Episode 279: Enslaved.., Blood Shed.., Freedom Won | Brian Morgan | Maundy Thursday

Introduction

Let's pray as we begin. Father, thank you for scripture. Thank you that you give it to us as a guide, Lord, as food for our life. We pray you would bring it alive for us tonight. Shoot it like a fiery arrow into our souls. Holy Spirit, help us. Help us to understand the scriptures tonight. Christ's name. Amen.

We have a good friend of ours who adopted their daughter when she was very, very young. We have a nephew and a niece that have both been adopted. And I've often wondered what's it like for them to know they have this incredible family who love them and adopted them and yet also they have a family that's their biological family. And some adopted folks know their biological family, some don't. Maybe you've been adopted. Maybe you've adopted into your family.

But for me, there's always this notion of here's my family and I know everything about them. And yet somehow there's a piece of me over here that I don't know, that I want to know more of. When my dad died twelve years ago of cancer, there were some regrets that I had because I knew this great chunk of my dad's life, but there was a whole bit over here that I just didn't know. I knew a good chunk, but not the whole thing. He was in Vietnam. I didn't talk to him once about what he did in Vietnam. Shame on me. He grew up in Washington DC and I didn't really know anything about his life. What I knew in completeness I wish I had known in fullness.

That's what was going on in these final moments for Jesus. He had gathered them in Jerusalem. As Dave said, there were over 2,000,000 people that had all descended on Jerusalem for this final celebration of the year for the Jews. It was a Passover. They got together to celebrate all that God had done and Jesus in his final hours said, this is what I want to do with my disciples. I want to have the family meal. I want them to know all about the family of God, but I want to open for them the final chapter. I want to take the family scrapbook and turn the page and say, hey, listen, you thought you understood the Passover and now I'm going to give you the whole family history.

It was as though Jesus was saying, you know in part and now you will know in full. You've only known the shadow, and now I'm going to step forward and say, you're going to know the whole in me. So they gathered. It was a night just like a night, just like tonight. They were in the upper room, they were pretty excited, they probably had some fear and trepidation, Jesus' heart was certainly pounding, he knew what was ahead, he knew his death was coming, and yet he knew he wanted to teach him the final teaching.

The Significance of the Passover and Jesus' Final Moments

So, I'm going to read it to you in Mark. It's really short in Mark. This is in Mark 14. As they were eating, he took bread and after blessing it, he broke it and he gave it to them and he said, take, this is my body. He's saying, hey, we're here to celebrate the Passover and I'm breaking the bread but I'm telling you, this is my body.

And then he continues. He says, he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and when he had given thanks, he said, they drank it and he said, this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. — Mark 14:22-24

Now, if you know the disciples, there were Gentiles in there and they would have said, okay, we understand the Passover. It really crowds the streets during the Passover festival. We kind of understand it's about a history in the past, but we don't really know. And then the Jews of his disciples, they would have said, listen, this meal is the biggest meal of the year. We've been celebrating this meal for thirteen hundred more years. It's a meal of remembering. It's a meal of celebrating. It's a way to look back and say, this is what God has done. This is who we are.

And yet Jesus says, I'm going to give you a new meal, a new symbol, a fulfilled image, a fulfilled moment, a sacred meal. I'm going to give you a sacrament, a sacred moment that I want you to go back to over and over and over. And so there they were, in the room, waiting on the edge of their seat, hearing these words from Jesus and thinking, what is he talking about?

We could go on for hours about the Passover. We heard a little bit read tonight in Exodus. It's in Exodus 12 as well. There are three things that are really important about the Passover. Three things that Jesus in specific draws real clarity.

The Enslavement and Bloodshed

Number one, enslaved. The Passover is about enslavement. There were those who were enslaved and the Jews knew it. That's why they celebrate. We're looking back and saying, yes, we were enslaved in Egypt and God came to the rescue. Listen to their cry, this is in Exodus 2.

During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and they cried out for help. They were in Egypt for four hundred years. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew. — Exodus 2

Listen, if you hear anything tonight, God hears you when you're crying out to him. Have you been crying out for a long time? God hears you. Are you at a point where you're not sure how to go forward? God is listening.

