We were gathered for a Saturday evening coffee under the big tree. We had invited the neighbors to join us. The Methodist couple came. The folks from Ada Bible Church were there. And the widow from the RCA was in her usual spot. Somehow the conversation drifted to the celebration of Holy Communion. It was on my mind since I was leading worship the next day, when the Lord’s Supper was scheduled. I made an off-hand comment about fencing the Lord’s Table. That produced a volley of puzzled questions: What does that mean? Do you put a fence around the table? Is that like barbed wire?

I tried my best to explain what was meant by that phrase. I quoted from 1 Corinthians 11:27 (English Standard Version): “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” “Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself ” (1 Cor. 11:29). I tried to explain that this fence was intended as a warning to all those who are living in unrepentant sin, advising them to avoid bringing judgment on themselves. It did not register. All the neighbors chimed in, letting me know that their churches had no fences. Everyone present was invited and encouraged to join the meal. It was, for them, a festive occasion. One church, in fact, preceded the celebration with an evangelistic call to sinners to join the celebration.

Many Christian churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper on a regular schedule. There are some who wish that they could celebrate it every week. Others would consider such a plan to be unwise. I fall into that category. It should not be observed so frequently that it becomes casual or mundane. The Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion, is a sacrament instituted by God and commanded to be regularly observed. It is sacred, as the word suggests. It is designed by God to be a visible, tactile, physical demonstration of important gospel truths. It is multidimensional, in contrast to preaching, which is usually one-dimensional. It is a means of grace. It is one of the primary ways by which God conveys the message of salvation to his people. It is also a memorial, reminding us to “remember and believe” that Christ offered himself as the Lamb of God. He voluntarily died so that we might live. Life and death are coupled in unmistakable unity. The Lord’s Supper offers life to sinners who have no other escape from death. It also warns of impending death to those not covered by the blood of the cross.

My concern is that, too often, we see only one dimension to the Passover and Holy Communion. We see only salvation from sin and ignore the reality of death. We rejoice in our salvation, as we should, but we fail to contemplate the reality and possibility of death. To overcome such a narrow perspective, we need to go back to the book of Exodus and take another look at the meaning and character of that first Passover. To do that, we need to go back to Exodus 4 and not start our study with Exodus 11 or Exodus 12. The Passover, like the rest of Scripture, is a sample of historical-redemptive theology. The event of Passover is not something that can be understood in isolation. It is not an isolated event. It is part and parcel of God’s redemptive plan. It is historical in character.

God introduces us to this historic event when he instructs Moses to go to Pharaoh and to warn him with unmistakable clarity what will happen. He informs Moses that he, God, has given him the power to inflict Pharaoh with all “the miracles” (i.e., the plague), that God has planned (Ex. 4:21). God also tells Moses that he, the Lord, would harden Pharaoh’s heart and that Pharaoh would not let Israel go. The plot thickens when God labels the Israelites as his firstborn son. That is followed with a stern, unmistakable warning: “If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son” (Ex. 4:23). We need to see that as a demonstration of God’s character as being gracious, slow to anger, and full of mercy. God is going to give Pharaoh multiple opportunities to repent. He is going to demonstrate awesome, unmistakable power. He is going to turn the Nile River into blood and kill every fish in it. He is going to follow that with eight more plagues, all demonstrating God’s power and his anger against sin. We have those nine plagues characterized for us in Exodus 7–10.

After nine refusals to repent, God tells Moses that he is going to send one more plague. It will be effective: “Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely” (Ex. 11:1). God knows that his people have been cheated and forced to work in substandard conditions. He will compensate them by having them go to their Egyptian neighbors and request silver and gold jewelry as partial payment for services rendered. God also informs Moses that on the night of the Passover, around midnight, “every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die” (Ex.11:5). Without exception, in every household, there would be death. Across the land, firstborn sons or daughters would die, all at the same time. It would not be like a plague that gradually spread from home to home or village to village. That in itself would be a historic, amazing event. God would not need to marshal a thousand angels. He would do it himself. “I will go out” (Ex. 11:4; 12:12–13). God himself will be the executioner! He will demonstrate his omniscience, his omnipresence, and his omnipotence. He will bring the ultimate punishment for sin. He will bring death to stubborn, rebellious Egyptian idol worshipers. He has given them ample warning, but they would not listen.

