on, like, for example, there's a season of Lent. Some of you guys maybe have done that. You've heard of Lent. This 40-day buildup to Resurrection Sunday. It's actually kicked off by Ash Wednesday and that's next month. We're actually going to do an Ash Wednesday worship service here in place of First Friday, so I want to invite you to that, which then leads to Palm Sunday, launches into Holy Week, which is like the pinnacle of the Christian year and one of the key events. So after Palm Sunday, holy Week starts flowing and then there's this key event that happens on Thursday night and this is Jesus's last meal before his death and it concludes, in fact, with Jesus. Purposefully, he picks this night because this was what Jewish feast Anybody know Passover. Yeah, it's the Passover feast, and so today some of us are actually going to have a Passover. It's going to be a little scaled down to remind us of Jesus's final meal and it's all going to culminate with us, everybody in this space, taking the bread and the cup here together.

Speaker 2: 4:38

So the genius of the Christian and ancient Jewish calendar is to introduce rhythm, to introduce intentionality into our lives, so that our chaotic passage through time all of the sudden becomes meaningful and becomes intentional and something beautiful emerges. Now I think that there is no culture, in my opinion, that has captured the brilliance of the importance of rhythm as the ancient Jewish culture did. The Jewish culture maintains one of the most ancient patterns of life, rhythms of human culture, just on the planet period. And Jesus, specifically, he grew up immersed in this culture, this culture of rhythms, and so there was daily rhythms of prayer three times a day. There was weekly rhythms of a Sabbath, a Sabbath meal, a Shabbat and a day of rest every week. There was yearly rhythms with feasts, and each feast throughout the year tells a different story of what Yahweh which is this ancient word for God, and I'll use that actually quite a bit today Yahweh where Yahweh, what he did to rescue and to work with his ancient people to bring about the story of redemption. And so in the fall there's this feast of Sukkot of the tabernacles, then you have the feast of Yom Kippur, which is the day of atonement, you have the new year and then in the springtime is really the pinnacle of the Jewish feast, which is Passover. And Passover it tells a very specific story that people participate in of how Yahweh redeemed and rescued people, the ancient Israel, out of slavery from the big bad Pharaoh, from the Egyptians.

Speaker 2: 6:25

And Jesus. He's approaching this last week of his life and he knows what's coming, he understands what's going on and he can see the writing on the wall. And he rides into Jerusalem. He sees conflict is starting to stir up, he knows the leaders are out to get him, they want to kill him, and so, brilliantly, jesus times those last days, his last hours, to coincide precisely with the Passover meal and he has one final night with his disciples to explain the meaning of why he has to die, and he does it with a Passover meal. So that's why today we're going to be celebrating Passover here today, to prepare our hearts. And I think it's really important to understand that if you don't get the Passover, you don't get Jesus and you don't get why we take the bread and the cup as often as we do as a faith community. So let's hop in.

Speaker 2: 7:20

Matthew 26,. Verse 17 says on the first day of the festival of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked where do you want us to make preparations to go eat the Passover meal? Now let's just pause real quick and jump back into the calendar that I was talking about. So back then in ancient times, they were very logical about how time worked and their days worked. For them, the day ended when the sun went down, and then it started then the new day through the night and then up until the sun went down again. At some point in history we changed that and we decided there's going to be like this magical time in the middle of the night that we switch the day right to midnight. So this is why it can be confusing to some people of like, well, he died, but then he rose on the third day. It's because when the sun goes down tonight, that is the beginning then of Monday. So you will be up for part of Monday today, how that calendar worked.

Speaker 2: 8:13

And so, jesus, what he's about to do is he's about to transform this meal to have a whole new kind of meeting about how he's going to celebrate this meal, and I think that I think he has this about 12 to 24 hours before everyone else, or typically what people would have it in Jewish tradition and when they would celebrate the meal. The best example that I can give you is you guys know that every single year, thanksgiving falls on what day? Thursday, right Now. Most of you, I'm assuming, traditionally have Thanksgiving around 3 to 3.30, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Not many of you guys have Thanksgiving for breakfast, right?

