Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14
Why is this night different from all other nights?
On all other nights we may eat both leavened bread and matzah; on this night we eat only matzah.
On all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables; on this night we eat bitter herbs.
On all other nights we do not dip even once; on this night we dip twice.
On all other nights we may eat either sitting or leaning; on this night we all eat only while leaning.
We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai,our Lord, freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand (Deuteronomy 6:21) and an outstretched arm (Deuteronomy 5:15).
And if the Holy One, blessed be he, had not taken our ancestors out of Egypt, we, our children, and our children’s children would be subjugated to Pharaoh.
Therefore, even if we are all wise, we are all understanding, we are all elders, we all know the Torah, we are obligated to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt.
Everyone who lengthens the discussion is praiseworthy.
(“The Passover Haggadah,” from Joseph Tabory, JPS Commentary on the Haggadah: Historical Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (2008), pp. 83-84)
Frank R.
Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14
God is establishing the Passover celebration. It is in the month that falls between March and April, and was called Abib at that time and later on Nisan. Passover would be a family celebration, so that everyone from the youngest to the oldest would recall the night that God gave them protection. It would be the night that the death angel passed over Egypt and all the firstborn would die. Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go and all the plagues had descended upon the Egyptians, but this would be the final plague. Anyone who would listen and put the blood of a lamb over their doorpost would be saved from the death angel’s purpose.
There are many stories of God extending his protection on his people. One of them is from Our Daily Bread of August 13, 1990.
Missionary Lorrie Anderson was on assignment to the head-shrinking Candoshi Shapra Indians of Peru. One day she was looking for a quiet place for her daily time of Bible reading and prayer, so she went down by the edge of the river. After reading the Bible, she took up her prayer list. Eyes closed, she did not see a deadly anaconda weaving through the water until it struck, burying its fangs into her flesh. It withdrew to strike, hitting her arm again and again as it held her, screaming, in its coils. It reared up for the death blows. Then suddenly the giant snake, never known to release its prey, relaxed its grip and slithered off through the water. While Lorrie was being treated, a witch doctor from a nearby village burst into the hut and stared at her. She couldn’t believe Lorrie had survived. She said her son-in-law, also a witch doctor, had chanted to the spirit of the anaconda that morning and sent it to kill the young missionary. “I’m certain,” Lorrie said, “that except for the protection of God, it would have worked.”
God’s protecting hand has been extended since the beginning of time, and it will continue! How has God protected you?
Derl K.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Commenting on this text and the importance of the Lord’s Supper, Martin Luther writes: “Although this Supper is everyday food, we should nevertheless never get tired of it but always be hungry and desirous for it. For you see how heartily and lovingly our dear Lord Christ intends it, and it is certainly true, that if we would cultivate in our hearts the proper understanding about what person this is who instituted and ordained this Supper, we would have to be ashamed to the very core for being so cold, slack, and lazy about it” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 41).
Too many times we fail to make the big deal of receiving the sacrament that Luther and Paul want us to have. The Reformer wants to make clear how in giving us this meal God is trying to make it easier to be a Christian. In another sermon he proclaims: “It is not a difficult task. For eating and drinking come naturally, things we would much rather do than anything else. Yes, eating and drinking are the happiest things in the world for us to do. Where the belly is full, you’ll find a happy man.... It is this pleasant, necessary routine which our dear Lord utilizes and says, I have prepared a joyful delightful and delicious meal; I don’t wish to lay on you some hard, difficult task... (Complete Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 458).
Good food gives you energy, transforms itself into the ability to do good things. This is what the sacramental food Jesus gives us does to us; it turns us into healthy, energetic Christians who do a lot of good things. Food also keeps you from getting sick. A cutting-edge French Catholic theologian of the last century, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, powerfully expressed what a change the bread and wine of the sacrament (Christ’s Work in us) can make in our lives: “First of all I stretch out my hand unhesitatingly towards the fiery bread which you set before me.... To take it is, I know, to surrender myself to forces which will tear me away painfully from myself.... Lord Jesus, I am willing to be possessed by you, to be bound to your Body, and led by its inexpressible power towards those solitary heights which by myself I should never dare to climb (Hymn of the Universe, pp. 29-30).
Mark E.
John 13:1-17, 31-35
The Passover season honored the time when the angel of the Lord killed all the firstborn Egyptian children, but saved the Israelite children from death. In our gospel Jesus is not passed over and dies on the cross ? so that we might be saved from eternal death.
Judas was the criminal. It was in God’s plan, but yet he is condemned! There is a difference between knowing in advance who will do something and ordering him to do it. We may know in advance that one of our children will disobey us and do something we have forbidden, but we did not order him or her to do it! God knew what Hitler or Mussolini were going to do and he condemned it, but it might have fit in his greater plans. We don’t know!
