Tomorrow is Good Friday. Each year we remember what happened on that first Good Friday. Many churches will celebrate communion, which is a constant reminder of the debt we owe God and how we are to live in celebration of the debt paid by Christ’s body and blood.
Some churches celebrate the Seder. The Seder is the traditional Passover meal. The Seder was a scripted event. Every household went through the same ritual. The words and symbols were the same year after year.
Except Jesus went off script that Passover night before His betrayal and death. He began to talk not about the first Passover when God’s people were freed from slavery in Egypt, but about the new Passover, the one about to be inaugurated by His body and blood. Everyone in the room would have noticed that this Passover was different.
Instead of recounting what God had done at the Exodus, Jesus told what God was about to do at the cross. The Jews considered the Passover and Exodus from Egypt the greatest of all God’s miracles and acts. History, as well as all eternity will now look upon the work of Christ on the cross as the summit, the pinnacle of all God has done.
As the Jews remembered annually that first Passover, we will live forever in the life Christ purchased with His death. He gave His body and shed His blood to bring us forgiveness.
“In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you.’” [Luke 22:20 HCSB]
The price of sin is high, and Jesus paid it all.
