Every Sunday, we reach a point in the service right before the distribution of the sacrament where we raise the host, break it in silence, and chant “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” Then the congregation responds, “Therefore let us keep the feast.”[1]
This is a regal moment. It often feels like the pinnacle of our liturgy. If we can excuse (even just for a moment) the fact that some of your clergy have better voices than others, we can allow ourselves to wonder about what it is that was just sung. What do we mean when say that Christ is our Passover? Isn’t Passover a day or an event, not a person? Passover. We may be brought back to the famous da Vinci image of the Last Supper, during which Jesus and his Disciples enjoyed a Passover Seder on the night Christ would be betrayed.[2] And while this depicts what that fateful night could have looked like, there is something else going on here. In this breaking and chanting, we are met with a moment of mystery. When we weekly declare that Christ is our Passover, we are declaring something about who we believe God to be.[3] Let’s look to the first Passover…before it was even called “Passover.” Recall the Israelites, held in captivity and enslaved by Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. God promised these people deliverance from Pharaoh’s grasp[4] – a deliverance that would come as a result of death, destruction, and pain – but liberation, nonetheless.[5] On the eve of their liberation, God would pass through the land of Egypt, striking down every firstborn in the land.[6] The ever-present death would, ultimately, force the Egyptians’ hands and lead them to set Israel free.[7] The Israelites then fled from Egypt, embarking on the Exodus – their journey to the promised land. From that point on, the Israelites were to observe Passover as a “night of vigil” for the Lord as a reminder that the Lord brought them out of the land of Egypt.[8] This God of the Passover, which is the same God we worship in the Eucharist, is a God of liberation and of justice. This same theme of liberation is seen when Christ declares his public ministry as a ministry that will proclaim good news to the poor, release prisoners, give sight to the blind, and free the oppressed.[9] Or again when Jesus stands on the side of the mountain and completely restructures societal relationships, claiming that the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the peacemakers, and the persecuted are all blessed.[10] This is the liberating God we worship and remember when we claim that “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” Yet, our God is so much more. Just as God is a God of liberation in the story of the first Passover, this story shows us that God is also a God of mercy. God spared all who spread the blood of a lamb over their doorposts.[11] The angel of death did not harm them. [PAUSE] A God who spares. This is how the Israelites were to remember their Lord.[12] And today, we are still spared daily from the angel of death. We receive God’s mercy – even if we do not feel like we deserve it. We declare belief in a merciful God when we call Christ our Passover. God then again shows us mercy when we learn that God told Moses that even those who touched an unclean corpse “shall still keep the Passover to the Lord.”[13] Thank God for this because, if it had not been for this promise, then perhaps Joseph of Arimathea would not have taken Jesus off the cross, acting in faith, to place him in the tomb.[14] Or the Marys would not have gone, in faith, to the tomb to prepare Jesus’s body for burial, where they bore witness to the resurrection that we proclaim here at the Eucharist. It is through Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection that we continuously receive the salvific mercy that Jesus bestowed onto the criminal, while the two hung on their crosses awaiting their deaths.[15] Thus, when we declare that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, we affirm the merciful God who spares us from death. And yet, God is still so much more. While Passover is about liberation and mercy…it is also about sacrifice. Which means God is sacrifice. Before the Exodus, the Israelites were to sacrifice one lamb per family to roast, eat, and from which to get the blood to invoke God’s mercy.[16] Like a lamb sacrificed on Passover, so too was Christ sacrificed for us – as our sacrificial lamb[17], the Lamb of God[18] who takes away the sins of the world.[19] Like the lamb, Christ’s whole self was sacrificed[20]; and through this sacrifice, the Lamb, which is Christ, conquers the powers of this world.[21] Thus, the fraction anthem is a participation in the sacrifice of Christ. It is an active reminder, a making present of a past event, of what was – and is – done for us through Christ.[22] Just as the Passover teaches us of a liberating and merciful God, it also instructs that we believe in a God who sacrifices for us. And yet, God is still so much more. Because Passover is an active reminder, there is a final component that we must explore…And we realize the activity every time we meet at the table to be set for us today. Passover was, and is, used as a reason for people to gather. To share with their neighbors.[23] To celebrate in community with the living and the dead.[24] To encourage us to return to the Lord, even when we may feel alone like the Israelites wandering in the desert or living in a foreign land.[25] So, recall again with me the Israelites, held in captivity and enslaved by Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. God promised these people deliverance from Pharaoh’s grasp. Yet, they could not flee alone. They needed God and they needed each other. The Lord knew this and, thus, provided provision. If a household was too small for a whole lamb, it was to join its closest neighbor in obtaining one. The lamb was then to be “divided in proportion to the number of people who eat it” (Exodus 12:4). What does this command to help one another tell us about our God? What does it tell us about how we are to act, not just here at this doorpost, but also in our world? The whole is greater than the sum of its parts – and we are all just parts contributing to a God who is so much more. The beauty is that because Passover is about community, Eucharist is our opportunity to partner with God when we keep the feast by living – through words and actions – the legacy of Christ. Passover, therefore, is unity. And if Passover is unity, then Christ – our Passover – is unity. Coming to the table, side by side, to evidence of this today. So come, participate in our liberating, merciful, sacrificial, and unifying Passover God. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” Experience this moment of mystery. Know something about God; and then know that God is also so much more. May we keep the feast. Amen. [1] BCP, 364. [2] Like 22:14-16. [3] Follows in the understanding that our prayers tell our beliefs or, lex orandi lex credendi. [4] Exodus 3:17. [5] Exodus 3:19-20. [6] Exodus 12:12. [7] Exodus 12:33. [8] Exodus 12:41-42. [9] Luke 4:18. [10] Matthew 5:3-12. [11] Exodus 12:2,7. [12] Exodus 12:27. [13] Numbers 9:10. [14] Mark 15:46. [15] Luke 23:39-43. [16] Exodus 12:2-10. [17] 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. [18] John 1:29-34. [19] BCP, 337 and 356. [20] Exodus 12:9-10. [21] Revelation 17:9-14. [22] BCP, 859. [23] Exodus 12:4. [24] Exodus 12:47. [25] 2 Chronicles 30:10-11. |