Did you know Bible translators renamed some of the figures who appear in Bible history? The translators didn't invent names for Bible figures, but they shortened some names and gave other names pronunciations that English speakers could pronounce. That included truncating the names of important folk, like Matthew. But some figures from the Bible actually had Latin- and English-sounding names. Because the early church was under Roman occupation, some Hebrew people, at that time, assumed Greek and Roman names. But thank Heaven we have a Savior who made a plan to reach all of us, no matter anyone's language. That's one of the things that makes Easter so special.
Another year has passed.
We're hopeful for release from pandemic, war, and myriad other problems. Yet, Easter is almost here. A few short days, and Passover will be here again.
In more than one way, Passover is the gateway to Easter. Passover is a time of remembrance — and there is so much
to remember.
The very first Passover was the night before the Israelites began their
march out of Egypt, the night the blood of lambs covered their doorposts as a
sign that mortal death should pass over their dwelling places.
More than 1,500 years later at Passover, our long-awaited
Savior, Yeshua, Yesu, Jesus, was crucified. Three days after that, the Lord
Jesus rose from the tomb, spoke again to the faithful, and ascended a hill
into eternity. Then, a few weeks later, Passover could be seen in a whole
new light.
At a Passover festival, a mighty, rushing wind entered a
place of meeting, stirred up whatever light was in that place, and ushered in
an awareness that men had not known before.
As Jesus had promised, the Holy Spirit arrived and became
our comforter and guide, just as if Jesus were still with us in person. Suddenly,
on that Passover day, the presence of the Holy Spirit helped men understand one
another, despite differences in language; and the Spirit, that same day, moved
hundreds of faithful followers, to lay their lives down in a body of
water — to be baptized — by the disciples who were there.
That day of Passover has become known as Pentecost, a day
spent together understanding other tongues, dying to old ways of understanding,
being cleansed of lives of sin through baptism — rising up from baptismal
waters as if from death into new life “in Spirit."
And, oh, the joy of that new life.
When the Israelites were in bonds to Egypt, the Lord began
to fight for them through a series of plagues that ended with terrible death.
But the Israelites had not been strangers to slaughter before that terrible
Passover night.
While the Egyptians had a way of weaving together leaves of
the papyrus plant in order to make paper for documents, the Hebrews, the
Israelites, made scrolls from dried animal skins, to record their history: an ancient practice that may better help us understand the scripture that says, “The word became flesh” through Jesus. Heaven’s word to us went from
being set down on skins of animals, to being our living, breathing, human Savior, who saved us, His church, from
damnation.
Because we believe, today, we don’t dash the blood
of lambs onto our doorposts in order to be saved from being sacrificed. We believe that when Jesus gave His own human body, His self-sacrifice saved our human flesh from being sacrificed.
We also don’t rush and consume large amounts of lamb, in one night, to help
sustain us on the long journey of escape ahead. In Exodus 12, Moses received word from God that His people,
in one night, would need to eat all of the permissible parts of the lambs that
would be sacrificed for their journey ahead, that the lambs would need to be
“roasted with fire” and eaten “with unleavened bread and bitter herbs” — and
any remnants consumed by fire before morning. The Hebrews were to gorge
themselves on a night when not only lambs would die.
It was a terrible escape, and a terrible existence: writing
that history on the skins of slaughtered animals.
And wouldn’t many still be in that very dark age, if it wasn't for the light and life we have in Jesus?
In Jesus, something truly remarkable happened, for all
mankind who want to believe. In Jesus, lambs aren’t sacrificed to make the way
of escape. And, in Jesus, there isn’t a need to painstakingly turn animal skins
into paper in order to write we know not what.
Instead, Jesus says His self-sacrifice takes the place
of the sacrifice of His human lambs. We, the church, are those lambs. Jesus also calls us His
“body.” And He says bread is a sufficient way of remembering that part of
His body that was slain. For me, today, that part of His body that was slain,
included John the Baptist and even the thief who repented on the cross!
If we look closely at Exodus 12:8, we note that the
Israelites ate lambs and unleavened
bread. Both were practical to eat, for the long journey ahead; but there also was
spiritual symbolism in each. And Jesus used that symbolism to help us see the new
way forward.
In Him, there’s not supposed to be sacrifice of human
“lambs,” and the bread that sustains us in Him is His word — not His physical body.
No, when Jesus left the cross, He was not consumed. (Lamentations 3:22)
Jesus’s self-sacrifice ended that hell: the hell of human sacrifice and cannibalism. And, if we
look at His word closely, we find Paul telling the church at Rome: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God.” (Romans 8:14) Paul spoke of the perils in being Christian as
if those perils amounted to only a “light affliction.” (2 Corinthians 4:17)
“For I reckon the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. …
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:18,
8:21)
Through most of the New Testament, Paul preaches deliverance, or
escape from corruption through Jesus — not doom about being consumed. He said
we are thought of as if sheep for the
slaughter, but “nay!” (8:36-37)
“We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us”
(8:37) ... and still does.
Jesus is author and finisher of our faith.
***
With all of this said, now is good a time as any to say enough with the Eurocentric feeling that
God poured Himself into a frame that looked like today’s brother or sister in
Israel.
Israel has had a long and difficult history. Ancient Israel spent years
in bondage to more than one, two, three, or even four nations. And modern
Israel has fled and has migrated to all parts of the world.
In fact, only recently did the few remaining Jews in Yemen,
return to the land of Israel. And they are Jews who, in 2016, had a much richer
hue than ancestors who migrated to parts of Europe.
Just think about Abraham crossing long treks of the desert,
and blending in to crowds at the many markets he must have passed through —
with leathery, tan skin. Then think of Joseph being sold into servitude. In
those days, ethnicity likely was different between greater Egypt and Joseph
(or maybe, "Yo-seph").
While some young people — Hebrew and Muslim together — may
feel a modern sameness of skin-tone makes a story about a shared legacy, there could be better understanding if everyone would think, instead, about the Lord, who wouldn’t likely paint Himself as one extreme or another,
but who, for sake of speaking to all, probably painted Himself as ethnic middle ground.
Just because we're socially a certain way now, does not mean that way is as always has been.
And just think: The flat breads that once were prepared in the ancient Middle East were not made with bleached flour like today. Universally, back then, breads were flat like animal skins and made with whole black-, brown-, tan-, and off-white-skinned wheat. Breads varied in color not only because of the colors of wheat skins, but also because the breads were cast into firey ovens at different temperatures and using various methods. Some breads were as flat and as varied colored as the skin of different peoples. So, when Jesus gave Himself as who Heaven intends as the final human sacrifice before Heaven (other human sacrifices being pleasing not to Heaven), He gave His life as the ultimate substitute for the sacrifice and roasting of peoples of all ethnicities. And isn't that good news to shout about?
Ancient flatbreads were not small rounds like most of the flatbreads served today. The unleavened bread that Jesus gave at His last Passover in flesh, was given as a substitute for His body. That bread was probably a large sheet, like an animal skin. Animal skins were used by the Hebrew people to write down Israel's painful history.
What a blessing today, to eat God's provision, made possible in Jesus! And what a blessing how God's love of the human soul is why He told Peter to wake up, receive of other than human flesh, and eat freely! Jesus gave Himself that we may live and live abundantly. This from the only heavenly Savior who served disciples fish on the shore of Galilee.
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