By Dr. Wayne Brouwer
April 14, 2025The world around the slaves of Egypt was swirling with ominous tension.
The “god” who owned them, called “The Pharaoh”, was battling a seemingly more powerful Lord. Moses, a guy some of them remembered from decades earlier, had recently showed up, proclaiming the might and right of “Yahweh”.
Moses talked about liberation.
Moses said they would all be leaving Egypt soon. It was obvious that The Pharaoh was troubled, sometimes overly boastful these days, sometimes almost fearful. Strange things began to happen, weird changes and invasions: a bloody Nile, carpets of frogs, clouds of insects, painful sores, lethal hailstones, hordes of locusts… And then came the darkness, so creepy it seemed smothering to the Egyptians. Meanwhile the sun shown in Israelite Goshen.
But the crisis was climaxing.
One day Moses told them to prepare a last meal before traveling. “We are out of here tonight!” And a strange command: “When you kill your lamb for supper, catch the blood and paint it over your door!” Things were already so unsettled that they all did it.
That night became known as “Passover”.
Many died across Egyptian communities, but the angel of death passed over Israelite homes, protected by the blood of the lamb. That night everything turned upside down, and they left Egypt as free people, led and protected by Moses’ Yahweh.
Every year the Israelites would remember and celebrate, thanking God for deliverance and freedom and purpose and passion and life.
Even Jesus took his little band to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They read the scriptures. They remembered the stories. They ate the meal.
At the center was the roasted lamb, whose blood reminded them of safety and deliverance. But it was when the bread was broken and passed that Jesus said some incredible words: “This is my body…”
Why this bread?
The bread of daily meals in Egypt had been prepared in the sourdough method, with a bit of a lump saved from yesterday’s dough to stimulate yeast fermentation in today’s mixture. Bread baked every day, each loaf connected directly, biologically to the dough of yesterday and the day before and the day before…
But at Passover, start anew, with a new lump of dough, disconnected from the past!
Start your life, your identity all over again! You are new people, reborn! So Jesus took the new bread, the “unleavened bread” of Passover, and shared it with his disciples.
“This is my body…”
By the way, Jesus had been miraculously born, body untainted by the pandemic virus of sin that leaked into every fetus ever conceived! Jesus was a perfect do-over in the human race!
And so was the family he fed that night!
“This is my body…”
The disciples were born again as new children of God and of eternity!
Jesus confirmed it when he said to them: “By this will all know that you belong to me, if you have love for one another.”
Hmmmmm….