There is another demonstration of divine omnipotence that we should not miss. God also promises that “not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel” (Ex. 11:7). Dogs normally and frequently bark or growl. That is the nature of many dogs. But not that night. No matter how much chaos, no matter how much weeping and wailing, the dogs will all be silent. How would an unbeliever explain that? How do you control the voice boxes of multiple thousands of canines? There is only one answer. God himself, in all of his omnipresent power, controls even the animals. Death surrounds them, but they do not howl in protest. Such canine silence should stump the secular minds that want to ignore God.

Much of that is negative. We like to ignore it. We read over it and fail to scratch our heads. There is another, a positive side, that we prefer to highlight. There are repeated warnings of death. But there are also promises of life. You, my people, do not need to die or even fear to die. The path is simple and yet incredibly profound. What you need to do is to go into your flock of sheep and find the best, most perfect one-year-old lamb among all your animals. It must be a male. It must be without blemish. Do this on the tenth day of the first month on your newly revised calendars. Take that handsome, perfect young lamb, bring it to your home, construct a pen or enclosure, and keep it there for four days. On the fourteenth day, right at twilight, you shall kill that lamb in the presence of your whole family. Your children need to be there to watch. The younger children may protest: The kids may cry, “Dad, that is my pet! I want to keep him. Don’t do that.” Some teenagers may also question: “How is the killing of that lamb going to get us out of slavery? What kind of irrational exit strategy is this?” Many teenagers can be quite perceptive. They might be asking the same question when you celebrate Communion in your church next time.

God complicates the message by adding the element of blood. Make certain you spill none of it. Catch it all in a basin and then take some hyssop and use that to cover the door frame of your house with that blood. Yes, I know that is unique and potentially disturbing. But do it. You will be surprised at the results. Just make sure that your whole family stays inside your house for the evening. If anyone leaves your house, if anyone is not covered by the blood of the lamb, that person will die. Make certain that all the teenagers understand that! No one should leave!

The contrast is both clear and profound. All the Israelites live. All the Egyptian families experience death. There is chaos in every quarter. There is death in every home, every village, throughout the whole land of Egypt. The Israelites have to be ready to make a quick exit. They have to leave their homes. They have to corral their animals and move them out. They have to limit themselves to the possessions they can carry. The Egyptians, like Southern slaveholders in 1860, are not going to lose their slaves, their labor force, without a fight. They will be coming after them. You know the rest of the story.

The Israelites had been warned to celebrate this feast “throughout your generations, as a statute forever” (Ex. 12:14). Sometimes they did. Sometimes they forgot. While wandering through the wilderness for forty years, they often forgot. Later, when confined as slaves in Babylon and Persia, they again forgot. During the time of Esther and Mordecai, they ignored it and substituted the Feast of Purim. God’s chosen people were not noted for joyful obedience.

When Christ was walking this earth in his human form, the sacrament of Passover was again being celebrated. Jesus Christ, the ever-obedient Son of his Father, celebrated it with new intent and new meaning. It was no longer to be just a memorial to the release from slavery. It was also to be the fulfillment of the real release from sin and slavery. It was to be the last celebration of that historic feast. It was to be the climax to history when the real Lamb of God would shed his blood. Jesus knew that intimately. He repeatedly explained that to his traveling apostles. Multiple times he broached the subject. None of them seemed to understand. Peter especially became irritated and “took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you’” (Matt. 16:22). Christ’s response is graphic: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matt. 16:23).

Simply put, the apostles could not make the connection between the Passover and the crucifixion. They could not see the relationship between that adorable physical lamb and the Lamb of God. They could not see the linkage between the need for death and the promise of life. The penalty for sin is and always has been death. The only path to life is through death. The Israelites had to see that firsthand. We need to see that afresh. We need to see it demonstrated, vicariously, in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We need to see it periodically, for we, like Israel of old, so easily forget. We need to “do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). We need memorials.

“How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”

I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no pow’r, no wisdom;

But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.

Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer,

But this I know with all my heart; his wounds have paid my ransom.

(Trinity Psalter Hymnal #351)

Dr. Norman De Jong is a semi-retired pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.