1 Peter 3:15
15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
In today's scripture reading of Exodus the question was asked: what does this mean?
This pertains to the religious festival of the Passover and the feast of the Unleavened Bread. The celebration of this festival in the Jewish tradition is in fact the very first law (exodus 13:9) ever given to the Jews as a chosen people. This is even before the Ten Commandments, after Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden of Eden? ( I did a word search of the word "law" to verify this). So when we obey God's commandment to celebrate this special event, we must be prepared to explain the reason for it:
I found the three "c" words in this portion of the scripture to help me remember:
Exodus 13:14-16
14 “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ 16 And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”
(1) Celebrate - with a mighty hand, The Lord brought us out of slavery...this is why I
(2) Consecrate - the first offspring of every womb... And to
(3) Commemorate - like a sign on your hand, and a symbol on your forehead
We are to celebrate God's salvation, even when we are going through rough times. We are to pray, as David did in Psalm 51:12 "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me". We are to remember the bondage to sin we were in and the liberation from it through Jesus' work on the cross. That is why we give to God our very best. We are to set aside, before everything or everyone else, the best of our time, talent, and wealth. And lastly to remember it by having regular disciplines of reading God's Word, praying, and having fellowship with others.
The New Testament reading today also happened to touch on the word yeast. In Exodus the Israelites were told not to have any yeast in sight during the festival to remember the "haste" of their exodus. But here in Matthew it is about The yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Matthew 16:8-12
8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith,why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? 9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Jesus when tempted by satan quoted from Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 8:3
3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
When we are tempted by our circumstances to take the easy way out, compromising everything we have learned from God, it is easy to follow superficial "letters of the law" to soothe our conscience. What Jesus want from us is the "circumcision of the heart", to remember the Great Exodus! Even the great miracles of crossing the Red Sea, or the manna from heaven, or the pillars of cloud by day and the pillars of fire by night, will be sign enough to help us through. But the sign of Jonah will...
The story of Peter in today's passage is reassuring in the way that God has chosen us, the people with lots of faults, to be his witnesses! Peter ("Simon son of Jonah" - this is after Jesus talking about the sign of Jonah; is that a coincidence?) was blessed by Jesus for his acknowledgement of Jesus as the Messiah:
Matthew 16:16-19
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c]will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d]bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e]loosed in heaven.”
Only to be rebuked by Jesus a few verses later:
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Thank you Jesus for choosing me to tell your story when I am asked "What does this mean?"!
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