Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Monday, April 22, 2019
Solemnity & Celebration; Matthew 26:17-31, Exodus 12:1-33, Psalm 116
Tonight we celebrate the Last Supper that our Lord shared with His disciples. The Last Supper was part of a Passover celebration. This feast was normally celebrated by family groupings, but Jesus did something radical. He celebrates the feast with His disciples, although it is very possible His mother was there as well. Jesus also celebrates this meal in the home of someone who may or may not have been a relative. Most scholars think Jesus was using the upper room of the home of the parents of John Mark, the gospel writer and cousin of Barnabas. In celebrating the Passover in this way, Jesus teaches us that family is more than biology. Jesus expands the meaning of family.
I don’t know if any of you have ever been to a seder service. If you have, you know that they can be a lot of fun. The Passover feast is a celebration, but it is also a solemn occasion. The occasion for the first Passover, as we read in Exodus 12 was the night that God pronounced severe judgment on Egypt, requiring the death of all firstborn males who were not covered under the blood. The original command for the Israelites was that they were to eat the meal in haste with their shoes on and staff in hand to be ready to leave at any moment. And yet, joy and freedom are the dominant themes of the celebration.
Because of this, Passover today is often celebrated in two parts: the seder itself, which is solemn and serious, and a festival meal, which is fun and celebratory, while at the same time, intentionality is taken to bring out the meaning of the celebration through question and answers and the recitation or reading of the story. Everything from beginning to end is symbolic. “The Passover was a major sacrifice, yet one distinct from all others. It was not of the Law, for it was instituted before the Law had been given or before the Covenant had been ratified by blood (although it was about to be). In a sense, it was the cause and foundation of all the Levitical sacrifices and of the Covenant itself.”
During the Passover celebration, many Scriptures are read and sung, including Psalms 113-118. These are Psalms of Ascent and are sung at different times throughout the celebration from beginning to end. These are also poems of thanksgiving. You see, Passover was the original thanksgiving celebration. We don’t know exactly how Passover was celebrated at Jesus’s time, but it would have involved the instructions given in our Exodus passage regarding the cooking of the lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. It would have involved the recitation of the story and the singing of the Psalms. This evening, we read Psalm 116, one that Jesus and His disciples would have sung. Let’s examine this psalm more closely.
There are 5 main elements to a thanksgiving psalm, and they were all there in our Psalm for Palm Sunday as well as this one. Those elements are: an introduction, an expression of misery, an appeal for deliverance, a recount of how God rescued the person or people, and a testimonial of response. My OT professor said you can easily remember these elements by the acronym “IMART”. Verses 1-2 comprise the introduction. “I love the Lord because God really does answer prayers, and I will continue to call upon God for help as long as I live.” God is trustworthy.
Verse 3 is the expression of misery. The writer was close to death or at least felt like he was going to die. Verse 4 is the appeal for deliverance: “Then I called upon the name of Yahweh, ‘O Yahweh, I implore You, deliver my soul!’” Verses 5-6 recall the rescue. The author is so grateful, he emphasizes God’s characteristics, graciousness, righteousness, mercy, and Preserver of the Simple, as he describes the actions of God.
The remainder of the psalm is the testimonial. This is how the author will respond in light of being delivered. Frist, he tells his own soul to be at rest. Since God has been merciful, since the person has been delivered, there is no reason to worry or be anxious. God has been good and will be good again. In response to God’s deliverance, the author wills to live a godly life. God’s mercy toward us ought to result in our transformation. Verses 10-11 allude back to the rescue. Because the author had faith, he prayed. He trusted God in the midst of a bad situation, which seems to have occurred because someone deceived him. He also confesses his anger with people. It is okay for us to tell God when it hurts and to express our anger to God. In fact, this is one of the healthiest ways to deal with anger. Certainly God can handle our anger, and other people, not necessarily so. In verses 12-14, the author returns to thinking about what it would actually look like for him to live a godly life. What he names are acts of worship. Our gratitude for God’s deliverance should result in worship. The lifting of the cup is like a toast. It is a public act, so he is sharing before others the truth that God saves.
Verse 15 may seem somewhat out of place: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.” After all, the psalmist did not die, nor did he want to die. Yet here he talks about death. D. A. Carson says, “There is no such thing as an untimely death. For the Lord, death is too valuable a thing to be squandered. The death of His saints, his beloved, is like a precious jewel which He bestows—precious to Him because at death He receives them home. In this sense, death is the final and greatest earthly blessing of God on His people.” I’m not sure I fully agree with Carson. I do believe God is 100% in control of our life span, but I also know from the rest of the Scriptures that death is not God’s desire for people. Death is an enemy to be defeated, and we celebrate Christ’s victory over death on Sunday. We know that He was raised so that we can be raised. It is because God values the lives of God’s people that God will destroy death once and for all.
In verse 16, the author confesses to having been freed but stays with the Master as servant. It is personal. Christ has freed us to be servants. We see this in John’s account of the Passover, when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. God wants us to serve the Lord because we love God, not because we are forced or obligated. Do you serve God because you are compelled by love, or do you feel obligated to “act like a Christian”?
The final verses again speak of the publicity in which the author promises to live out his commitments to God. Making vows in the presence of others establishes as well as being a witness to one’s relationship with God. Gratitude ought to result in transformation. Whenever we encounter God’s grace, we can never be the same. The witnesses can then testify to the goodness and glory of the Lord. The psalm ends with a command—Hallelujah—Praise the Lord! How publicly do you live out your relationship to God?
Those gathered together for that last Passover feast with Jesus would have reflected on their own experience with God as they sung these familiar words. They would have reflected on times when they had been delivered and how they were being transformed by God. And I’m sure as they celebrated Passover 1 year later that these words had taken on even more meaning; for now they would be able to see Christ in all of the symbols and songs. They would see, as the apostle Paul would later write, that Christ is our Passover sacrifice, therefore we can celebrate. They would recount the impact that He had had and still had on their lives. Are there songs that help you recall your own experience with God’s salvation and transformation in your life?
I always encourage people to try writing their own psalm of thanksgiving using these 5 elements—an Introduction, an expression of misery (a time that you had a problem/difficulty in your life and how that incident or situation affected you), an appeal to deliverance (how you expressed your situation to God or others in an appeal for help), and a recount of the rescue (what did God actually do to remedy your situation? How was your prayer answered? Who were the people involved?) And a testimonial of response (what difference has God’s intervention made in your life or how might it shape your life from this point forward?)
Maundy Thursday is generally regarded as a solemn occasion, we know what is coming. We know Jesus has been betrayed, that He will be arrested in the garden, that He will be denied by Peter and abandoned by His followers. Yet, at this point, Jesus is celebrating a festive meal with His disciples. As we come to the table this evening, we come with solemnity, but let us also come with joy and thanksgiving. We remember the sacrifice that was about to be made on our behalf, but we rejoice that because of this sacrifice, God has made a family out of us. We are God’s family and we are brothers and sisters with one another and with all who believe, those saints who have gone before us and those who will come after us, those in lands far away and those in the churches nearby. We celebrate that we have been forgiven, that our sins are gone and we have been set free—free to live and free to serve. Let us continue in worship.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Monday, April 8, 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
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