Speaker 2: 8:51

This what Jesus is doing here because he's having the Passover on the day of Passover, which is this Friday. It's like he's having Passover at midnight, so the start of Thursday, so very early on in the day. So why? Why so early? Well, it's because that his time is short and he understands that he doesn't have 24 hours to live In less than 24 hours, literally hours away, he will be hanging on a Roman executioner's rack, so this time is of essence. So he celebrates this meal beforehand, right when it kicks off. So picking it up verse 18. So he replied this is Jesus to his disciples go into the city to a certain man and tell him. The teacher says this is always one of these funny moments, because it's like the you know the Star Wars stuff. Like the teacher says like the force right, my appointed time is near. I'm gonna celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house. So the disciples did as Jesus directed them and prepared the Passover.

Speaker 2: 9:46

All of the gospels talk about this very important, specific meal and moment. Luke and different ones kind of breathe different life into it to give us a better scope of what's actually taking place. I love the way Luke sets it up in the gospel of Luke. The disciples said where do you want us to prepare for it? They asked. And so Jesus replies as you enter to the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters and say to the owner of the house the teacher asks where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? The teacher asks where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And then he will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there. And so they left and they found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

Speaker 2: 10:32

This is so fun to me. It's like a spy movie right, like all the secretive stuff. We've actually seen this at the beginning of Holy Week where there was a cult where they said they go there's a cult tied up in this one place and tell him he needs the cult, and you know they take the cult. So this isn't the first time. Because Jesus, here's the deal he knows that there's a price on his head at this moment. Like this is the most famous packed day of the year in Jerusalem. I mean, it's slant and he's a public figure and he's a wanted man specifically, so he can't just go waltzing into the city just parading his presence around. So look what he's done here. Like he has secretly prepared this whole deal to a T with anonymous people. It's like a speakeasy right with a code word involved and all of these protective measures, because he needs one last night. He needs one last night with his disciples to pass on the meaning of why he has to die to his followers. He needs this one last night with these 12 of some peace and quiet. And so it says, when the evening came, jesus was reclining at the table with the 12, with the 12 disciples.

Speaker 2: 11:42

Now there's a Western cultural tradition and a very famous painting that depicts this scene. Many of you guys are probably familiar with it. Who made this painting? Yes, leonardo da Vinci. Yeah, actually, it's a beautiful painting. It's very famous. It's a great part of Western cultural history. But it's a beautiful painting, it's very famous, it's a great part of Western cultural history, but it is completely historically inaccurate, just so you know. Like it's a beautiful painting, but what I'm going to ask you to do right now is totally get this out of your head. This is not at all what it would have looked like.

Speaker 2: 12:11

So in first century, most people did not sit at high tables like we do, like sitting on chairs. If they even had a table at all, it would have been a very low table, like the one you're going to see in just a few moments, and it would have been set up on the ground. And the tables they would have eaten at wouldn't have been these long elongated tables like what we even eat at now, these straight tables. It would have been wrapped more like in a half circle or a U and the gospels again kind of paint where people sit. The host, which would have been Jesus, wouldn't have sat right in the middle. He would have actually sat like one seat in on one of the sides and John, we know, was next to him. We know Judas was actually right next to him. On his left. Across the table would have been Peter, and kind of their roles and how they did this.

Speaker 2: 12:56

And so what we're going to do is we're going to do a little like a Passover moment together, and what I'm going to need is I actually need a couple volunteers, a guy and a girl. That would be great, with somewhat of a diverse palette. That would be helpful. So, who wants to volunteer? I see some people out there. Whichever guy, bring it on. What about a girl? Bring a girl. You got this. Who's going to do it? Come on, don't make me pick another guy. All right, come on, let's do it. All right, come on up here. Yeah, you can go around right over here, brother. Yeah, go that way. All right, I'll take another one of those Sweet, all right. So let's meet our friends here. So, who's this? Who's this? Yes, introduce yourself. Oh, anouk, this is Anouk. Right, you can come on over here. And who do we have here? Zonwit, zonwit. Yeah, I got it All right. So we just read.

