Skip to main content

Passover: Walk to Freedom

This year the Jewish sacred time, Passover, coincides with Easter.  Because Passover is so important to Christians, too, let’s talk about Passover a couple days before it begins on Friday.  I want to take cognizance of that as the day unfolds.  Obviously, it is a special day for the Jew.  It is a day of deliverance.  It is a day when the Jew knows God is for them.  Passover is the story of God’s deliverance of the Jew from the bondage of Egypt to the ultimate freedom of their own place---their own land.

Of course, that history is itself riddled with controversy.  The struggle over the land is a continuing saga to this day.  But that is not the story for this Passover day.  Rather, we need to focus on the essential theme of bondage/freedom.  Perhaps that is one of the most basic human situations.  Passover is the assurance that bondage is not the ultimate fate of being human.

Even if I am a Christian, I should take Passover seriously.  Growing up in my Quaker family, I actually had no clue about Passover.  What that really meant was that I never paid any attention to the gospel readings that surely must have taken place at Easter.  As a boy I somehow missed the Passover/Easter connection.  I am willing to admit I was not listening, rather than blame it on someone else for never telling the story.  But I did miss it!

As a Christian who now listens, I know that the Last Supper that Christians take so seriously was itself either the Passover meal or the night before the Passover meal.  In any event, the Last Supper is set in Passover season.  And of course, this means the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus inevitably has Passover connotations.  I now know that, but once I missed the connection.

Passover is not the time for the Christian rendition of the story.  I really appreciate the Jewish challenge.  Since the Jew operates on the lunar calendar, they don’t have a set date for Passover.  It is linked to a full moon and that might happen on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  The Christians have it lucky!  Easter is always on Sunday.  That makes scheduling and celebrating easier.  But the Jew is at the mercy of full moons.  So Friday is Passover.

I want to join the Jews in remembering the God who chose Moses and the people and led them out of Egypt.  “Egypt” here is symbolic for that which holds me in bondage.  I certainly have my own “Egypt.”  Many of us are in bondage.  Most of us do not have handcuffs or ropes tying us in visible ways.  My bondage is not evident to anyone else.  I am not fully free.

What are the contemporary forms of “Egypt”---of bondage?  Many of them are psychological.  I may be in bondage to the expectations of others.  I may be bound by my own expectations or self-image.  Some of us are in bondage to our wealth and others to their poverty.  Personally, self-image has been a culprit of mine.

Whatever our personal bondage, the good news of Passover is there is a God and that God is a Deliverer.  That God is ready to call us and lead us out of bondage.  But we have to be responsive.  And to be responsive means we have to be aware.  Awareness alone is not sufficient.  We have to be willing.

God is not going to put us in a little red wagon like a child and pull us through our own personal Red Sea!  We have to be willing to walk though the waters of separation and head into the freedom of the new place.  Often that is easier said than done.

Unfortunately, there is a familiarity with our bondage that can make it difficult.  We may settle for the bondage of familiarity instead of the unknown of the freedom.  But we should know: we can only live if we are free.

When God comes, may we each be ready to Pass Over: to arise, walk, and embrace the freedom that God wants for us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-Thou Relationships

Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber.   I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s.   It was already a famous book by then.   I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it.   It has been a while since I looked at the book.             Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks?   I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece.   I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation.   I wish more people read him and took him seriously.           ...
13 comments
Read more

Spiritual Commitment

I was reading along in a very nice little book and hit these lines about commitment.   The author, Mitch Albom, uses the voice of one of the main characters of his nonfiction book about faith to reflect on commitment.   The voice belongs to Albom’s old rabbi of the Jewish synagogue where he went until his college days.   The old rabbi, Albert Lewis, says “the word ‘commitment’ has lost its meaning.”    The rabbi continues in a way that surely would have many people saying, “Amen!”   About commitment he says, “I’m old enough when it used to be a positive.   A committed person was someone to be admired.   He was loyal and steady.   Now a commitment is something you avoid.   You don’t want to tie yourself down.”   I also think I am old enough to know that commitment was usually a positive word.   I can think of a range of situations in which commitment would have been seen to be positive.   For example, growing up was f...
20 comments
Read more

Inward Journey and Outward Pilgrimage

There are so many different ways to think about the spiritual life.   And of course, in our country there are so many different variations of religious experiences.   There are liberals and conservatives.   There are fundamentalists and Pentecostals.   Besides the dizzying variety of Christian traditions, there are many different non-Christian traditions.   There are the major traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and so on.   There are the slightly more obscure traditions, such as Sikhism, Jainism, etc.   And then there are more fringe groups and, even, pseudo-religions.   There are defining doctrines and religious practices.   Some of these are specific to a particular tradition or a few traditions, such as the koan , which is used in Zen Buddhism for example.   Other defining doctrines or practices are common across the religious board.   Something like meditation would be a good example.   Christians meditate;...
10 comments
Read more