DAY 25

DEFINING MOMENTS

Exodus 12 & 13 and Matthew 16

Today we read about:

v  The Passover, which includes the feast as well as the last plague & the Exodus with God leading by a pillar of a cloud by day and fire by night.

v  Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus’ words, “take up your cross”.

Exodus 12 & 13: The tenth plague: how do you view it? It is the night the Angel of Death “passes-over” the Israelite households as the last plague, the death of the first-born, takes place in Egypt. A brutal plague and we can hear the echoes of Moses inaugural exchange with Pharaoh in 4:22-23. I had indicated earlier how serious this business of Covenant is. We don’t like to see the hard side of God’s actions. I don’t think He enjoys them either. The point in all of this is His commitment and focus for us, His creation. It becomes the Passover Feast.

There is one further detail I would like to share, and then one other point. It says in Exodus to select a lamb on the 10^th day of the month (12:3) and kill it on the fourteenth day at twilight – a lamb without blemish. If you think about what we call Holy Week, then the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, the day we call Palm Sunday, that day…is Lamb Selection Day. As the people cheered Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem they were essentially selecting the Lamb, whose sacrifice makes the way for death to “pass-over” each of us.

The other point, and it goes back to the harsh reality of last plague, is that I believe God doesn’t want to ever have to do this again. He instructs the Israelites, And when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" It is the freedom meal, it came at a high cost, and therefore they should never forget it.

Matthew 16 tells the story of Jesus taking his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, his northern most recorded trek. The location is a Pagan worship site, a huge amount of water flows out of the mouth of a cave, called the gates of Hell. It is a Pagan worship location because of the fresh water. You can go there today and still see the carved images in the walls (Google Caesarea Philippi images). The point is that Jesus, with the so-called gods of the world in his midst, asks “who do people say I am?” “You are the Christ…the Son of God” answers Peter.

This moment is like a precious stone with many facets. One facet is the proclamation of who this Jesus of Nazareth really is. Another is that at this northern point, as the disciples now understand who Jesus really is, Jesus then begins his laser focused journey to Jerusalem to be the New Passover Lamb.

It is a moment when the stories and teachings of Jesus will begin to show all more and more what this Kingdom is supposed to look like. This idea, Jesus’ idea of Kingdom will be theme we will return turn again, for now know that it is very different Kingdom then his disciples are imagining.

And there is the facet of “how”, how will all this be done? The answer by killing Jesus, and by his followers taking up an instrument of death, a cross, and following Him!

Defining moments…imagine the night of the first Passover meal. You get the instructions from Moses. You kill the lamb, prepare it as instructed, and you spread the blood. It is all very confusing. Now imagine you are one of the disciples at Caesarea Philippi. You knew Jesus was special, you had an idea he was the Messiah, and you had been in his inner circle. Then it happens. Peter blurts it out and Jesus does not disagree. Then, just when you thought things might be coming clear it gets turned upside down by this “cross” business.

In both the Old and New we are in the presence of defining moments. The Passover-Exodus event is THE defining moment for the Jewish People…it is the moment of deliverance and freedom. The announcement of Jesus is a defining moment as well. There will be more along the way, but in many respects Jesus’ mission is beginning in earnest.