Speaker 2: 13:56

They said when the evening came, it said what Jesus was reclining at the table. They weren't sitting in chairs, so shall we? Let's recline. All right, let's get down. We're going to have a fun little meal together. You get to hear me get on the ground, all right.

Speaker 2: 14:14

So the Passover that we're going to get to experience here together, and you guys are all going to get to watch, this was actually structured into four different parts and there was a cup, and each cup marked the drinking of wine, and so that's a very important symbolic part of this. It evolved throughout time. If you've ever participated in a Seder meal or heard of that, a lot of elements have been added, but this is a very stripped down version and the way people celebrate it even today. This is much more familiar to what would have happened at the time, that they practiced in the first century and what Jesus did. And so we begin with the first cup, and to do that, actually we got to pour you a little wine, but just so you know, this is it's not even 11, well, it's not even noon. So we're going to have to do grape juice that's not been fermented.

Speaker 2: 15:06

And how old are you? I was prepared for this, see, I was thinking through this 17 year olds like this is legit here. Let me have your cup here. Yep, I'll take it. I'm going to fill it up here. This is important you want to have. I'm making sure there's extra because you're going to be able to drink kind of as much as you want. So there's yours. Yep, yeah, and feel free to recline, get comfortable however you are. Yeah, as you can tell, I'm very comfortable, all right. So what would happen is to start this out. All right, so what would happen is to start this out. We'd begin with the first cup and keep in mind with me that this cup is marked by a blessing, and the blessing would have actually been stated and sung in Hebrew, which is very beautiful, and I am not going to sing it for you, but I'm going to let you hear someone else sing it. So you'd grab your cup and hold it up. Let's go ahead and hear it.

Speaker 3: 16:00

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech haolam borei peri ha-gafen.

Speaker 2: 16:12

Beautiful. And then what would happen is and you guys can look at this screen we would all recite this together and say May you be blessed, lord, our God, king of the universe, who creates the fruit of the wine. And so we would all do that together. And then, bottoms up, you would take a drink. That's very nice, all right.

Speaker 2: 16:31

So after we do that, we would begin to remember that the Passover was about the past. It's about the liberation of the people of Israel from Exodus. It's about the redemption from slavery that took place a long, long time ago. But Jesus, during this meal, is going to change some things. Where he's actually going to go like no, it's going to be a little bit different now. This meal is now going to have a new meaning. He's going to restructure this connected specifically to his suffering and his death that it's not just about the past anymore. This is now about the future. It's about something that's going to take place that is connected to the kingdom of God actually coming to the here and now. And so Jesus has been announcing this kingdom of God, the program in which God is using to get the world back together again and to bring about healing and restoration and justice, and Jesus in this meal is actually saying and announcing that this story is going to be moved forward now through my death, and that is what this meal, this remembrance, is going to be all about.

Speaker 2: 17:40

To To which, if you were one of the disciples and this started happening, they would be like what? Why would they be like what? Well, because since they were children, they had done this every single year to retell and to remember a very specific story. So they knew all the elements, they knew exactly what they participated in. In fact, this had been going on 1500 years straight, every single year, in those rhythms and routines for these people. So the next thing they'd be just totally thrown off. They'd already be like whoa, whoa, whoa. What's happening? You're like breaking some of the rules. This isn't how we normally do it.

Speaker 2: 18:14

The next thing that would happen in the Passover meal is that this would be called the dipping of the karpas the karpas, and so what you would do is you're going to do this now with me. You're going to take some lettuce off here and then you're going to dip it in this liquid over here that I will tell you what it is, so you're not going to be freaked out, it's salt water. You got one right there, I'm going to use that. That is salty. Yeah, it's real. Hold on, feel free. Yeah, okay. So now, after this would happen, you would say why did we just do that? Why did we just do that? Why did we just do that? That's a great question.

