28 March 2024 Maundy Thursday

This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

From Exodus12:1-8,11-14 NRSV

In today’s Old Testament reading we hear about the institution of the Passover. Detailed instructions were given as to the selection, preparation and eating of a lamb. The blood from the lamb was to be used to mark the houses of the community of Israel so that their houses would be passed over when a destructive plague was sent to Egypt. They were to eat the meal hurriedly and be ready to depart straightaway after eating – to make their “exodus” from Egypt and so to be begin a new life freed from slavery and under God’s protection. The significance of the Passover was to be marked by changing their calendar so that the month of Passover was to become the first month of the year and the Passover to be celebrated as a festival every year. Today in our Christian calendar we remember the institution of another ritual meal. Whilst celebrating the Passover with his apostles, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of entering into a new covenant. Jesus himself was to become the lamb to be sacrificed. Jesus took two symbols used in the Passover, the bread and wine, and gave them a new meaning as a means of remembering his sacrifice.