Passover

The Passover is nigh and most will not let it slide and will celebrate it with bountiful meals and drinks  as it ought to. But reflection is what should drive the celebration for without reflection there's no understanding and its true meaning is lost.

The story of Passover is a about a conniving enemy and master who is always on the drawing board finding new tacts to restrain, subdue and eventually kill his entrapped subject.  It’s about a cat that toys with a mouse and finds delight in seeing it turn and run but always quick enough to restrain it. It’s about a slave master who is used to having his way and who believes that there are humans of lower caste, who deserve nothing but crumbs that fall from his dinner table. 

Yet the paradox is, like the proverbial cat, nine times, the slave has survived the fate that has befallen his master every the request of leave has been rejected. Passover is the tenth plague and with it comes release and turnabout. 

This tenth fate is the visit by the angel of death. A close encounter with him is no pleasant experience. The angel comes with instructions to take away the first born sons from every family. First born sons represent continuity and if the harsh master is really listening he should by now have understood that he has no future. 

The Israelites, were instructed to slaughter a lamb and have their fill and then mark their door posts with its blood. The dark angel was then going to pass through the nation nosing out those without the mark of the blood and would continue to draw out the spirit from within them and the victims would literally feel their bodies getting cold with every breath as the emptying started. Darkness would slowly close in and the world would become smaller and smaller till one lost consciousness.  The angel only passes by when he sees the blood, for blood signifies and already emptied life.  

And so it is today that without the infilling of the Word of God an encounter with the angel of death on Passover brings doom. Though he is meant for the harsh master, who is obviously without the spirit of God, he also consumes everyone else who is such empty. 

It is important to satisfy the life within you with the food of life which is the Word of God. Without satisfaction there is no empowerment and because the spirit within yearns for that empowerment, it is drawn towards the passing angel who in himself is the word for he carries a command of that word. The sacrificial lambs that the Israelites consumed were a command from God and so when the angel of death appeared at their doorsteps all he saw was what he already carried, a command, a word, an emptying. 

When Christ died on the cross, he accomplished the command of God which had been to to empty mankind and take back His life from them because they had proved unworthy to contain it but Christ did it alone, hanging there on the cross as representation of every human being and was emptied of his life and died. He later resurrected by a new infilling of the Holy Spirit  and so now anyone who accepts Christ as his Lord (read master) has given up his sinful life for a new infilling to a new righteous life from the Holy Spirit. Our spirits have been drawn towards Christ and thus we have accomplished the command of our own emptying.  

Therefore the joy of Passover comes from this resurrection. Even though we have been emptied of our life (spirit) through Christ, we still live because of the infilling of another spirit who is the Holy Spirit.  Without this infilling then there cannot be any celebration because even if we'd perceive that we are living, we'd be dead. The true celebration of Passover then arises from this self-assessment and it is with knowledge that the life that now drives us is not our own but that of Christ. As Christ was driven by the Holy Spirit, then also we become driven by that same spirit.  

Passover comes with a revolution which alters the way things stand, for good. Being marked as a candidate fit to survive the assault from the angel of death means you also attain the privilege to be a possessor of the authority and wealth that were in the hands of the harsh master for the Passover is just but a sign that death has begun its work on that master. As the harsh master is inclined to death, he won’t be in need of authority nor wealth. 

We’ll celebrate and make merry and visit sanctuaries and tell God what we truly believe, that He alone deserve all the glory for even though we dug our own graves by being bent towards sin He did not let us taste death but on the reverse He sent to us Jesus who showed us a man who could do greater things than the masters of this world but who'd never use his authority to put a man down. 

We follow Christ way of leadership knowing that when we are in positions of power we should lower ourselves and ‘die’ for others. That’s why Christ’s message is about love and charity. 

One should be careful when celebrating the Passover because celebrating it without understanding may be celebrating one’s own demise.