Tonight I had an interesting experience. One of the families in my church hosted a traditional Passover dinner. The family is not Jewish, but they wanted to host the dinner to show people how the Passover in the Old Testament relates to Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
Most of you reading this blog may be familiar with the Passover, but for those of you who aren’t I will give a brief explanation. When Moses went to Egypt and demanded that they free the Israelites from slavery, the pharaoh would not do it. So God cause 10 separate plagues to come upon the Egyptians. None of the first 9 would cause the pharaoh to let the Israelites go free, so the 10th plague was the worst. In this plague God commanded an angel to go through the nation of Egypt and kill the firstborn male child in every house.
Of course, God wanted to spare the Israelites from this plague of death, so He gave them some special commands. He told them to kill a lamb and smear its blood on the doorposts of their houses. When the angel of death saw the blood it would pass by that house and not kill anyone inside of it. What God wanted to show the Israelites (and us today) is that sin is punishable by death, and that “no sins can be forgiven unless blood is offered” (Heb. 9:22).
This is all very important to us Christians, because we believe that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for sin. When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29). We believe that when Jesus’ blood was shed that He gave us the opportunity to have our sins taken away by placing our faith in Him.
Going back to the Passover dinner, now, there are several questions that Jewish fathers ask their children during the course of the meal. These questions don’t come out of the Bible, they are just tradition. One of the questions is this:
“Why is this night different from every other night?”
The answer that the child gives is:
“Because once we were slaves…and we are slaves no longer.”
This is very important to the Jews, because it represents their freedom from slavery in Egypt. It’s also important to us Christians, because it represents are freedom from slavery to sin and death.
Our Scriptures say that “the payment for sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). They also say that everyone has sinned (Rom. 3:23). We believe that when Jesus came to earth and died He paid the price for our sin. Now if a person places their faith in Him (Rom. 10:9-11) then that person can be saved from the payment for sin and they can experience eternal life.
I was thinking about all of this when I was eating the Passover meal. I was also thinking about how the Scriptures call Jesus the “Sunrise from on high” (Luke 1:78). I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a sunrise, but it is a beautiful thing to experience. I remember that one time I went up to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Maine for sunrise. It’s the first place in the United States to see the sun rise. I remember the experience of seeing the sun come up over the horizon, and how everything turned from gray to beautiful light.
And that’s the way that the Scriptures describe Jesus. Except, of course, they’re talking about a spiritual sunrise, not an earthly one.
So when I was eating the Passover dinner and the question was read–”Why is this night different from every other night?”–and the answer was read–”Because once we were slaves, and we are slaves no longer”–I thought of it in the context of being free from the power of death.
Some people view Christ as a good moral teacher, others as a prophet, and others as a philosopher or spiritual guide. But I view Christ as so much more than that. He’s not just a prophet, teacher, or guide to me. He is God become flesh (Mat. 1:23).
I view Him as the “Sunrise from on high” because He has done so much in my life. He’s not just something or someone that I choose to believe in. No, He has done great things in my life. He’s never turned water into wine for me (then again, I’ve never asked Him to), but I have seen His hand all throughout my life. I have had prayers answered, been healed of sickness, and become such a better person through following Christ.
I guess tonight I could ask a question kind of like the one asked during the Passover dinner, but slightly different. I could ask:
“What makes Christianity so different?”
After all, many other religions make the claims that Christianity makes. Many other religions claim to have the ultimate revelation of truth. Some claim that their religion is the only way to God (like Christianity does) and others claim that all religions are like different paths that take us to the same place (many Eastern religions teach this). So what makes Christianity different?
Well, there are lots of things that make Christianity different. There are lots of reasons that I am a Christian. Let’s just say that I am a Christian because I believe Christianity to be true, I do not believe that Christianity is true because I am a Christian.
In other words, I’m not a Christian because I was raised Christian, or because I was raised southern, middle-class white American, and going to church on Sunday is just what I do. No, I am a Christian because I have examined the evidence and I believe that Christianity is true. I do not believe that Christ is just a path to God, I believe that He is the path to God.
Of course, some might read this blog and disagree with me. That’s fine, I respect other people’s views (anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t attack people over their views). However, if you’re reading this and you disagree with me that Christianity is the only path to God, then I offer you this challenge: Examine the evidence for yourself and show me why I’m wrong!
I don’t offer that challenge because I like to debate. I offer that challenge because if I’m wrong then I want to know. After all, we’re talking about a subject with eternal consequences here! If I’m wrong then I want to know, and I would hope that anyone reading this blog would feel the same way, no matter what their religion is.
If you are interested in finding out what makes Christianity different than other religions, and why I am a Christian, then I can offer a couple of places to start searching.
First, you can ask me :). I’ll always be happy to tell you.
Another thing that you can do is check out these two Web sites:
Dr. Gary Habermas was raised in a Christian family, and he is a Christian again now, but he was a skeptic for over 10 years. He examined different world religions searching for truth. Christianity was eventually the religion that He returned to, because He was convinced from the evidence that it was true.
Lee Strobel was an atheist for most of his life. He eventually set out to research Christianity, and he ended up becoming a Christian.
I picked these two Web sites for a couple of reasons. First, both of these men were skeptics and/or atheists for much of their life. They are Christians now because they are convinced that Christianity is true. Also, they both have a lot of free resources available on their Web sites. They both have some excellent videos that you can watch for free.
Lee Strobel also wrote three very famous books: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator. If you live here in Spartanburg then you can find all three of these books in the local Spartanburg county library.
If you’re going to start researching Christianity, then I recommend going to the two Web sites that I’ve listed above and watching some of their videos on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s a great place to start…especially since it’s Easter time! Another reason why it’s a good place to start is because if the resurrection is true then it says a lot for Christianity, because no man can rise from the dead on his own. If the resurrection is false, then even the Bible says that Christianity is “worthless” (1 Cor. 15:17)!
Well, it’s past my bed time, so I guess I’ll go ahead and post this blog. Whatever your religious beliefs, I hope that this blog has given you, the reader, something to think about! God bless you all, and have a happy Easter!
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Category: Scriptural Musings |
Tags: easter, passover, scriptural musings
Comments
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Scriptural Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hi it is wonderfull to have an aportunity to read from your blog, it is very helpful and a blessing to whoever comes a close it ,may the grace of Jesus continue upon you.
Bro Duncan from Kenya East Africa.
I enjoyed your post about the Passover seder. You, however, got the question part a little backwards. The Passover seder is purposefully organized and performed in a way so that it seems odd to children, particularly children raised in a Jewish home. The entire purpose is to provoke the child’s curiosity. It is actually the youngest child (or youngest child who is able to do so) who asks the famous questions: why is this night different? why do we eat only matzah? why do we dip our food in saltwater twice? why do we eat bitter herbs? why are we reclining on pillows?
This sparks the retelling of the escape from Egypt by the adults.