One of my absolute favourite meals is roast lamb. Fabulous. And it turns out that roast lamb has a whole lot more to do with Easter than chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies.  But what’s it mean and why is it important?

At that last supper – Jesus poured a nice smooth red wine into a cup and passed it round to His disciples.  He seemed to indicate that this was like His blood.  All kind of weird.  But actually, it has everything, everything to do with life here in the 21^st century.

Alcohol is something that’s, well, it’s pretty much accepted across society these days. Most people drink beer, wine, spirits. But sadly, alcohol is responsible for so much pain and destruction.

I was reading an article in my local newspaper, recently, about the emergency ward at our hospital. And something like eighty per cent of the people under the age of thirty that front up there every weekend, are there because of something alcohol-related. Violence. Injury. Illness. It’s pretty scary.

And yet you read about Jesus at the Last Supper, this Easter thing that we’ve just been through. And He was clearly pouring wine to give to His disciples. The real stuff. Not non-alcoholic grape juices as some people would have us believe.

Wine is talked about throughout the Old and the New Testaments, about 234 times. And Jesus, at the Passover meal, that Last Supper, poured out some wine and He said this to each of His 12 disciples,

‘Drink from it all of you for this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’

What was that all about? And what, if anything, does it mean to you and me, here and now? He was kind of saying that wine was a symbol of His blood. That’s what Jesus was talking about.

First, let me say this whole “wine” and alcohol thing, let me lay that to rest. Whenever I talk about wine on the program I always get letters of protest and people say, “Well, you know, you shouldn’t be talking about this.” Let me tell you. The Bible is full of it and it’s talking about real wine. In Psalm 104, verse 15 says that God made, “Wine to gladden the human heart.” Grape juice doesn’t do that.

So am I advocating drinking? No. If you drink alcohol in moderation and you don’t get drunk, that’s fabulous. If you have a problem with alcohol, for goodness sake steer clear of it. If you just don’t drink, that’s fine too. So please, enough said. Please don’t write to me about this wine thing.

Because the stuff that Jesus poured into the cup, on that night was alcoholic wine, and wine, throughout the Bible, is a symbol of God’s blessing. It’s the fruit of the vine. The notion of abundance and overflowing. Like the wine that Jesus made for the Canaanite wedding.

And here at the Passover meal, Jesus is pouring out a glass of wine which each of the 12 disciples is to drink from and this was part of the Passover celebration. Part of the tradition. Looking back and celebrating the pass over which occurred in 1270 BC. Remembering the great redemptive act of God. Taking Israel out of 400 plus years of slavery in Egypt and sending them on their journey to the land that He’d promised to Abraham.

And the tradition is, at the Passover meal, to drink 4 cups of wine and they symbolise the 4 distinct redemption promises of God, to the Hebrews, as told in Exodus chapter 6, verses 6 and 7. The 4 promises are these.

I will take you out of Egypt.

I will deliver you from the Egyptian slavery.

I will redeem you with a demonstration of my power.

I will acquire you as a nation.

See, it’s each of these cups of wine symbolises an action that was performed by God. Jews, still today, fill a small cup or a small glass with wine at 4 different points in the Passover meal and drink from each cup of the wine. It’s how it works. It’s kind of a liturgy to the Passover meal celebration.

And that’s what was going on here, at the Last Supper. Jesus passes the wine, rich with this symbolism of remembering the Passover of old. The promises of God to save His people and He says to His disciples,

“Drink from this all of you for this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

A covenant is an unbreakable promise from God. And here, Jesus is talking about a new unbreakable promise from God. A new covenant made through the spilling of His blood on the cross. Why blood? Why did they have blood sacrifices in the Old Testament? And why now in the New Testament is Jesus talking about His blood? Because in the Hebrew culture blood symbolises life. Blood equals life. The pouring out of Jesus’ blood on the cross means the shedding of His life.

Back in the Passover, in 1270 BC, the blood of the lamb saved people from destruction:

God said, ‘Tell the whole community of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family. One for each household. Take care of them until the 14th day of the month. Then all the people 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 the tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs.

‘On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike every first-born, both men and animals, and I will bring judgement on all the God’s of Egypt for 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 you over. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.’

So the Passover was about the Israelites being saved by the blood of the lamb. The lamb that had to die to shed its blood. And that gave God’s people life. Way back there, 1300 years before this Passover meal at the first Easter. But when we get to this Last Supper, Jesus is promising a new covenant. The shedding of His blood, the Lamb of God. He loses His life so that we can gain ours.

