Last night we celebrated our annual Passover (Seder) meal with old and new friends.  We have hosted Passover in our home during Holy Week for the past six years.  This year, we had 24 friends in attendance. (Some years we’ve had close to 40!)  As we looked around at the many faces at our dinner table, we were filled with immeasurable love and thankfulness that God has once again brought us to this season of remembrance.  Through the reading of the Seder, we retell and remember how God brought us out of sin, rescued us from the bondage of evil and death, redeemed us to a new and abundant life, and will reunite us with Him and all those who call upon His name in rebuilt Jerusalem, the kingdom of God. 

This four-part promise of redemption is expressed during the Passover meal through the drinking of four cups of the fruit of the vine.  When Jesus celebrated the Passover in the upper room with his disciples during his last week on earth, he took the cup and gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” (Luke 22:17-18)

  Jesus reserved the fourth cup for the celebration we will enjoy with him one day in the kingdom of God. This Great Supper will be a multi-cultural gathering. We will toast the fourth cup with representatives of every tribe, tongue, and nation, the remnant that God has called to Himself.  What a magnificent and joyous occasion it will be!

The Passover readings remind us that “in every single generation, it is a man’s duty to think of Himself as one of those who came out of Egypt.”  As it is written in Deuteronomy 6:23:  “And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers.”

Through Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection to life, we were brought in to the Holy of Holies.  The veil was rent in two, and we now have access to the Father through the Son. He invites us in so that we may inherit all the blessings of sonship and daughtership.  He has brought us out and into a wide, open land where we may freely proclaim His Lordship among the nations.

This freedom is so poignantly expressed during the Passover:

As we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord this weekend, may we also rejoice in our deliverance and wait with great expectation and anticipation for the day we will celebrate together around His banquet table, with old friends and new.