CHRIST OUR PASSOVER
SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON March 7th, 2010
I Corinthians 10:1-2 “I want you to know, brethren, that out fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses…”
Every day we see and hear news that upsets us. It could be the recent earthquake in Chile, or the devastation wrought by the hurricane in Haiti, or the abduction of a child. Our hearts always go out to those affected, and our prayers embrace them. Occasionally it is more local, and our hearts are heavy. I am referring to the recent abduction and murder of Chelsea King. We immediately identified with her parents and friends and shared their pain, because they are a part of the San Diego community. If we are parents or grandparents, we perhaps think of our own daughters, or if not, of some young woman whom we know. And there is always that question: Why, God?
It is not just heartbreaking when a young person or child is taken and killed, but it is unfair. They have done nothing wrong. They do not deserve to have their life ended before it begins. For those who are affected - people just like us - it can question your faith. Though without faith, how would anyone cope? The suffering of a child or a young person is one of the hardest things to cope with. It is the raw experience and expression of innocent suffering. When these things happen, we pray, of course. But even for Christians there is that haunting question: If God is a God of love, why do these things happen?
Jesus faced exactly the same question in today’s gospel (Luke 13:1-9). Some people came with news that Pilot had slaughtered some men from Galilee, and had mingled their blood with religious sacrifices. This was not only an act of vengeance and humiliation, but it was sacrilege also. So Jesus was asked - were they worse sinners than everybody else? Had they done something wrong because they had suffered so? In fact, for the Jews, suffering was often seen as punishment for sin or wrong doing. Why else would they have suffered? Jesus says, No, of course not. They were no worse than anyone else. Then He gives another example to the crowd. What about those 18 people tragically killed when a tower in Jerusalem fell down? They didn’t deserve to die. They were no worse sinners than anyone else.
So where is this God of love in all this? Let us be in no doubt about God's great goodness and love. When He said to Moses, “I Am who I Am” He means, I am the God of love. Natural disasters and the evil that men do may overshadow God’s love and keep it in the background - but they cannot take God’s love away! Indeed, because sin causes evil deeds and intentions, we must believe that God is a God of love. Otherwise there is no hope for the world. Because God is a God of love, there is an answer to sin and evil.
We are now at the third Sunday of Lent. As the season unfolds, we see before us the passion, suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus went through this - gave His life as a sacrifice to offer the world an alternative to sin. To show the world there is a way of goodness and love, starting with the sacrifice of God’s only Son. Somehow, in our suffering, we walk with Jesus on His way to Calvary - though it is a great mystery.
Both the Epistle today (1 Corinthians 10:1-13) and the Old Testament reading (Exodus 3:1-15) remind us that God showed us He is a God of love. He called a people to be His own, the chosen people - offering them a covenant, a covenant of love. If they loved Him and followed His ways, they would be blessed, and would be His people. But even His chosen people could not resist sin. They became slaves in Egypt. But God still loved them. So He called Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver them from their slavery. Moses, following God’s initiative, led them through the Red Sea to freedom in the Promised Land.
In 1 Corinthians 10, St. Paul tells us that for Christians, the exodus of the Jews is an image of baptism. The Israelites escaped from slavery to freedom by passing through the waters of the Red Sea - and that is an image of baptism. How can the Christian sacrament of baptism be prophesied by the Passover all those years ago in Egypt?
Firstly, the Passover is an image and symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection. Before the Israelites could pass through the waters of the Red Sea, they had to sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle its blood on their doors. And when the Angel of Death came by, he passed over their doors and did not slay their children. That Passover, in which the blood of the sacrificial lamb saved them. Jesus, our Lamb Of God, sprinkled His blood for our deliverance. So the Passover became an image of Christ’s sacrifice - and the escape through the Red Sea is an image of Christ’s resurrection. For through His death and resurrection, Christ has freed us also from slavery - not from Egypt, but slavery to sin. Baptism releases us from any power that sin and evil might have over us.
Every liturgy the church celebrates, every Mass, not only proclaims this truth of what Christ has done for us, but makes it real yet again. And so this morning when children are baptized they pass through the Red Sea, just as surely as the Jews did all those years ago. They enter the Promised Land through the grace of this sacrament.
That is why Lent climaxes on Holy Saturday evening with the Easter Vigil - that great service, which celebrates the Resurrection. In that service the Resurrection is celebrated with images of the Passover, and the Exodus, and of baptism. That is why at every Eucharist we say the words that St. Paul said in I Corinthians 5:7-8, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; Therefore let us keep the feast.” Today we are celebrating, yet again, the Passover, which brings us freedom and joy.
Having celebrated that feast, we take the love of God with us, to embrace the world. We take it with us so that God’s great goodness and love will be real in this world, so that we will be able to resist every force of evil that confronts us.