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Holy Saturday
O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of thy dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Holy Saturday
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Scripture citation(s): Exodus 14:10-15:1; I Corinthians 5:7ff
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Exodus 14:10-15:1; I Corinthians 5:7ff
✛
Christ is our Passover
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In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
At every Eucharist at the time of the breaking of the bread we say, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us…therefore let us keep the feast.” This is from Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, where he writes, “Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (I Cor 5:7ff)
Why is Jesus Christ called “the paschal (Passover) lamb”? Christ’s Passion occurred at the time of the Jewish Passover. His Last Supper on Maundy Thursday night, and his crucifixion on Good Friday afternoon, both occurred within the setting of the Jewish Passover. His body had to be taken down from the cross and quickly buried, with the work of anointing unfinished, because of the onset of the Sabbath which was also Passover time.
The traditional Passover, commemorating the Exodus of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, had to do with escaping death, at least twice. First, the angel of death “passed over” the households of the Hebrews as he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, sparing the Hebrews’ firstborn. Second, the Lord led those Hebrews through the Red Sea, parting the waters with a strong all-night east wind, saving Israel from the army of Pharaoh, whose hosts drowned at the return of the sea to its normal place. The people could hardly believe it. They had said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in this wilderness?” They were at a dead end. But soon they would hear Moses’ song, “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea!”
That ancient Passover was an escape from death. This Passover, our Passover in Christ, is an escape from death, but not by avoiding death. Christ did not avoid death; he went straight into its jaws, into the worst kind of death – in public, condemned, tormented, abandoned, even God-forsaken – suffering crucifixion, death, and burial in a borrowed tomb. But when his friends returned to that tomb, after the Sabbath was over, to finish their funeral work, they found his tomb empty. Then they saw Jesus, risen, living, and victorious: Christ the Passover lamb, who was sacrificed in our place, was the mighty Lion of the tribe of Judah. And the Lion roared: “All hail!” he said.
As we heard in the darkness at the New Fire, this is the night our Lord passed over – body, soul and spirit – from death into life. Jesus was raised, not back into life as we know it in space and time, under the power of sin, but into the everlasting life of a new world. His victory began on the cross as he cried, “It is finished!” and even in death our Lord was at work as our Savior. He was harrowing hell! He was offering all the expectant souls in death’s prison-house the benefits of his victory, which would be seen in this world by his Resurrection on the third day.
None of us will avoid death. Yet in Christ we will not perish, even though we die. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed in Christ, who prepares us for glory beyond all comparison. We are united to the death and resurrection of Christ by the two Sacraments we celebrate tonight, Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. We die to sin and rise to new life as adopted sons and daughters in Christ. And we feed on him, for his flesh is food indeed and his blood is drink indeed, the antidote to death and medicine of immortality. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast.
Alleluia. Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