Easter is about life. Jesus said,

“The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” 

And again.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Jesus poured out His life so that you and I may have ours in abundance eternally. The forgiveness of sin set free.

This isn’t some theological or legal or forensic thing. It’s life. It’s real life. The biggest thing that God ever set me free from was me. My sin. Those bad habits that were so deeply ingrained in who I was. Anger. Selfishness. Ambition. I tell you, I would crawl over anybody and everybody to get where I was going and if you were in my road you had better watch out. Those things ruin our lives.

Easter’s about a couple of things. Firstly, forgiveness. Jesus pours out His life so that He takes our punishment so that you and I might be forgiven. And secondly, Jesus’ resurrection, the empty tomb, is about a new life. Here and now. We start a new life with the slate wiped clean. A new life that lasts for all eternity.

Can you imagine the impact that this Passover meal had on His disciples when, only a short time later, they saw that when 3 men had been crucified, Jesus and 2 other criminals? And Jesus was already dead and the 2 criminals were dying and so they broke the legs of the 2 criminals. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they didn’t break His legs. Just like the Passover lamb. Where the bones were not allowed to be broken.

Instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear and at once blood and water came out. Jesus was clearly dead because the white and the red blood cells had separated. His blood, His life poured out into the dirt for them. For you and for me.

What a powerful picture. What a sharp juxtaposition between the tender roast lamb and the smooth red wine of the Passover meal. And the Lamb of God, crucified on the cross. His blood spilled from His body onto the ground. His life poured out, taking the punishment that you and I deserve, before God, for our sin.

That’s the whole point of Easter. It’s about life. New life.

At that last supper – the Passover Meal – that Jesus ate with His disciples just before He was crucified, they had roast lamb, cooked in bitter herbs.  Most likely horse radish.  And those bitter herbs were part of the Passover tradition.  But why?

I want to share with you something really frankly today, as we look back on Easter in this series, over the last couple of weeks, that I’ve called The Passover Blessing. And it’s this: When I discovered Jesus, when He came to me a decade and a half ago. And finally, finally I gave my life over to Him. It was such a bitter, painful time of my life. It really was. Because I was living out, at the time, the consequences of years of selfishness and ambition and greed.

And those things have consequences, bitter consequences. The best way I can describe it was my life was like biting into a grapefruit. It was bitter and it was painful. And that bitterness, well it took a while to go away. Even though I gave my life, lock, stock and barrel over to Him, the consequences lingered on for a few years. Until I worked my way through them and things resolved themselves and my attitudes changed and I started to grow up.

And as we head towards the end of this two-week series. Looking at the incredibly rich symbolism. The meaning of the Passover Festival that was being celebrated in Jerusalem at the time of that very first Easter. It’s the notion of bitterness that I want to explore today. Because my hunch is that there are few of us still carrying around a root of bitterness in our hearts and that, that is what Jesus wants to set us free from.

We’ve talked, all over the last couple of weeks, about the fact that Easter has its tradition rooted in the Passover Festival that happened 1300 years before that very first Easter. 1300 years before Jesus sat down with His disciples to eat that Passover meal.

They crucified Jesus during this festival. Remember, the Passover was remembering how Israel had been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. And then God sent Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” Pharaoh refused, so God sent ten plagues. The last of the plagues on Egypt was the death of the fist born of every Egyptian household.

Israel didn’t suffer that because God had a plan for them. Let me just quickly read it to you from Exodus, chapter 12:

God said, ‘Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family. A lamb for each household. Your lamb will be without blemish. A year old male, it may be a sheep or a goat. You’ll take it until the 14th day of this month. Then the whole assembled congregation of Israel will slaughter the lamb at twilight. They shall take some of the blood, put it on the 2 doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat. They shall eat the lamb that same night and they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.’

And so the angel of death passed over the Israelites house and their first-born weren’t killed. There’s a rich symbolism here between Easter and the Passover that happened 1300 years before Easter. About the amazing salvation of God to take His chosen people out of slavery in Egypt, through His powerful miracle and send them on a journey to the Promised Land.

And they were commanded to celebrate this Passover every year. One of the three major festivals on the Jewish calendar. And each year they celebrated it. There was a time when they strayed away and God brought them back. And over the 1300 years or so from when it happened through to Jesus’ day. And still today in fact. The Jews celebrate the Passover. The Passover meal, as I’ve just read, is lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Probably the herb they used back then was horseradish. A bitter herb. And there’s a reason for that. To remind the people of the bitterness of their slavery. Slavery is a bitter thing and it’s not a place that we want to go back to. And so each year, they cook their lamb, in memory of the Passover, with bitter herbs to remind themselves of what slavery looked like.

