The Story of Easter – Day #2
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

This Passover is unlike any other these disciples have experienced. First, Jesus interrupts the meal by getting up and taking care of an evident need, one that the lowliest person in the room would typically attend to.

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’ ‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’ Jesus answered, ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.’ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.”
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ He asked them. ‘You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”    (John 13:3-17)

This was not the only time Jesus set aside his robes of authority to take on the role of a servant. Read the account of the first time Jesus stepped down from His kingly identity for our sakes in Philippians 2:5-11.

After Jesus interrupts the Passover meal to demonstrate how His disciples should love each other, the meal is interrupted again, but this time for a very different reason.

“Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.’ His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘ Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, ‘What you are about to do, do quickly.’ As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.”    (John 13:21-30)

Once Judas leaves, Jesus changes the last part of the Passover meal by adding new meanings to the traditional elements of the meal. He uses the final piece of unleavened bread to foreshadow the fact that he is going to be “broken.” He uses the third cup of wine to signify that he is going to be “poured out.” He adds new instructions that change everything, for he is about to take humanity’s punishment for sin upon himself.

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”        (Matthew 26:26-29)

This is the moment that birthed a treasured and enduring Christian sacrament, explained in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Read this passage.

The Story of Easter

(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

It all begins in a candle-lit upper room somewhere in Jerusalem. Jesus and His disciples are celebrating Passover, the night when their ancestors, the Israelites, centuries before, escaped death and slavery by smearing lambs’ blood on their doorposts. On this particular night, however, Jesus is painfully aware that the story of the Passover lamb is about to become His story.
When the candles are snuffed out at the end of the meal, the most evil forces of cruelty, hatred, fear and guilt are unleashed upon the only innocent man who ever lived. Jesus, the perfect One, literally becomes every sin ever committed by all of mankind, and God has to turn his back on Him. More than the torture of the cross, this is the greatest of agonies — for both of them.
As Easter morning dawns, an empty grave reveals a dazzling triumph. Jesus is not there! The end of the story is rewritten! The blood of the final Passover lamb has done its work. Death is defeated, and the slave shackles of sin are broken.
Did you know that the story of Easter can rewrite your story? You might recognize your own life in the slaves in Egypt or the confused disciples or a guilty thief or the disillusioned mourners. But you’ll discover something about the stories in these devotionals: the endings always change when lives intersect with Jesus. Your story, too, can be rewritten by the story of Easter.

Passover
It is a momentous convergence of events. Jesus’ life on earth is about to reach its climax on this holy night when the Jews are celebrating the Passover. He is to be the final Passover lamb.
Imagine the golden glow of flickering candlelight softening the faces of a band of men who are unaware that everything is about to end. Later, they will look back on poignant moments from this night and only then understand the significance: Jesus, reading the Passover story, knowing it was soon to be His story; Jesus’ unexpected demonstration on blended knee; Jesus altering an ancient tradition to begin a new sacrament.
Jesus knows how the story of this terrible night will end. So He lingers with His closest friends and opens his heart to them. He confronts His enemy, comforters the sad and confused, conveys hope, and confers His blessing. He then goes out alone to bury Himself in the comforting arms of His Father one last time, as has been the pattern all through His life.
The disciples were celebrating Passover with Jesus. Unbeknownst to them, events were about to unfold that would reveal the long-intended symbolism of the first Passover lamb. Imagine Rabbi Jesus reading aloud these original instructions from God to Moses, knowing that He was about to become the final lamb whose blood would free humanity from slavery to sin.

“Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.”

“The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.”

“This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.”

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will; be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.”

It’s hard to imagine anything more dramatic than the events of that first Passover night. Read the whole story of the night the Israelites were set free from Egyptian slavery in Exodus 12.