1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word, as we continue our Lenten Midweek Series, “Set Free-The Gospel in Exodus,” is taken from Exodus 12:1-14, it’s entitled, “The Good News of a God Who Passes Over Us in Mercy,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. It’s early spring, 1446 BC. A man is out in the fields in the Goshen region of Egypt, looking through a flock of sheep to find a lamb for his family. This lamb needs to be young and healthy, with no visible defects. Having found an unblemished lamb, he takes it home. Over the next four days, he and his family keep a close eye on the lamb to be sure it really is healthy and whole.
3. Then, on the fourth day after selecting the lamb—on the 14th day of the month, in the early evening—the man sacrifices the lamb. He takes care not to break any of its bones. Its blood he uses to mark the sides and top of the entrance to the family’s home. The lamb is roasted that same night and eaten by the family, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This is also done in the homes of all his fellow Israelites.
4. During the night, beginning at midnight, wailing is heard throughout the land. In each Egyptian home, the firstborn son dies that night. Meanwhile, not a single Hebrew household—not a single home marked by the blood of a lamb—experiences any loss.
5. The next day, Pharaoh sends word that the Israelites are, at last, free to leave Egypt. Through 9 previous plagues, in the hardness of his heart, he had refused to let them go. But now their time of slavery has ended. They are free at last.
6. And it all happened exactly as the Lord their God had said it would. In judgment, he had struck down the firstborn of Egypt. And in mercy, he had passed over the homes of his people. Wherever the blood of the lamb was seen, no harm came.
7. The centuries rolled on, and year after year, on the anniversary of the original Passover, the people of Israel observed a weeklong feast that included the sacrifice of Passover lambs and the eating of Passover meals. Moving forward nearly 1500 Passover celebrations: In about the year AD 33, on Sunday of the week of Passover, a man enters Jerusalem, riding humbly on a donkey. He has come to present himself as the true Passover Lamb. Over the next four days, this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is repeatedly questioned, challenged, and tested. Each time, he proves to be faithful and free of guilt. He shows himself to be unblemished.
8. That Thursday, he celebrates the Passover with his disciples. Later that same night, he is taken captive. And the next day, on a hill outside Jerusalem, Jesus offers himself up on a cross as our Passover sacrifice. Like the earlier Passover lambs, not one of this perfect Lamb’s bones is broken. Jn 19:31–36 says, “31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”
9. Unlike the first Passover, only one firstborn Son dies this time—the Lamb himself, the firstborn Son of Mary and the only-begotten Son of God. There is weeping over the death of this Son. But because of his self-giving sacrifice for us, all who are marked with his saving blood are untouched by God’s righteous judgment. For our countless sins of thought, word, and deed—for the evil we have done and the good we have left undone—we justly deserve God’s present and eternal punishment. But instead, just as God passed over the Israelite homes marked with the blood of a Passover lamb, God passes over us in mercy, for Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed, and we are marked by the blood of the lamb.
10. Jesus is the true, final, perfect Passover Lamb—of whom all other sacrificial lambs have been merely a shadow. By his blood, we are saved, for we have been redeemed once and for all “with the precious blood of Christ, . . . a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet 1:19). In Baptism, we have been washed clean in the blood of this holy Lamb of God (Rev 7:14b). By the Gospel, his cleansing blood purifies us of all sin (1 Jn 1:7–9). And in the Lord’s Supper, a new and better Passover meal, we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation through his body given for us and his blood poured out for us (1 Cor 11:23–25).
11. Marked by the saving blood of the Lamb, we are forgiven and set free—free from sin, free from the fear of death, free to live as God’s redeemed people. And it all happened just as God said it would, as what he previewed in the Passover he accomplished on the cross.
12. For all of this, may Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, be praised forevermore. For as John heard sung in heaven and recorded for us in the fifth chapter of Revelation, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! . . . To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever” (Rev 5:12–13). Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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