The Three Passovers and the Meaning of Life

Tomorrow is Holy Thursday and the celebration of the Lord's Supper when He perfects and completes and fulfills the Passover by Himself becoming the Lamb of God to give us His Flesh and Blood to drink to save us from the angel of death and nourish us with His heavenly food on our journey to the Promised Land, heaven. Almost three months ago I wrote about the Last Supper in two entries. Here is the first one published on December 24, 2007 and entitled "The Three Passovers":

Most everyone is familiar with the Passover which is explained in Exodus 12; it was the last and most powerful plague that was the impetus for the Egyptians freeing their Israelite slaves. The plague attacked all the Egyptian firstborn; for the Israelite firstborn to be passed over, they had to slaughter an unblemished year-old male lamb, put its blood on their doorpost using a hyssop branch, and eat the lamb.

The Last Supper is a re-presentation of the Passover; Jesus is re-making and fulfilling this ancient and liberating sacrifice and meal. A very important difference in the Last Supper is that Jesus did not finish the Passover as usual; there were four cups of wine in the Passover, but Jesus stopped after the third. He finished the Passover as He was crucified on the cross and drank the vinegar (cheap wine) from the sponge on the hyssop branch: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:28-30). What Jesus finished is the re-making of the Passover.

The Last Supper and the Crucifixion are of one piece “For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor.5:7). Jesus takes on the role that the lamb plays in the Passover. He is sacrificed, and we are passed over. As the Israelites had to sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the doorpost and eat the lamb to be passed over, so we need to be baptized and receive Holy Communion. Baptism is the lamb’s blood on the doorpost because the “doorway” into our “house” is our eyes and face; therefore, the doorpost is our forehead. The water of baptism is the blood of Christ since we are baptized into Jesus’ death. Through these two essential sacraments, we are given the grace to be passed over by the angel of death.

The one Passover that is usually forgotten is Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac back in Genesis 22. I talked about this momentous event a few days ago on 12/19/07, and it is this event and the faithfulness of both Abraham and Isaac that brings about God’s saving actions with his ancestors, the Israelites. The foundation for the Passover is Isaac’s self offering for it is the only time God explicitly swears an oath. The Crucifixion is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of Isaac’s sacrifice, and the Last Supper is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of the Passover. Thus, there is a parallel structure of events that forms one piece, one reality:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice

One of the common themes here in these three Passovers is the first-born son. In the Passover, not only were the first born Egyptians killed and the first-born Israelites passed over, all of Israel was passed over for they are God’s first-born son: “And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son’” (Exodus 4:22-23).

The other common theme in all of these is the symbolism of baptism and the Eucharist. Even after the Passover, the Israelites had not completed their escape from their enemies. The Egyptians pursued Israel and had them trapped up against the Red Sea with no where to escape. God opened up a way of escape through the water which gave new life to Israel and destroyed their enemies in the process. Once they were out in the wilderness, they grew hungry, and God provided food from heaven. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites again were saved through the water and fed by the heavenly bread. A further structure could look like this:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
C Through the Red Sea (symbolic of Baptism)
C' Manna in the Wilderness (symbolic of the Eucharist)
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice

One thing we can learn from all this is the immense importance of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. If we receive baptism and Holy Communion, we are given the grace to pick up our cross and follow Jesus; we are given the new heart, the new tree of life, so that we can lay down our life in our everyday activity, so that we can be a person for others, so that we can love God with all our heart, mind and soul; we are given the grace to lay down our life for our friends and to be crucified alongside our Savior Jesus.

We, the baptized, are making our journey through the desert of this life on our way to the Promised Land, heaven. To make our way well, we need our daily bread which is daily prayer and Holy Communion. Many of the Israelites who ate the manna died along the way and did not make it to the Promised Land because of their faithless hearts. Likewise, just receiving the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist does not guarantee anything. We still have to step out in faith and follow our Lord wherever He leads and do whatever He asks. We still need to give ourselves entirely to Him. Thankfully, He provides even the grace to do that.

What I would like to examine next is the significance of the first-born in these key events and how it might possibly relate to the Fall of Adam and Eve.
This is where the first post ends.

The second post on the Passovers was published in the early morning of Christmas Eve, 2007, and it is entitled, "The Meaning of Life." Here it is:

I left off on Tuesday in my post on The Three Passovers introducing the idea of the importance of the first-born. The three Passovers, Isaac’s sacrifice, the Passover, and Jesus’ sacrifice all deal with the first-born. Isaac is the first-born, and he offers himself up as a sacrifice; he was passed over with a ram taking his place. Israel is God’s first-born, and they were passed over by the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and by eating the lamb. Jesus is the Father’s only-begotten Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus, as pre-eminent first-born, sacrifices Himself in order for you and me to be passed over. We are united to Him in baptism and Holy Communion wherein we put His blood on our doorpost and eat the Lamb, respectively.