This great saving act in the New Testament at the Passover celebration. This first Easter was where Jesus died on the cross. The Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. And that’s what we’ve been looking at over the last couple of weeks on the program.

But I just want to spend a few moments, together with you today, to talk about these ‘bitter herbs’. Because there is so many people I know who, well, they believe in Jesus okay and yet they’ve never let go of the bitterness of their slavery. What do I mean by that? Simply this.

Before we give our lives over to Jesus we have a whole bunch of things going on in our heart that we kind of know they’re not good for us. Anger. Resentment. Greed. Selfishness. Horrible things. Ugly things. But we hang on to them because, well, we’re entitled, right? And so, perhaps, what drove us back in those days was selfish ambition. Or greed. Or perhaps the thing that stunted our growth was resentment. You know what it was in your life.

And then, one day, one day along the journey you meet Jesus on the road. It’s an amazing experience. You realise that God has come to us and that God wants to set us free. So we say ‘YES’. I want that. I want to be free. I accept Jesus, this Jesus into my heart. And I love how Jesus said, referring to Himself, that:

If the Son of man sets you free, you are free indeed.

Think of those Israelites. They were in slavery for 430 years. Then God sent the plagues on Egypt. And then the miracle of passing through the Red Sea. And then Pharaohs army chases them and they get drowned in the Red Sea. And there they are, sitting on the other side of the Red Sea, looking back on all that. Man, they were free indeed, weren’t they?

And it’s the same deal when we put our faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross and that empty tomb of the Easter message. We are free indeed when we believe in that Jesus. But then, then what we do is we want that freedom but we still want to hang on to the things that causes bitterness in our slavery of sin.

Hebrews chapter 12, says this:

Pursue peace with everyone and the holiness without which one cannot see the Lord. See to it that no-one fails to obtain the grace of God so that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.

Freedom’s an amazing thing. When we get rid of the anger. The resentment. The selfishness. The unforgiveness. All that stuff that makes us slaves to our own selfish desires. The stuff that makes us bitter in our hearts. It’s such an amazing freedom. Because a couple of things happen.

Firstly, other people’s failures and weaknesses and the stuff they do, that stuff stops hurting us. It ceases to rob us of our peace and our joy and our freedom. And secondly, all those negative feelings disappear and God replaces them with His peace and joy. That’s it!

Now it may seem like a strange thing to talk about over these last few days over Easter. About the bitter herbs. The Passover lamb that was roasted with them. The unleavened bread. But my hunch is that God’s got a plan today to set a few people free through the memory of these bitter herbs. Slavery is bitter. We’re meant to remember that. And for that reason, we don’t want to go back there.

Is there a root of bitterness that’s taken hold of your heart? What is it? What impact is it having on your life? The point of this bitter herb is to remind us of the bitterness of our slavery, of our sin. So often we just don’t see it. It’s ruining our lives and we blame everyone else and we blame our circumstances and we blame God.

The whole point of Easter is that Jesus, the Lamb who died for us, the Passover lamb is setting us free. Maybe today is the day for us to hand some bitterness over to Him. The bitterness that we’ve been hanging onto and be set free from that.

I believe God is calling us today to examine our hearts. He’ll show us what it is that’s keeping us in the yoke of slavery. He’ll show us the root of bitterness. He will. Because He wants to set us free. And when we hand this over to Him that’s exactly what He’s going to do.

Bread without yeast is called unleavened bread.  And that’s the sort of bread that Jesus and His disciples ate at that last Supper. The Passover Meal.  They did it because it had thus been commanded by God.  Weird!  Why?

Often, times I’ve been sitting in a Church and they hand communion around. You know, little pieces of soft white bread neatly cut into identically sized cubes. And little cups of wine or grape juice. And well, don’t take me the wrong way but I’ve wanted to scream. Because these little cubes of soft, white, fluffy bread. Well anyone would think that Jesus was some soft, white, fluffy saviour.

Easter.  Ever wondered.  What does it all mean?  I mean not the ritual of the celebration, but the actual message.  The actual event.  What does it all mean to you and me, here and now?

Good Friday for many people around the world is a day off. For others, it’s not but for Christians, it is right up there with Christmas Day and Easter Sunday as one of the most special days of the year. The day when we stop to remember that Easter is supposed to mean something. 

