SCRIPTURE: Exodus 12
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, ‘Look, here is your king!’ ‘Away with him,’ they yelled. ‘Away with him! Crucify him!’ ‘What? Crucify your king?’ Pilate asked. ‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the leading priests shouted back. [John 19:14-15] There is a sad irony here. As the Jews prepare to celebrate God’s rescue of their forefathers from Egypt [Exodus 12], they are demanding the death of God’s promised messiah. While the passover reminds them of their rescue from the king of Egypt, here they willingly reject Jesus as king and enslave themselves to Caesar as king.
The symbolism of the feast is very serious, and the Jews had the ritual and the ceremony down pat. But they missed the whole point of it. Called to be a holy nation (a people living by God’s ethic, not the world’s), here they submit themselves to Caesar. God wants to set them free, and they refuse the gift of freedom. God opens the door to rescue from sin, death and hell, and they refuse to enter it.
Is it possible that people who have experienced God’s amazing grace can refuse to live in it? That a people who celebrate Christmas can reject the Christ it points to? That a people who observe the rituals and symbols of Christianity reject the Jesus they point to? That a people who claim to be forgiven and free in Christ still live as slaves to sin, selfishness and worldly pleasure? That those who claim Jesus as Lord actually live as if someone or something else is Lord?
YES!!! Following the rituals, observing the ceremonies, talking the ‘talk’ of being a christian does not make one a Jesus-follower. The critical question is whether we have actually joined ourselves Jesus and His mission, and are working with Him with the Spirit’s help to establish God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. If we do not join Jesus by leaving ‘Egypt’, we remain slaves in ‘Egypt’ and the Pharaoh or Caesar in sin become our true masters. As we read through Exodus, we will see that the Israelites do not fully appreciate their rescue, and want to return to Egypt [Numbers 11:1-6]. That whole generation rescued from Egypt does not actually enter the promised land because they refuse to follow their King [Numbers 32:10-15].
The question for today is, am I really serving Jesus as my king?
PRAYER:
Lord, forgive me if and when I am just going through the motions. Help me to sincerely say, “I have no king but Jesus!”