March 2, 2022 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Matthew 26:18 ESV “I WILL KEEP THE PASSOVER!”

 

ASH WEDNESDAY

March 2, 2022

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Matthew 26:18 ESV

 

“I WILL KEEP THE PASSOVER!”

 

          This year’s midweek Lenten worship is following the theme “The Crucial Hours.” Crucial comes from the Latin word crux which means cross. Something that is crucial then is something that is necessary or critical to what comes next. You are at a crossroads and everything else depends on what happens now. Today’s crucial hour comes from a bold and decisive statement Jesus made in Matthew 26:18 “I will keep the Passover.”

          At first glance that might not seem to be a crucial statement or decision. When Jesus said it, it was the day appointed to celebrate the Passover Feast so why wouldn’t Jesus do that? Every Jew did that every year. OK, it was not every Jew who kept the Passover and there were plenty of years that the people missed. There were years that nobody celebrated the Passover. Nobody kept it. But Jesus did. Always. Why is that important?

          The Passover was one of the required worship feasts in the Old Testament ceremonial law. It commemorated the time God rescued the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. In the 10^th and final of the horrible plagues God sent on Egypt the firstborn male in every household in the land of Egypt died unless the blood of a sacrificed lamb was smeared on the doorframe of their house. When the angel God sent to kill all the firstborn males saw that blood of the lamb, he passed over that house. No one died. Celebrating the Passover gave every Jewish family the chance to look back and remember what God had done for them.

          But the Passover was more than a look back meal. It was a look ahead meal too. God filled it with pictures of what the promised Savior would do. Bitter herbs pictured the bitterness of sin. After the lamb was served at the meal sweet came, picturing the joy of heaven. And then of course there is the Lamb itself that is crucial to the Passover. Everything before the Lamb is bitter, sad, reminding of slavery. Everything after the Lamb is happy and joyful. But in order to get to the happy and joyful you have to have the lamb, the perfect lamb, the sacrificed lamb. Because we have the benefit of New Testament glasses it is easy for us to see how the lamb of the Passover pictured Jesus. Without Jesus all you have is the bitterness of sin. With Jesus the sweetness of heaven. All of that contained in the Passover meal.

          That’s what Jesus would celebrate. He would keep the Passover, again. As he had each year before this as required by God’s law. He needed to do that so he could really keep what the Passover pictured. For that Jesus needed to be perfect and perfectly obey all of God’s commands. Most of the time wouldn’t cut it. Only when it was convenient would not do it either. He had to be better than us.

          You know how it goes with us as we strive to keep God’s commandments. I will keep the 2^nd Commandment and keep God’s name holy, unless I’m surprised or hurt then out comes “Oh my…!” and we blatantly break the commandment instead of keeping it. I’ll keep that 3^rd Commandment and put worship of God first, as long it fits into my schedule. As long as the kids don’t have activities, as long as I’m not tired, as long as…but I’ll keep it another day.  I’ll keep that 5^th Commandment, at least outwardly by not murdering anyone but man is it fun to be mean and make fun of my classmates, my brother or sister, my teacher or parents. You know I guess we don’t really keep any of those commandments. It’s just we don’t break some as badly as others.

          But Jesus did keep all of those commandments and many more. All of the ones required of any Jewish man at His time and He kept them perfectly. Why? So He could be the perfect Lamb that the Passover pictured. So that John the Baptist could point to Jesus and honestly say, “Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” So that when it comes time for people to be punished for their breaking of God’s commandments God can pass over us and not hand down the guilty verdict we deserve and the punishment that goes with it. For that to happen Jesus had to keep this final Passover.

          And so this is what happened. “On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”¹⁸ He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him the Teacher says, ‘My time is near. I will KEEP the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” ¹⁹ The disciples did as Jesus commanded them and prepared the Passover.” That’s what makes this a crucial hour. Jesus know His time to suffer and die was near. Jesus knew his time to suffer hell was near. If anybody had a legitimate reason to say, “I’m too busy or too tired to worship,” it was Jesus. If anybody could ever legitimately say I’m too busy it is Jesus on Maundy Thursday. But it is crucial that He keep it. So you hear his resolve. ‘My time is near. I will KEEP the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” And keep it He did, and more. He used that time to comfort and teach his disciples. He used it to pray for them and all believers. He used it to provide a replacement meal that doesn’t just picture Jesus, it is Jesus as He gives us His true body and blood to prove to us again He has forgiven our sins. Thank you Jesus!

          Thank you Jesus for keeping the Passover. Thank you for coming to this crucial hour and thinking of us. We have more crucial hours to look at this Lenten season. Let’s keep the Lenten worship as our way to thank him.      Amen.