Read Numbers 9
Ok, I didn't plan this, but our reading in Numbers 9 speaks about how Israel celebrated the Passover while they traveled toward the promised land. And today is Maundy Thursday, the evening in which Jesus was betrayed. It is also the evening he ate the Passover with the disciples. Very fitting.
In our reading today, God shows himself to be gracious by permitting those who were defiled and unclean, and those who were on a journey, to celebrate the Passover one month late. But he definitely makes it clear that they certainly are to celebrate it. They should not just throw up their hands and say, "oh well!"
How much more should we also be eager to take the Lord's Supper. Yes, the Passover, with it's unleavened bread, and wine, and bitter herbs, prefigured and foreshadowed the bread and wine of holy communion through which Jesus gives his body and blood. It also foreshadows the bitter suffering and death of Jesus, the Passover Lamb of God.
Yes, we should be eager to take the Lord's Supper. Luther wrote some questions and answers with which the Christian can examine himself before taking Communion. And one of the questions he asks is something like (and I'm paraphrasing here) "What should someone do if he feels no need to take Communion?" and the answer is something like (again, paraphrasing), "He should pinch himself and see if he still has flesh and blood." You see, as long as we are in this world and in this life we are going to have our share of troubles and adversities, so we need the strength. We'll also have our share of sins, so we need the forgiveness. How gracious God is that he provides a way to deliver that forgiveness and new life!
And tonight, after he institutes His Supper, we follow our Lord to Gethsemane. After agonizing in prayer there, we see him surrounded by soldiers and arrested and taken to an unfair trial. As our Psalm said today, "O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life" (Psalm 86:14).
Meditate:
Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter’s power;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch with Him one bitter hour,
Turn not from His griefs away; learn of Jesus Christ to pray.
See Him at the judgment hall, beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned;
O the wormwood and the gall! O the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss; learn of Christ to bear the cross.
Calvary’s mournful mountain climb; there, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete.
“It is finished!” hear Him cry; learn of Jesus Christ to die.
Early hasten to the tomb where they laid His breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom. Who has taken Him away?
Christ is risen! He meets our eyes; Savior, teach us so to rise.
Tomorrow I'll just post a hymn for our Good Friday meditation. We'll study again Saturday, and Easter Monday we'll start studying the book of Acts along with Numbers.
Pastor Jon
Soli Deo Gloria!
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