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MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, 10th of Abib, 5784 – I’ve been waiting a long time to post this picture of the adorable little white lamb and the mischievous little black-booted one sneaking up behind him…. It’s a screen shot from a video on jumping baby goats that was made last spring. These lambs are now one year old and ready to be sacrificed for Passover (if they’re male and unblemished). I’ve posted the video of a barnful of jumping baby goats below. If you’ve never seen baby goats jumping for no apparent reason other than for pure joy, I highly recommend watching the video.
God, through Moses, commanded that a yearling be removed from its flock of either sheep or goats on the 10th day of the month of Abib. The lamb was then to be kept separate from the other animals until being slaughtered on the 14th in preparation for the Passover meal that evening. Today is the 10th of Abib, so the little lambs in the picture above, were they in Israel or somewhere else where the slaughter of the Passover lamb is still observed, could potentially be in the process of being whisked away from their family and friends and cloistered somewhere alone for four days before going Home (euphemism for having their throat slit and their blood drained, being thrown onto a fire and roasted whole, and then eaten).
As brutal as it sounds, this is the kind of animal sacrifice I can get behind. First and foremost, the slaughter of the Passover lamb is fully initiated, commanded, and blessed by God, which means it doesn’t matter what I think: The ritual is still right and good. Secondly, nothing is wasted in the sacrificing of the animal and the meat is equitably allotted – each household is to take one lamb only, but if the household is too small for a lamb, two or more households can combine forces until there are enough people to warrant eating a lamb. Thirdly, the lamb is roasted whole, including its head, feet, and innards. Nothing is removed; nothing is wasted; and no bones are broken in the process. Fourthly, any part of the lamb that isn’t eaten during the Passover feast is burned to smithereens either that same night or very early the next morning. So other than for a few ashes, nothing remains.
The process of slaughtering the Passover lamb is as swift, lean, and tactical as a military operation. To me, its urgency seems less a ritual and more a matter of life or death, which in fact the first Passover was. The Hebrews had to hastily repurpose the lamb’s blood as a door marker to indicate that children of Israel lived in that home so that God’s avenging angels would pass over them and head for Egyptian houses. Then the Hebrews had to finish eating the lamb, burn its remains, throw a few things in a backpack, and get the heck out of Dodge before Pharoah changed his mind again about letting them go.
We, if we’re born-again, bear the blood of Jesus the Lamb of God on our souls. This marks us for protection in the spiritual realm and is inviolable. Jesus was God’s ultimate Passover sacrifice, a role that he willingly accepted and perfectly played. We honor Jesus’ sacrifice during the Passover supper when we raise a glass in his memory and eat a piece of unleavened bread in his honor. He asked us to do these things specifically at Passover, and so we do them at Passover.
Like God’s command to the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, Jesus’ request to his followers to celebrate Passover in his memory is also a command that has the same force as God’s: Do not doubt that for a second. Easter is not Passover; in fact, Easter is more an anti-Passover, as the date for Easter was specifically and purposely chosen by Emperor Constantine and the religious powers-that-be in 325 A.D. to defy the Passover date set by the rabbis in Jerusalem. This decision by Constantine and the religious ptb, as well as the reason for it, is a matter of public record.
Passover is a quintessentially Christian feast, and we need to celebrate it as such.
As for slaughtering a lamb, we don’t have to do that anymore, but we do need to raise a glass in Jesus’ memory (as he asked us to do) and to eat a piece of unleavened bread in his honor (as he asked us to do), even if we celebrate alone (because we won’t be alone; Jesus and God will be right there with us). I hope you choose to follow Jesus’ command. If you’re a born-again believer and you’ve never before celebrated Passover and the accompanying Feast of Unleavened Bread, it’s high time you did, and “better late than never”, as my grandmother would say!
Enjoy!
URGENT!
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, March 8, 2024 – The Gospel message is not for the faint of heart or procrastinators. If you live your life in fear, clinging to the flotsam and jetsam of the world for support and treading water rather than swimming for heavenly shores, you’ll never make it Home. Because the Gospel message is about urgency, about letting go of the world and being ready to leave wherever you are and whatever you’re doing at a moment’s notice, even and especially when you least expect it.
God gave his people the feast of unleavened bread as a reminder of the urgency of doing his will. Urgency means keeping God’s commands whether you’re ready to keep them or not, whether you’ve added them to your schedule or not. The Hebrews had to leave Egypt so fast, their bread didn’t even have time to rise and they had to bake it and eat it unleavened. This is the purpose of keeping the feast of unleavened bread – as a tactile reminder of the urgency of doing God’s will. When God gives you his orders (which, by the way, you’re still free to disobey, though I strongly recommend against it), you don’t have time to sit around sipping tea and planning in minute detail how the orders should be carried out. Ask Noah how much time he had when God said “Go!” Sure, up until that point he had plenty of time when God was giving him the specifications for building the ark, but when go-time came, it was now or never for Noah.
Just like it’s now or never for us.
