Passover

A Certain Hope

by Ben Zornes · Apr 5, 2023

Imagine the disciples at the Last Supper. All their lives, as good sons of Abraham, they’d heard the prophecies, partaken of the feasts, prayed the Psalms, and hoped for the Messiah to come. Here He was, at last. He’d come. He sat in their midst, telling them that His body would be broken like the bread He passed to them, His blood would be poured out like the wine in the cup.

God’s people had cried for deliverance. Deliverance from the wicked sons of Cain. Deliverance from Pharaohs, giant, Canaanite Kings, Philistine champions, demon-gods, Assyrian, Babylonian, Grecian, and Roman empires. “Avenge us, oh Lord,” they had prayed. And God had done so. Repeatedly.

But now, in the carpenter from Nazareth, this Deliverance had a face. This Deliverance had a human body. This Deliverance shared with them a meal of bread & wine. Hope had come.

It’s been keenly observed that, “Hope is certainty of outcome, uncertainty of timing.” So, when you look upon these signs, you see the certain outcome of all things: Christ once crucified, now ruling evermore. With certainty we know that the Christ who shed His blood for the remission of our sins, now sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; thrones, angels and powers all made subject unto His majesty. He must reign until all enemies are subdued, then He shall come to judge the living & the dead, and offer up the Kingdom to His Father, that Christ may be all in all.

While the timing is uncertain, we rest assured that this is how it will all play out. This certainty is held out to us here in this meal. Christ is our head, we’re His body; He dwells in us, and we in Him. We are bound with Him who rules the world. This is our certain hope.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ

God the Warrior

by Ben Zornes · Oct 1, 2019

Our God is a warrior. When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, the Lord went to battle against Hisâ€“â€“and theirâ€“â€“enemies. The ten plagues are ordered in such a way as to demonstrate that the God of the Hebrews was more powerful than any & all of the Egyptiansâ€™ most revered gods. Their gods could not keep what God had determined to deliver.

Each battle shows that what the Egyptians worshipped as a deity, was in fact no god at all. The god of the Nile, defeated. The goddess of fertilityâ€“â€“represented as a woman with a frogâ€™s headâ€“â€“defeated. The god of the earth & the goddess of the sky, defeated. And so on, until utter darkness descended on Egypt for three days, mocking their second highest god, Ra. The Lord embarrassed all their idols; He turned what they had honored as deities into the very things that brought ruination upon their land. God went to battle against His enemies, and wiped the floor with them. This contest wasnâ€™t even close.

The final battle, the tenth plague, takes aim at Pharaoh himself. He was the embodiment of the Egyptiansâ€™ entire religious system, he was the highest of the gods. For this final showdown, the Lord commands His people to hold a feast, while He brings their captor to utter ruin.

All this should assure us of a glorious truth: God fights for us. Our enemies are defeated. Sin, the devil, the world, defeated. But they are not defeated by you or me. We feast while He fights. He conquers for us, while we enjoy the peace He wins for us. He delivers us, while we partake of the bread of His body and the wine of His blood. We remember in this meal that God delivers His people, in order to commune with His people. This is a victory feast, where we taste the spoils of the great war our King has won.

So come in faith, and welcome to Jesusâ€¦

A Meal to Spark Our Memory

by Ben Zornes · Sep 24, 2018

Of the five senses, our sense of smell is the most linked with our memory. Our sense of taste is largely aided by the aromas of the food we eat. This is why realtors tell you to make sure you bake some bread before showing your house; the memories associated with fresh-baked bread will bring back fond memories for prospective buyers. This is also why we still use Grandma’s famous recipe. The aromatic scent of the food we eat has a profound power to “take us back” and bring to mind old memories.

The Passover meal of the Old Testament was intended to be a meal which brought memories with it. Memories of God’s deliverance from Egypt. When Jesus gave new meaning to that old feast, He instructed His disciples to eat this meal “in remembrance of me.” This meal is intended to call to mind the greater Moses, delivering true Israel, from the Egyptian bondage of our own sin.

God is not opposed to making use of our physical senses in order to speak to us. We Protestants are accustomed to placing emphasize on the hearing of the Word. However, we shouldn’t forget that God also speaks to us through the aroma of Christ which we taste in this meal. He condescends to use these humble elements to spark our memory and call to mind the bread of His body which was broken for your sin, and the wine of His blood which was shed for the remission of your guilt. God not only commands us to remember Christ in this meal, He helps us remember Christ by this meal.

And it should be noted that remembrance, in Scripture, is not for the sake of have emotional warm fuzzies. Rather, we remember old mercies in order to look forward to new mercies.