Mark 14:10-25, The Lord’s Passover
Welcome to worship at Manchester! We will be doing the same kinds of things we do every week, but we’ll have a different flow of worship today as we try to stitch everything together and focus on the them of Passover. We’re doing that because our sermon comes from Mark 14:10-25 where we find Jesus sitting down to share the Passover meal with his disciples. As Christians who seldom if ever participate in the Passover meals and celebrations that take place right around Easter, we might wonder why we’re focusing on it this morning. “We,” you might say, “celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the Lord’s Supper instead.” You’d be correct about that, but unless we understand at least a little about the Passover origins of the “Last Supper” of Jesus, we’re bound to miss out on a lot of really beautiful things.
Our early scripture reading from Exodus 12:21-28 will help refresh our memories about what the first Passover was about, as God prepared to liberate his chosen people from their Egyptian bondage. You may already know much of that story of Moses, slaughtered lambs, and blood-marked doorposts. If not, you’ll have a chance to learn something significant this morning.
Our second scripture reading comes from Psalm 114, which was one of the psalms that was sung every year during the Passover celebrations. It is a jubilant psalm about the awesome power of God and his sovereignty over the created world as he led his people to freedom.
Both of those scriptures will help us as we read from Mark 14 and consider what Jesus was doing with his disciples and what he did for us all those years ago. If you have questions when the worship service is over, I hope you’ll join our brand new “First Cup” class in the Library where I’ll be happy to discuss any questions you have about today’s lesson or anything else about the ministry of the Manchester Church of Christ.
— Patrick Barber, preaching minister
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