Jesus lived his ministry years as if he were under a state of emergency. He dropped all pretence of “business as usual”, immediately walking away from his carpentry business and home life in Nazareth when God gave the signal. He whittled his needs down to the bare minimum (food, water, warmth, and air) and spent each and every day serving God. Jesus didn’t just preach and teach the Gospel – he lived it. And in living it, he showed his followers how they likewise should live it.
The parable of the ten virgins and the oil in their lamps is for us. All ten had lamps, but only five had the forethought to fill their lamps with oil. The five that didn’t have oil tried to bum some from the other five, but the other five quite rightly refused to give them any, telling them to go buy what they needed, which they did. When they came back with their lamps freshly filled with the oil, fully expecting to be let into the wedding feast, they found the door shut. Yet even in the face of the closed and locked door, they still believed all they had to do was to call out and they would be let in. But it was too late for them. They’d slackened at the wrong time, and no amount of scrambling or pleading could make up for that.
All their last-ditch efforts were in vain.
The Gospel message is not for the faint of heart or for procrastinators. If you’re not living your life like Jesus did, like his disciples did, like Paul did – as if under a state of emergency – you’ll end up like the five virgins who got eternally locked out of the wedding feast.
The Gospel message is first and foremost one of urgency to serve God and to do his will day in and day out. If you’re not yet doing that, and if you don’t make up your mind to do it now – today – and for the rest of your days on Earth, you won’t make it Home.
THE ANNUAL PURGE
ANNAPOLIS ROYAL, Nova Scotia, April 16, 2022 – Once again, we born-again believers are tasked with throwing caution and all leavened products to the wind in our annual fridge and cupboard purge. It doesn’t matter if the bread’s still good or the crackers are still crunchy – if they’ve got leavening in them, out they go.
Some people are real sticklers about leaven and leavening agents. My understanding of scripture is that the leaven that’s verboten during the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the slow-acting type used to make dough rise. The Hebrews were so hasty in their departure from Egypt, they had no time to let their dough rise before leaving, which meant they later had to bake unleavened bread. Leaven requires time to work its magic, but the Hebrews didn’t have the luxury of time. When we choose to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread for a week, as commanded us by God, we honor the memory of our spiritual forefathers. We remember and celebrate the miracles that got them their freedom at the very small cost of having to eat unleavened flat bread until the flour ran out.
Then they ate manna for 40 years.
The spiritual concept of leaving in haste is built-in to being a believer. You don’t do things in your time; you do them in God’s time. And God’s time can be any time, which is why you should always be ready to leave at the drop of a hat – to always have (as scripture describes) your loins girded, your staff in your hand, and your shoes on your feet. That’s how you’re to eat the the Passover meal and that’s also pretty much how you should be going through life as a born-again believer. We no longer do things because we want to do them our way and in our time; we do things because God advises or commands us to do them, in his way and in his time. And often his time is in haste.
We also have the option not to live that way. We have a free-will right to hunker down when we want to and disobey God. We can prep 10 years worth of food and supplies and refuse to budge in our mortgaged house, even as the waters start rising all around us. We can still choose the world’s way. But if we do, it won’t turn out well for us in the end. That’s a guarantee.
God intervened in the Hebrews’ sufferings and sprung them from their Egyptian prison in answer to their prayers. In return, they took on a life of wandering and relative hardship, but they never went hungry and all their basic needs were met as long as they stayed the course. Those who didn’t stay the course were unceremoniously removed from the collective.
The same is going on with us born-again believers. Through rebirth, God sprung us from our spiritual prison where Satan was our overlord. In return, he placed us in the spiritual realm of the Kingdom, outside the spiritual reach of the world. He’s given us all jobs to do and rules to follow, and he amply provides for us, as long as we stay our allotted course. If we don’t, the same thing will happen to us as happened to the children of Israel who rebelled against God.
I don’t know about you, but I think giving up leavened products for a week and purging your home of leaven is a small price to pay for everything God does for us – both those things we know about and the things we don’t. Getting rid of leaven is a timely reminder that when God moves in our lives, it’s usually unexpected and requires of us that we be ready to move IN HASTE, sometimes at just a moment’s notice. When that happens, don’t expect to be able to take anything with you but the clothes on your back and what you can easily carry in your hands.
As always, God will provide for your needs. He always provides for his children.
No matter how insanely impossible it looks, God will provide.
When has he not?
LEAVING JESUS
ANNAPOLIS ROYAL, Nova Scotia, April 15, 2022 – As born-again believers, we can only imagine the shame the disciples felt when they realized they’d left Jesus all alone to face the soldiers and certain death. Peter in particular, after boasting he’d rather die than desert Jesus, must have felt like dying. But Jesus was undeterred: He knew beforehand that all his followers would leave him, and so he’d prepared himself accordingly.
He didn’t blame them; he had compassion on them, knowing their weaknesses.
And he forgave them.
Tonight at midnight marks the anniversary of when all of Jesus’ disciples deserted him. The spirit of fear is a powerful force that can make you do things you hadn’t expected you’d do. For instance, God gives women that charming involuntary response of a loud piercing scream whenever they encounter something that makes them unexpectedly afraid. It’s a defense mechanism. I’ve experienced that involuntary defense mechanism myself on occasion: The scream rips out of you before you can stop it. It’s like a reflex.