The problem we all have is is that we can celebrate the same thing over and over and over again each year and it starts to become like a ritual. You know, it loses its meaning. For some people this is one of the few days when they attend a church throughout the year. For others, they will go to church every week but they listen to this Easter sermon and there’s the same old humdrum thing happening in our heads. 

Here we are, Easter, the greatest event on the calendar. The day when God made provision for you and me by paying the price of all our mistakes and failures for which Christians use this word sin. But what does it all mean? Is there anything in it for me today in the middle of the pressures and the realities of my life? 

Over the course of this week we’ve been looking more closely at the thing in which Easter finds its roots, not so much Easter itself, but the precursor to Easter, a thing called the Passover. It happened almost 1300 years before that Last Supper in the crucifixion of Jesus a time when Israel were slaves in Egypt and Moses was sent by God and God put plagues on Israel to convince the Pharaoh to let his people go. And the last plague, the death of the firstborn of every household of Egypt, was the plague that convinced Pharaoh to let God’s people go. But as God passed over Egypt and struck down the firstborn in every Egyptian household he passed over the homes of the Israelites because he’d commanded them to kill a pure and perfect lamb and paint its blood on the doorposts. And when God saw that blood he passed them over that’s why was called the Passover.

Easter happened at a Passover celebration. There is a reason for that. It’s because Jesus pointed back to the Passover and he said now today I am the Lamb of God. See God had commanded them way back in that first Passover, 1300 years before Jesus, God commanded them to celebrate the Passover every year kind of like the way we celebrate Easter. They had to listen time and time again to this. And so do we because it speaks right into our lives here and now. You can read it in Exodus chapter 12 beginning at verse 22.

Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. 

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.

So each year Israel celebrated this Passover festival with a meal, the Passover meal. That’s what the Last Supper with Jesus and disciples was. And following that there was a week long festival called the festival of the unleavened bread. Israel stopped doing it for awhile when they strayed away from God but other than that, in their history and in fact this day, relies on Jews celebrating the Passover meal with particular foods and glasses of wine. 

There’s a real liturgy – if you like – to the Passover meal celebration and part of this tradition is for the youngest child in the household ask four questions and the gist of those four questions is this “why is this night is different from all other nights”. Each of the four questions asked about one of the symbols used in the Passover meal. “Why are we doing this particular thing this night?” “Why why are we eating this particular thing?” The youngest child asks and only the father may answer. His job is to tell the story the story of how God brought Israel out of 430 years of slavery in Egypt into a journey of freedom through the plagues that God sent on Egypt through Moses and Aaron. Each year the children are told the story so that it becomes part of who they are. 

As Jesus sat at the Last Supper the Passover meal he too told a story. He told the story of the new promises of God to his chosen people and new covenant. He told about the Passover Lamb and about the setting free of God’s people not from the slavery of Egypt but the slavery to their sin. Have a listen from first Corinthians Chapter 11 beginning at verse 23:

I have given you the teaching I received from the Lord. The night Jesus was handed over to the soldiers, He took bread. When He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take this bread and eat it. This is My body which is broken for you. Do this to remember Me.”

In the same way after supper, He took the cup. He said, “This cup is the New Way of Worship made between God and you by My blood. Whenever you drink it, do it to remember Me.”

Every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you are telling of the Lord’s death until He comes again.

And so Jesus at his Passover meal for the Last Supper as we’ve come to know it explains what the Passover is all about. It’s rooted deep in Israel’s history, it’s about freedom from slavery, it’s about one man dying and setting the rest of us free. That’s what Easter is. 

So many people travel through life with the sense of, well today we wouldn’t call it guilt today we give it another label maybe low self esteem, or inadequacy, the sense that they haven’t arrived, the sense that something isn’t quite right that perhaps something’s missing. I love this old Hebrew tradition of the Passover as the family sits down to the meal that remembers the first Passover meal eaten hurriedly before God lifted these people up and set them free from generations of slavery. The youngest child asks dad “why is tonight different?” “What is it makes this night special?” “Why do we eat this or not that?” “Why do we recline at the table rather than sitting up straight?” “Dad what’s this ritual and why are we doing all this?” Jesus said this: 

“Let the little children come to me don’t stop them for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belonged. Truly I tell you whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 

We can just skip through Easter and not even give it a second thought. Sure we can do that but if we do we will miss the whole point. The point of our freedom from slavery, the slavery we have to our own selfishness and sin and rejection of God. And what slave doesn’t want to be set free? What slave doesn’t yearn for a life of freedom today? 

I ask this question: Will you come before God just as a child and decide to have what makes this different?