Speaker 2: 19:04

Well, let me tell you, there's actually a lot of interpretations out there, but the earliest comes back from the story all the way back to the Genesis, with a guy named Joseph and his brothers. Some of you may be familiar with this and so then we would tell this story, retell the story about you had Abraham and Abraham was the middle. Have you ever heard of Isaac? And then he had a son named Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons and the 12 sons became the tribes of Israel. But Jacob loved Joseph the most Like. And how did he show Jacob, how did he show Joseph and the others that he loved them the most? Well, you get to learn that he gave him a Technicolor dream coat. You heard that one before, and so there's even like a Broadway show about this.

Speaker 2: 19:47

When I was college, I actually got cast in the musical Joseph and the Technicolor. I was Jacob. I had one line one like this Joseph's mother. She was quite my favorite wife. I never really loved another. All my life Joseph was my joy because he reminded me of her. That was my only line. It was great. Yeah, second time in my life everyone's ever clapped for that. It was the first service. I was like it didn't happen when I actually did this.

Speaker 2: 20:16

So his brothers like don't like this, they're not down with this, they are furious at him and they decide like we're going to kidnap him. Not only are we going to kidnap him, we're going to take him out to the desert, we're going to throw him into a pit and we're going to kill him. And some of the brothers said whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not sure that's going to be the best idea. And so what they do? They end up taking him and they sell him into slavery to Egypt, them to go down to Egypt. And this is how the Israelites actually end up in Egypt because of the sale of Joseph into slavery. And so the brothers, what they do then is they're like man, we got to come up with a story.

Speaker 2: 20:48

So they take the technicolor dream coat and they slaughter a lamb and they rip it up into pieces and they dip, just like we did. They dip that into blood so they can go back to their father. Now I don't know, have you ever bitten your lip before? Have you ever bitten your lip before? Yeah, yeah, so you've done that. And what does the blood? Kind of taste like A little salty, right, and so that is the. What we've just done is the salty taste to dip the coat of blood and it says Jacob, you know, so they can tell Jacob, hey, we don't know why an animal got him. So this is really a bitter story of how the Israelites end up down in Egypt, and that's why we dip the karpas, if you will.

Speaker 2: 21:30

So that is the point of this meal, to which point in the meal that usually you would have lots of young people because, again, you've done this your whole life or a year to which they would say why are we doing this?

Speaker 2: 21:42

Like they'd start asking all other questions like what are we going to do next? What are you going to make me eat? Why are we eating that? And then the stories would really begin. Now they would ask a whole bunch of questions, and so you would tell the whole story all together at one time during the Passover and you talk about how this started with Abraham, and he comes in from this ancient tribe of the Armeans and then he went to the land of Canaan and that they were then called by Yahweh, the God of our ancestors, because there was a famine in Canaan, and so he told them to go down to Egypt. And also, again, this is connected then to Joseph, who was sold into slavery. And so they go down to Egypt, and what happens is they begin to Joseph, who was sold into slavery, and so they go down to Egypt, and what happens is they begin to prosper there, they flourish there, and the Egyptians start to notice this and they look and they see this immigrant population exploding and becoming numerous and they're flourishing, and they begin to get scared.

Speaker 2: 22:37

And so the leaders, and specifically Pharaoh he sees this and begins to enact this slow process of enslaving and oppressing them. And he enacts this decree, which is horrible, that every firstborn Israelite must be killed on the spot, and then everyone else he grinds to death through slave labor. And the Israelites beg and they cry out to Yahweh for rescue and for deliverance. And Yahweh sends a deliverer. You remember who that is? It's Moses. He sends Moses the burning bush guy. And, through Moses, yahweh brings acts of justice against Egypt's injustice and he rescues them, and he redeems them out of their slavery from Egypt and takes them through the wilderness into the promised land.