I think the disciples’ desertion of Jesus all those years ago was also like a reflex. They vamoosed before they realized what they were doing; maybe they even thought at first that Jesus had vamoosed with them.
But Jesus hadn’t vamoosed. He’d stood his ground, completely immune to the fear reflex. No scream escaped his lips. He went to his crucifixion willingly. He even took a moment to lecture one of his followers on the right way to treat others, including the soldiers who were arresting him. As the storm of evil whipped and howled around him, Jesus stood in the eye of it, calm and unflappable.
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We are to celebrate Passover as Jesus taught us to celebrate it, in memory of him.
Tonight is Passover.
We are to purge our homes of yeast, as Moses taught us to do. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is the continuum of the Passover feast. We’re to purge our homes of leavened bread and other leavened products because God said to keep this feast for all time. That means it’s ongoing until the end of time. We’re not at the end of time yet, so we keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We keep keeping it, because we are the spiritual offspring of the children of Israel, and the children of Israel must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread for all time. That is a scriptural command straight from God.
If you haven’t yet done so, now is a good time to identify anything in your cupboards or fridge that has yeast in it, and throw it out. Better still, instead of throwing it out, give it to the birds. Don’t give it to people – give it to the birds. Don’t poke it away for later – give it to the birds. But get it out of your house.
That is a command from God.
We’re to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread just as we’re to celebrate the Passover.
The Passover is tonight, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread continues where the Passover lets off and goes for seven days. The Passover is a reminder of God’s supernatural protection of his people, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a celebration of the Hebrews being sprung from slavery. Their freedom came so quickly and unexpectedly, they didn’t even have the chance to leaven their bread dough. They had to vamoose with unleavened dough. Jesus tells us we should live our lives with loins girded and shoes on our feet, always ready to leave at a moment’s notice with little more than the clothes on our back. That’s how the Hebrews left Egypt; that’s how Jesus’ parents left with him when they fled Herod’s murderous decree; and that’s how the early Christians lived: Always ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
These feasts are not optional: they are a command.
Jesus told us to celebrate the Passover – not Easter, not Good Friday, not the Last Supper – Passover.
Passover is tonight.
We celebrate the Passover the way Jesus showed us to, and we keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the following seven days.
We do this because we’ve been told to do it.
We do this because man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Jesus told us to do it and Moses told us to do it, which means that God told us to do it.
I hope you enjoy your Passover celebrations tonight and that you purge your home of leavened bread for the next week.
Blessings will follow if you keep God’s commands.
Curses will follow if you don’t.
PIZZA FOR PASSOVER
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 27, 2021 – Well, I’m officially crazy: I just baked an organic pizza for the local sea gulls.
Let me explain.
It’s almost Passover, which means it’s also almost the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Jesus commanded his followers to celebrate the Passover, which includes eating unleavened bread during the meal.
For the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we’re supposed to remove all yeasted products from our home. I had a frozen pizza sitting in my freezer for the past few months, so out it goes (yeast in the crust). But I couldn’t just throw it in the garbage (what a waste!) and I couldn’t give it to the birds frozen (they might complain…), so I baked it for them.
Passover begins this evening at sundown. I wrote last year about how important it is for Christians to celebrate Passover and by extension the Feast of Unleavened Bread. While it’s true we’re no longer under the Law (meaning, we don’t have to sacrifice animals to atone for our sins), God did direct his people to celebrate the Lord’s Passover for all time. It’s a directive that has as much weight as a Commandment.
In keeping the Passover, we commemorate the Hebrews’ final night in Egypt before the Exodus. On that night, the people were directed to eat a special meal in haste and to smear their doorposts with the blood of a slaughtered lamb to protect them from God, who would at midnight “pass over” them and their animals while killing every first-born among the Egyptians. The Passover also involves the reading of certain Bible passages and the singing of psalms, all to be done with shoes on and “loins girded” in expectation of a hasty departure.
Jesus urged his followers to continue keeping the Passover, but to keep it as he showed us during his final meal on Earth. The wine was to represent his blood instead of the ritual lamb’s blood, and the unleavened bread was to represent his body instead of the ritual lamb’s meat. This new Passover meal of Jesus’ blood and body was to commemorate the sacrifice that would take place the next day, with Jesus himself as the sacrificial offering. Remember that, by God’s decree, no bone was to broken in the Passover lamb, so even though the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves crucified with Jesus, they left Jesus’ legs intact.
The Lord’s Passover is a bittersweet festival. As much as it celebrates God’s rescue of his people from slavery, it also commemorates the slaughter of millions of first-borns, including Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I tend to speed through the description of Jesus’ crucifixion as fast as I can when I read the gospels, just as I speed through the description of the slaughter of the firstborns. I don’t think these events should be dwelt on or even looked upon (see what happened to Lot’s wife when she turned to watch the destruction of Sodom). God’s judgement in action can be brutal for those on the receiving end. It’s enough for us to know that it does happen, and that it’s perfect.
I hope you choose to commemorate the Passover as God and Jesus directed us to do. If you still have yeasted products in your home, now’s a good time to remove them. I’m sure you can find some hungry birds who would be only too happy to take them off your hands.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 