The Feast of the Passover.
(For a reference to the minute points of difference, necessitated by different circumstances, between the first Passover and subsequent ones, see art. 'Passover,' in Smith's 'Bibl. Dict.;' see also the Exposition for its historical significance.) We now take for granted that all this is well understood by, and perfectly familiar to, the reader. Our purpose now is to "open up," not its historical meaning, nor even its symbolism for Israel, but its typical intent as foreshadowing gospel truths, showing how in Christ our Passover, and in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper as our Passover feast, the far-reaching significance of the offering of the Paschal lamb is most clearly seen.
I. ISRAEL'S PASSOVER HAS ITS ANTITYPE IN CHRIST. So argues the apostle, in 1 Corinthians 5:7, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." We cannot but feel here the wondrous condescension of our God in permitting us to look at aught so sublime as the sacrifice of his dear Son, through the means of aught so humble as the Paschal lamb. Yet it is an infinite mercy that, whatever might so help the conceptions of his children then, and whatever may so aid them now, the Great Father does not disdain to use.
1. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Sacrificial Lamb; so John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:18, 1 Peter 1:19. He is spoken of as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," and is beheld, in the Apocalypse, "a Lamb as it had been slain." He, too, is "without blemish." He was "without sin." In him alone is the ideal of a perfect sacrifice found.
2. The Passover was to be killed without breaking a bone thereof. This was fulfilled in Christ, that men might be aided in seeing the fulfillment of the type, through the close analogy of the treatment; and because "God would permit no dishonor to be done to the body of Christ, after the atoning act was complete" (Halley).
3. The blood of the first Paschal lamb was to be sprinkled on the posts of the doors, signifying that there must be the actual acceptance and application of the atoning blood, and that through the atoning blood so applied we are saved.
4. In the first instance, the lamb was offered without the intervention of a priest. So that, though priesthood was afterwards instituted for a time for educational purposes (Galatians 3:1-29.), yet the priest was in no wise necessary to ensure men's acceptance with God.
5. The flesh was to be eaten, in token of fellowship. It was thus "the most perfect of peace offerings," symbolizing and typifying communion with God on the ground of the atoning blood. In all these respects, how very far does the Christian Antitype surpass the Jewish type? Devout hearts may and do love to linger long in meditation on a theme so touching and Divine!
II. CHRISTIANS HAVE THEM PASSOVER FEAST.
1. Where. Here we may be permitted to point out a distinction, which, though obvious enough at first mention thereof, yet is so far lost sight of in some directions, as to lead to serious error. In later times, though the lamb was slain at an altar, yet the feast thereon was at a table. So in heathen sacrifices too, the victim was slain at an altar, the sacrificial feast was at a table. Hence, analogy suggests that the spot where the Victim is slain should be called the altar, but that the sacrificial feast should be at a table. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." The altar here meant is the cross on which the Savior died. Besides, it is only on the theory that the sacrifice is actually repeated at Holy Communion, that there can be any possible warrant for calling the Lord's table an altar. But this theory is absolutely negatived by the statements in Hebrews 10:10-14. The Victim was offered once for all on an altar, even the cross; but we partake at the Lord's table, of the sacrificial feast.
2. What is the meaning of the feast.
3. How should the Christian feast be kept? i.e. in what spirit? (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Corinthians 5:8). Three or four suggestions will embody the chief hints hereon thrown out in the written Word.
"And with our joy for pardoned guilt,
Mourn that we pierced the Lord."