In the first two Passovers, the first-born was passed over; in the final one, the first-born is the sacrifice. Is there another first-born that was passed over in Jesus’ saving actions? -Perhaps it is you and me: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16). Paul speaks of the Church as the Israel of God; therefore, since Israel is God’s first-born, and we are now the New Israel, we and all members of the Church are God’s first-born. So we are first-born who are passed over by the angel of death, and our Passover Lamb is Jesus at the Last Supper and on the Cross.

The question that arises in my mind is why is the first-born so important, and why does it hold such a pivotal place in these highly important events in Salvation History? As usual, I think the answer lies in the events at the beginning. The course the man and the woman set the human race upon is the answer to much of human history and to the questions we have today. According to my theory, the direct result of the Fall was the conception of Cain. They wanted him and were trying to get him; hence, his name means gotten. He was the first-born of the human race. He was a murderer and a son of the evil one. The first-born son of man belonged, in a certain respect, to satan, and Cain gave himself over to his ways and so slaughtered his righteous brother.

Cain imitated his fathers in killing his brother: humanity is like a brother to the angels, and satan wants to destroy us and has destroyed many of us; Adam’s fall resulted in the spiritual death of the human race. Both satan and Adam murdered their brothers so to speak, and Cain only imitated what they did. In one sense it is amazing just how bad the very first person born of man was, yet in another sense, Cain was merely a chip off the old block. Either way you look at it, humanity’s fruitfulness started off with a horrible beginning. And his name was Cain for he was gotten. He was gotten.

So why did the first-born need to be sacrificed or passed over? A clue resides in the three main sacrifices of the Old Testament: bulls, sheep and goats. Bulls needed to be sacrificed because people were worshipping bulls and the bull-god, Apis. The Golden Calf was part of this worship where people were seeking fertility and prosperity and so the men and women would imitate what bulls would do to female cattle. Seeking life, they had an orgy. The result, they hoped, would be a conception: thus, the golden calf. Here, too, they were seeking a child, and they sought this child in a way contrary to their dignity, to God’s plan, and to trusting in God. After the golden calf, bulls needed to be sacrificed as a financial penance and so that the people would no longer worship them.

After the Golden Calf, the people went after another false god symbolized by goats. It was another fertility cult, and the people were again seeking life and a child in their own way and by their own terms. “So they shall no more slay their sacrifices for satyrs, after whom they play the harlot” (Leviticus 17:7). The satyrs are the goat gods who are obsessed with continually having sex, and those who worship these false gods would imitate them. Since the people were involved with this evil practice, God had them sacrifice goats. Again, it was a financial difficulty to sacrifice one’s livestock, and one’s gods did not look kindly on being killed. It was a God-given help to avoid this near occasion of sin.

Sacrificing bulls and goats was mandated because they were worshipped. Sheep were never worshipped, so why would God have us sacrifice them? A sheep is the sacrifice of the Passover, and Jesus is the Lamb of God. They are the most important animal sacrifice, but why does God mandate this sacrifice? Was their any sin associated with sheep or lambs? I think there was. Sheep symbolize humanity. We are like sheep; we are incredibly stupid. So sheep need to be sacrificed because they symbolize us; we worshipped ourselves. When did we do this? We do it every time we sin, but we do it especially when we seek humans over God.

The man and the woman sought a child over and against God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted them to have a child, but He wanted to give it to them virginally as He did with Mary. They sought a child, and they got him, and they named him gotten (Cain). So here the theme of the first-born and sheep come together. The Passovers all have to do with sheep and with first-borns because our first parents worshiped, as it were, their first-born son and even disobeyed God to get him. Their souls were sold to satan in order to get Gotten; that is why he and all of the human family needs to be bought back or redeemed from the prince of this world.

We all deserve death and are in bondage to sin and satan, and we are like lambs, so the solution is for a lamb to take our place that we may be passed over and live. That is why sheep were sacrificed in the Old Testament, but those “sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9). These Old Testament laws were good, but they were the symbol, not the reality. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). Those sacrifices do not make perfect; however, Jesus’ sacrifice is capable of such a feat.

“For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book” (Hebrews 10:4-7). We are given a body in order to have something to sacrifice, and with our bodily sacrifices we are praying with the body. We are given a will in order that we can sacrifice that, too, and by saying “Thy will be done,” we are praying the most important prayer. Prayer and sacrifice, the prayer of the heart and of prayer of the body, when they are combined are the most powerful. When we completely trust God and seek to do whatever He asks of us, especially what He asks us to do with our bodies, then we are far along the path to unity with Him. It is in this full faithfulness that we have abundant life and belong to Him, and that is the meaning of life.
That is the end of the second entry.

May you and yours be fully blessed by your losing yourself in the celebration of this most Holy Triduum of our Dear Savior's awesome saving deeds. Remember His words: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you" and ask Him that you, too, may earnestly desire to eat this Passover which is Him.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
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