Speaker 2: 23:29

And this is the core of the story that I just told you in about two minutes. But this, during a traditional Passover meal, would take two hours, because they would go into all detail, every little teeny bit of this story, and that's the reason why we have this meal here today, to commemorate that. And so to commemorate, then now, the telling of the story. After that's done, you would take your glass and your cup in hand At this point. As you did this, you would begin to sing one of the great psalms from Psalm 113. And it sounds a beautiful, sung in Hebrew, but I want all of us to do it here in English, and I'm not going to make you sing it, don't worry, but we'll go back and forth. This is full participation from everyone. So here you go, Psalm 113. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. You, his servants, praise the name of the Lord. You, his servants, praise the name of the Lord From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets the name of the Lord is to be praised.

Speaker 2: 24:38

Who is like the Lord, our God, the one who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and earth.

Speaker 3: 24:48

Praise the.

Speaker 1: 24:48

Lord.

Speaker 2: 24:56

He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children.

Speaker 3: 25:03

Praise the Lord and then you would hear Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu melech haolam borei peri hagafen, and then we would all say in English, together may you be blessed.

Speaker 2: 25:22

Lord, our God, king of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine, bottoms up. That's nice. Well, at this point in the meal, to have an authentic Passover meal, you need three things. You need unleavened bread, you need a bitter herb and lamb. We're not going to have lamb today, I'm just letting you know it was going to. I just thought it'd be cold and kind of yucky and stuff like that. But we have some other pieces.

Speaker 2: 25:51

So why is the bread? What does it mean that it's unleavened right? What is it missing? Yeah, leaven yeast, right. And you need unleavened bread and this bitter herb and this stuff because it represents pieces of the story.

Speaker 2: 26:07

Now, why didn't they put yeast in the bread? Well, if you've ever made bread before, it takes a very long time, like when you put yeast in there. You have to let it do its thing. It starts to rise and you'll beat it down and you'll need it, and then it takes hours and hours and hours. And the Exodus took place at night and they didn't have hours and hours to do this bread. They had to be ready to go with food, with sustenance, on the road immediately. In fact, it says in Exodus, chapter 12, when the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread and the dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

Speaker 2: 26:51

So now Jesus is now in this reenactment moment of the Passover and he says during this meal, while they were eating, jesus took bread and he had given thanks and he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying take and eat, this is my body. And so what would have happened is they would have done a blessing and we'll do it in English for the bread, which was this May you be blessed, lord, our God, king of universe, who brings forth bread from the land. You guys can eat some of that. So he gave. That is dense. So he gave his disciples and he says, like he doesn't say this is the bread of our ancestors. That is really dense. What does he say? He says the craziest thing. He says this is my body, your what it's going to be given for you. He says do this in remembrance of me, do this in remembrance for me, to remember me. He says do this in remembrance of me, do this in remembrance for me, to remember me, he says let's eat this bread together.

Speaker 2: 28:07

Now, no one had ever heard things like this said before. Remember, they've been doing this since they were children and they've watched generations and generations do the same meal and they're like what are you? What did you not sleep last night? Like what is going on? So Jesus takes this ancient symbol and he begins to transform it in this surprising new way. And so the bread, this is like their staple food. This is sustenance in life, and what Jesus is taking is this ancient symbol and he somehow is saying that my death, that's about to happen, it's going to bring you sustenance and life. My death is life For who? He says it's for you. He says my body will be broken and beaten for you. Well, those of you who've ever made bread before, how do you make bread? Beat it up, you knead it, you roll it, you tear it up. And he's saying that's exactly what's getting ready to happen to me. And they didn't realize this, but it was literally hours away before. Literally, his body would have been broken and beaten like this, and so then, after the bread, they would have eaten bitter herb. You ready for this? I'm just going to tell you. It's supposed to make you cry. That's the point of it. I'll tell you exactly what it is. This is a horseradish root that has been shredded and ground up, and this is what they would experience here, just for motivation.