Jesus shocked his disciples by playing the role of a servant and washing their feet. He did this as an example for us to be humble and willing to serve others. We see that very seldom in this world, where those in authority look for praise and honor and would not stoop to grovel before those under them. It would not be dignified!
When I was a missionary in Nepal, old Pastor Tir was the first Christian in Nepal and was highly honored and praised for all he had done for Christ’s church there. When one of the speakers at a meeting suggested a footwashing after his presentation, Pastor Tir went up and knelt before his students and washed their feet ? and there was not a dry eye in the place! His example will never be forgotten!
We rarely see Jesus’ example practiced today. We can’t imagine the leaders of some countries kneeling before their subjects. Putin would never bow before anyone! The practice of honoring those above us is honored in Japan! I can’t think of anyplace that honors those who are below us in status.
But of course we wash the feet of our little children and may even enjoy it. Who knows? Maybe someday in our old age they might be washing our feet.
In one church back east, the pastor established a footwashing on Maundy Thursday with one small difference. The members came forward, put their shod feet on the altar rail, and he dusted them with a rag. He felt that was no different than the small sample of bread and wine we get at communion. After all, it was just symbolic. Now, it’s up the one reading this to decide.
The proof of our faith that God expects of us is that we love each other. Not just the people we have always loved ? it means that we should love even our enemies. Jesus forgave even those who were nailing him to a cross. Will we ever be able to love the terrorists or the criminals who may even hurt some we know? Make Jesus our example.
Bob O.
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Mexico City hosted the 1968 Olympics, and one participant did not receive a medal but won the hearts of his country and those in the stands. The winners in the marathon had been crowned for well over an hour, and yet thousands lingered in the stands just visiting with one another. Suddenly they began witnessing an astonishing event. Into the arena hobbled a lone figure wearing the colors of Tanzania. The crowd saw that one of his legs was bloodied and bandaged from a severe knee injury that he had received somewhere during the 26.2 mile race. Everyone knew he was in pain as he grimaced with every labored step. Resolutely he made his way around the 400-meter track toward the finish line. The crowd began quietly cheering at first, then as he neared the line they broke into a thunderous roar and went wild as he crossed over it... dead last and in terrible pain. His name was John Akhwari.
Reporters poured out of the stands and began to ask him questions. They asked why he had not quit miles back when the fall first happened, as he was obviously in pain and was not going to finish in any place. His answer is classic: “My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it.”
Jesus understood that the Father had sent him into the world not to begin the process of salvation, but to finish the process. He was to die on the cross. He was demonstrating the essence of servanthood to his followers and telling them that it would cost most of them their very lives.
Derl K.
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
In 1858, 14-year-old Julia Gilbert (1844-1934), a member of the Dunkers, also known as the German Baptist Brethren, caused Brethren congregations across the country to change the way they performed the Love Feast and Feetwashing. This is her recollection of how it happened, written many years later.
I was born January 27, 1844, near the foot of South Mountain, Frederick County, Maryland. My parents, two brothers, and I, and a young man named Isaiah Gross came to the neighborhood, ten miles west of Dayton, Ohio, in a two-horse wagon. We were about 17 days on the road. I was about eight years old when I began thinking about living the Christian life, when I would be old enough. At that time it was a question as to how old a child should be until it can unite with the church....
When I was past 11 years of age, I was taken with measles and scarlet fever, which caused me to become a cripple for life. A brother and a sister of mine died in one day. At the age of 14 I was baptized by Elder Abram Erbaugh, in the Wolf Creek congregation.... I went on my way rejoicing until I attended the love feast and took my first communion. Then I was puzzled.
At that time there was no supper on the tables at the time of feetwashing. As I thought about how the Savior rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself, I pondered for several days, with the Testament in my hand, at my work. At last I concluded I would ask my father, as he was a great lover of the Bible. I think I can almost see him yet, as he sat on a low rocking-chair, when I read the passage in question and asked him why the members did that way at the love feast. He gave a heavy sigh and said: “The old brethren took the ordinance from several passages of scripture and thought this to be the proper way it ought to be done.”
This explanation gave me satisfaction for a while, but when I thought of the vow I had made to God, to walk in all his ways (and our aged Brethren used to teach that it was Christ we should follow) and read the scriptures, I felt it was my duty to see if we were doing things in the way Christ told us to do them....
(Author’s Note: The Love Feast was changed that next year and the practice of setting the dinner on the table before the feetwashing soon became standard practice for all Dunker congregations.)
(“A Christian Message” by Julia A. Gilbert, from The Gospel Messenger, July 13, 1912)
Frank R.