How about four hundred years of crying out and God heard them. God heard them and Jesus reminds him the Passover is to remember that you were enslaved and God comes and he brings the rescue. What's interesting, Jesus picks it up in Luke four, he reads out of Isaiah and he says, look, I'm coming to bring good news.

I've come to bring liberty to those that are captive, sight to those that are blind, to bring back those that are dead, to touch those that nobody else would touch. — Luke 4:18

He got in trouble because he said, I'm God, I'm going to extend forgiveness, I'm going to set you free when you're enslaved. So what they think they're celebrating is the Egypt and the slavery way back when Jesus is saying, look, this is my mission: to tell you that you are enslaved, not Egypt, your sin.

Jesus says, I didn't come for those who have it all together, none of you do, I came for the sick.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. — John 3:16

So, Jesus draws on the enslavement and he says, you're enslaved, that's why we're celebrating this meal. I've come because sin enslaves you.

Let's eat the meal remembering that we are enslaved, we're slaves, we're stuck, we're imprisoned, we can't get out.

The Bloodshed and Freedom Won

Then number two, Jesus reminds him that Passover is about bloodshed, enslavement and bloodshed.

The passage we heard was that Tim Reddis, in particular, exactly what they're talking about. Moses says to them, hey, this day when you're in enslavement, God wants you to kill a lamb, a perfect lamb, slaughter it, take the blood, put it on the doorframe.

It's a reminder that blood was shed in your enslavement, that God heard your prayers, God is sending a rescue. Blood was the payment to set you free. — Exodus 12

And Jesus steps in and he says, this is the way you've understood it and I'm here to tell you, it's now gonna be my blood that will be shed on your behalf. John says, that's my cousin. He's the lamb of God. He's the one that will be slaughtered for you so you can come home.

Pointing back to the Passover, Jesus is saying, I'm telling you, it's gonna be my blood. It's gonna be shed for you.

A Freedom Won

And then thirdly, a freedom was won. So enslavement, they were enslaved in Egypt. There was blood shed to set them free, and then a freedom was won.

Let me ask you this question: how are you or are you or am I still trying to work our way to God? Still trying to shed our own blood, of course, not shedding our own blood, but what are we trying to do to make it our way?

And Jesus is saying, yes, you're enslaved and it'll be my blood that then wins the freedom.

See, the Passover meal was an icon, it was an image and it was pointing to something. And back then it was pointing to Egypt but it was really pointing to Jesus.

Jesus says, I've come to set you free.

So as they eat the meal, Jesus breaks the bread. Matthew says it perfectly.

Jesus took the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave to them saying, drink it all of you for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. — Matthew 26:27-28

And the invitation for us is every time we go to the table is to remember that we're enslaved, sin enslaves us.

Two, that blood was shed on our behalf. And three, a freedom was won.

Now, when my dad died, these stories that I wish I had known, he was gone. I didn't have a chance to ask him but he had left some things in our attic that we didn't even know he had. He won a bronze star.

Do you know what a bronze star is? It's actually a big deal. None of us knew my dad had won a bronze star. We pulled it down from the attic, looked at it, honestly googled it.

What is it? It was a small symbol that pointed to a great reality of what my dad had done. That's what Jesus does tonight in the upper room. He says, I'm giving you this meal that you've known for thirteen hundred years. And this meal is a small little bread and a little bit of wine or grape juice.

And it points to the massive truth that without me, you're enslaved and you need blood shed to set you free and I'm gonna do it and you're gonna know freedom in me.

Let's pray.

Lord, we see the bread and wine and we think crackers and grape juice. We come up on Sundays and we say, oh, let's just get it done. We gotta get home. And we're grateful that you took it serious enough that on your final moments, you said, I want you to do this to remember it was my body that was broken.

Lord, we pray tonight, the next two nights as we walk to the cross, you would remind us as we take communion tonight, you would remind us as we take communion on Sunday, in two months, in five months, in five years, remind us, it's not just bread and wine. It's not just a meal to remember some event that happened in Egypt so long ago, that it was actually you that was broken. It was you that was rejected. It was you that cut the chains that bring us home.

Oh, remind us as we come up each week for communion. Remind us in Christ's name. Amen.