Our sermon text is about a new Exodus that God promises through Isaiah, an Exodus out of exile into freedom, into glory. In the gospels, the turning point in Jesus’ ministry, when He turns His face toward Jerusalem, is the transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus, and He shines with the glory of His coming victory. And Luke’s gospel says explicitly that what they talked about was the Exodus that He was about to perform in Jerusalem (Lk. 9:31). In other words, the great Exodus that Isaiah foretold began when the exiles returned under Cyrus, but that only prefigured the Great Exodus of Jesus. And like the first Exodus, Jesus began with a meal, shared with His disciples, and He told them to keep celebrating it until He comes again in glory. Isaiah commands a number of things for keeping the Passover Feast which we should keep in mind: Wake up, get dressed, be on the look out, rejoice, get ready to leave, and the sign of their departure will be God’s servant, a new Moses, who will be greatly exalted, but He will be surprising because His appearance will be marred. Week after week, we come to this same table, to celebrate this same Exodus, and so the commands are still for us: Wake up, get dressed, be on the look out, rejoice, get ready to leave. But what are we leaving behind and what are we getting dressed for? We are leaving the old world behind, the old world of darkness, sin, oppression, abuse, shame, guilt, and the devil. And we are dressing for the Kingdom of light, we are on the look out for the work of the Spirit, we are the watchmen on the towers announcing the news of the New King of the World, we worship and rejoice in His victory, we lift up the Lamb who was slain, our Great Moses, our Savior, our Jesus. So come, and let us keep the feast.
Leave a Reply