Speaker 2: 29:41

In Exodus 1, it says but the more they were oppressed this is the Israelites the more they multiplied and spread. And so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and they worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives there's a word bitter with harsh labor and brick and mortar mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields and their harsh labor. The Egyptians worked them ruthlessly. They made their life marar, which is why this is what we call the maror. And so to participate in the slavery and suffering of our ancestors, let's dish some up here. So remember the point. Let's be brave here. Get some nice, big. Oh my gosh, this is going to be rough. Really, lean in. We're all the way in, right, guys, we're doing this together. You can do this. Here we go, you doing, okay, yeah.

Speaker 3: 30:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:57

No, you're not.

Speaker 1: 31:00

A second time.

Speaker 2: 31:01

You don't have to do it again. No, that's really fine. You didn't put enough on. All right, my nose isn't running. Good job, all right. Aren't you glad you job? All right? Aren't you glad you volunteered, all right.

Speaker 2: 31:30

So the last part of this meal is the lamb. This is the most important. This is the serious part. So, the night before the exodus, remember Yahweh. That is really intense. Yahweh brought justice to Egypt's injustice. Remember they killed all of these young men, the oppression that was happening.

Speaker 2: 31:48

This is what people were begging for, and so he brings it on the night of Exodus and Yahweh throws this plague this is the final of the 10 plagues that maybe you are familiar with or maybe not and he goes through to Egypt to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians, although Yahweh, god, provided a means of escape, which is the lamb. And so you would have lamb and you would be prepared to eat this, and what was done is families were asked to pick out, picked out a lamb that's unblemished and spotless, and the night of Passover, they would slaughter the lamb to prepare and to eat, and as they slit its throat, they would collect some of its blood and they'd get a bunch of like hyssop, which is like vegetation stuff and they'd paint it over the doorpost. Maybe you've seen something familiar like this this is an ancient door, what this would look like and they would spread and smear blood all over the doorpost of the house. Now, this was for anyone, not just the Israelites, and so, as the plague went through Egypt, whoever was in a house that was marked with the blood was spared. Yahweh provided a means of being spared from the justice that was taking place on Egypt's injustice. And now what Jesus does then, right here in this moment that we're very familiar with, is he, just as they're finishing the lamb, he says to them. Then he took the cup, it says, and when they had given thanks, he gave it to them saying and so we raise our cup for that. We can say this all together, may you be blessed, lord, our God, king of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. When you drink, I'm done punishing you. Will you give them a big hand? Yeah, is your leg asleep? My leg's asleep, all right. Thank you, guys, so much for that. So this is kind of really what's just taken place here is look at what Jesus is doing, like in this moment he's taking these ancient symbols and, like no one has ever spoken like this before and like, started to transform and tweak this tradition that they had done.

Speaker 2: 34:30

Jesus has taken the most ancient traditional elements in Judaism, and Jesus ties his blood and his coming death to what he calls the new covenant. Now, covenant is this word that's taken from Hebrew scriptures. Covenant is about Yahweh God's story, about how God goes forward in movements throughout history of his redeeming, his working for the mission of redemption and justice and freeing humanity from slavery. And Jesus, right here, says tonight is the night. The final chapter of the covenant story is moving forward. Through his death, through his suffering, he now is saying I am the Passover lamb and there is a new exodus that's taking place Now. This is so important for us.

Speaker 2: 35:27

The story that Jesus is telling is not just about ancient history. The story that Jesus is telling isn't just about his tribe doing something thousands of years ago and what they experienced. This is a story, this is a rhythm of what God is actually doing in our world, in our individual lives, which means it may seem chaotic as we pass through time. This, though, is the Passover story, the story of the new covenant. It's the story that's literally wrapping its arms around every single one of us. It's a story that's encompassing. This encompassing story, that is what has happened literally in the upper room 2,000 years ago. Think of it this way.

Speaker 2: 36:10

So the plot line of the Passover story, or Exodus, has three key concepts, which is how were the Israelites rescued and spared? Well, we learn, it's through the lamb. Who was rescuing them? Yahweh, god, was rescuing through the blood of the lamb. So then it would be passed over. Rescued from what? From slavery to the big bad Pharaoh, the Egyptians at the time.

