It has started...The Passover, The Promise, The Pride...Matthew 26:17-35

 

It has started.  By the end of the day our roof will be all ice and shield and ready for shingles next week.  The goal is to be completed by next Friday.  We have raised so far $60,580.00 of the $110,000.00 project.  A huge thank you to all who have helped us with this.  Your contributions will add this building as a place to gather for worship for years to come!

Our annual meeting is this Sunday where we map out the new year and look at what has happened in the last.  It has been a time for me to tie up loose ends like church insurance, financial reports and budgets, and the process forward with our constitution and bylaws.  I have been very busy while Stephanie has been away to Florida but soon home!

On a sad but going home report, Stephanie's father, Harry passed on to glory on Thursday, June 4th.  Stephanie and her mom and sister were caring for him in his home until the end.  I am thankful to say that I had 2 dads.  I thought about how my dad took me fishing when I was a boy and how I had the privilege of taking dad 2 out fishing when I was an adult.  His love for his family was apparent and I could tell that he loved deeply this simple boy from the north that married the baby of the family.  Almost 97 years old and also married some 77 years to his wife.  He was a lover of music appropriate for his era and a man of skillful trades that we need more of in our day.  I will miss him and his guidance through my electrical escapades.  

We are nearing the cross.  It will be time to slow down and take about 10 verses at a time from here on out.  We had the plot, the passion and the plan and this week was the Passover, the promise and the prides.  I will see if I can keep the "p"s going through this section.  

I am always amazed at how Jesus interprets the Passover for His disciples.  The matza bread that was wrapped and hidden or buried in the house to be found later by the children and brought back to the table, brought back to life and broken for each participant is a symbol of Jesus.  He is the bread of life to be shared with all who was wrapped and buried and brought back to life.

The third cup of the Passover, the cup of redemption of the one to come to bring deliverance from bondage to the set apart ones of God to take them to the Promise Land is Jesus.  He is the better Moses who is the One to come who delivers us from the bondage of sin and provides His set apart ones a new heaven and earth, a new Jerusalem to come!

Jesus also leaves the 4th cup of restoration for the time that we will be together with Him in the future gathered around another table, the wedding feast of the Lamb.  He is saving that cup like a young Jewish man and woman would until their wedding celebration.  He would leave and prepare a place for his bride and retrieve her when the father said all is ready.  Jesus will leave to go back to His Father and wait for His signal to come get His bride and take her to what He has provided.

There is so much imagery and promise in this passage.  It is too bad that Peter has to end it with some pretty strong pride statements before heading out to the garden.  One would betray and all the rest would fall away.  Peter boasts in his own strength that these things would not happen and the others follow his words rather than the words of their Lord, Jesus Christ.  This will all show how great Jesus love is in the face of this coming rejection.  And the events of Jesus' life go on...

Adam