Speaker 2: 36:35

Now, what Jesus does is he takes this basic plot line in the structure of Passover, this story, and he swapped out all of the players. You see how he's re-imagining this and teaching his disciples it's no longer through the lamb that they were spared and rescued, it's through Jesus. How are we rescued and spared? Through Jesus? Who is rescuing us? Yahweh? Through the blood of the lamb. Jesus, it's Jesus' death and his suffering that Yahweh is rescuing from just. Is it just for the tribe of Israel? Well, remember back then, it was for anyone, right? No, it's the whole world. Not just from slavery to Pharaoh or Caesar, augustus or Rome or tyrants. No, rescued from what? From the powers of sin and death in our world from something much more dark and powerful.

Speaker 2: 37:30

See Jesus's mind in his mind. When he looks out at humanity, he doesn't just see us and them. When we read throughout the gospel narratives, he is constantly moving to people on the borders, on the margins, on the outside, and he doesn't see the world in terms of those whom God is for and whom God is against my tribe and your tribe. He just sees humans and humanity as that is enslaved in dark things that are on the inside of us. And Jesus knows you. You read his teachings. He knows us, he understands us. He knows about the human heart and it's mysterious. He knows it's full of goodness and beauty, but it's also full of darkness. And he believed deeply, if you read his teachings, that we are enslaved to darkness on the inside of the powers of selfishness, of pride, of tribalism, of self-preservation. Thank you of me right In my tribe at the expense of your tribe, that we are slaves to bitterness and unforgiveness and anger and jealousy and lust, and that slavery produces a world that actually looks like our world that we live in. It also produces marriages and relationships and friendships that look like ours. It produces society in the world societies that look like ours and Jesus.

Speaker 2: 38:59

He is interested in addressing the slavery and he says it's going to be through my suffering and my death. It's going to be through my life as the representative human being. It's going to be through my death as the representative human being. My life will now be attributed and offered to you. My death will be in place of yours. My resurrection life that we're going to celebrate this coming Easter soon is for you as well.

Speaker 2: 39:31

And this is the story, this is the Passover story, and it's a story that literally wraps its arms around, like this story confronts every single one of us with a choice, which is this Do I want to remain in Egypt? Do I want to remain in Egypt? Do I want to remain in the chaotic mess that is my life, or do I want to attach my story to the larger rhythm of what God is doing in this world to redeem and heal and save? That's, friends, what the Passover is all about, and that's why we celebrate it every time that we take the bread and the cup together, which is something we're actually going to do in just a few moments and the Passover actually ends with a fourth cup. It's the cup that we're going to take together, along with the bread and communion right now, it's the cup of celebration of God's deliverance, and so I want to invite you, in just a few moments, to take the bread and the cup of celebration of God's deliverance. And so I want to invite you, in just a few moments, to take the bread and the cup and to literally participate and eat the story, which is what they did every year, these rhythms, which is why we have these rhythms where, monthly, we stop and we pause and we eat and understand the story, the lamb and the body and the blood given to us, and then, in celebration of God's deliverance, we will arise and respond in worship. So there's communion.

Speaker 2: 41:07

If you're familiar or not familiar with it, around at tables around in the room, there's two cups. On the bottom cup that you pick up, it has a little piece of gluten-free, unleavened wafer. On top of that is some grape juice, and I'm going to invite you to either go by yourself or with some friends or family or whatever you want to do, and you can go get that. You can go back to your seat if you want. You can pause for a moment and take it. Take it on your own. We're not going to stop and take it together. Take it when you are ready.

Speaker 2: 41:33

And if you're new or here and you don't know what we're doing or why, I just gave you some explanation of what this looks like. But also, feel free, no one's judging who's getting up and down and participating. This is an opportunity of reflection. Do I want to remain in Egypt or am I ready to be covered in the Passover? So at this time, friends, I will ask you to arise and participate with the bread and the Passover. And so at this time, friends, I will ask you to arise and participate with the bread and the cup.