By Water & Blood

Questions on Exodus 24: Why he commanded the Passover feast while they fled

Why, as they fled, did he command them to celebrate the feast of the Passover?

He wished the memory of the salvation to be kept ever memorable. For this reason also when legislating he said: “If your son asks you saying, ‘What is the Passover?’ you shall say that on this day the Lord God brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt, and rescued our firstborn when the destroyer struck the firstborn of the Egyptians.” For this reason he charges those celebrating this feast to wear the attire of travel: “Let your loins,” he says, “be girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.”

Philo rendered “Passover” as “crossing-over”; Josephus as “passing-over”; Symmachus as “passings-over”; and Theodotion set down “Phasech,” the Hebrew word itself. The name signifies the salvation of the Hebrews’ firstborn. For he charged them to take a bundle of hyssop and, dipping it in the blood of the sacrificed sheep, to smear the doorposts and the lintel, so that when the destroyer enters to strike the firstborn of the Egyptians, seeing the blood he may pass over the Hebrews’ houses. Not because the incorporeal nature needed such signs, but because through the symbol those people needed to learn God’s care, and we who sacrifice the spotless Lamb needed to recognize the type drawn beforehand.

He therefore commands them to take not only yearling lambs from the sheep but also kids from the goats—not so that they sacrifice both at once, but so that one who has a sheep may sacrifice that, and one lacking a sheep the kid. He charges them to take this on the tenth of the first month, so as to prepare before the feast; and on the fourteenth toward evening to be sacrificed. For on this evening the Lord Christ was also handed over to the Jews. He commanded it to be eaten with bitter herbs, as a reminder of the most bitter life in Egypt and the harshest slavery. Through the unleavened bread he indicates not only the urgency of the journey and the improvised character of the food, but also that it is fitting to carry no trace of the Egyptian way of life. For thus the Lord also interpreted it in the Gospels, saying, “Beware of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees.” He also commanded those sufficient for eating a sheep to sacrifice the Passover together, training them in brotherly love and mercy toward the poor. For this reason he also charges that the leftover meats be burned and not kept for the next day; thereby compelling them to invite the needy to share in the feast.

All these things are riddles of our mysteries. For we too anoint with the blood of our Lamb not only the lintel but also the two doorposts: according to what is seen, purifying and sanctifying the tongue and the lips; according to what is understood, the rational in place of the lintel, and the spirited and the appetitive in place of the two doorposts. Fitting for us also is eating neither raw nor boiled but roasted with fire. For we neither look only at the letter, but search out the sense; nor do we introduce human reasonings into the divine oracles—for Isaiah also accused some of this, as “mixing wine with water”—but we use only the divine fire, the grace of the Holy Spirit. And not leaving the meats for the next day we understand thus: that the life to come has no need of symbols; for in that life we see the realities themselves. Those who understand the divine oracles badly, and try to transfer them to their own impiety, crush the bones of the sheep. And taking not only from sheep but also from kids again proclaims the divine loving-kindness; for the Lord Christ endured the saving passion not only for the righteous but also for sinners. He himself trained us to understand it thus: for he likened the assembly of the holy to lambs, and that of those not such to kids; for the law commanded a kid to be offered for sin. And of those who partake of the divine mysteries, some partake as of a sheep, inasmuch as they possess perfected virtue; others as of a kid, wiping away the stains of sins through repentance. Thus also our Savior fed those who had gathered not only from wheat but also from barley loaves. And the Lord also commanded us to have our loins girded, and our feet shod, and the lamps burning, as servants awaiting a master. But the Hebrews had this attire as departing from the Egyptians and being led into the land of Canaan; we, as being transferred from here to another life. For this reason the divine Paul also charges us, crying, “Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened.” And he added: “For indeed our Passover, Christ, was sacrificed for us,” and further: “So let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

From of old the God of all also foretold the salvation of the nations. For he commanded the proselytes also to share in the Passover; for he called the proselyte a sojourner and gave him equal rights: “He shall be,” he says, “as the native of the land.” And “it shall be eaten in one house” the faithful keep by partaking of the divine mysteries in the church of God alone, and abhorring the gatherings of the heretics. The Lord God also legislated that the firstborn of both cattle and sheep be offered, reminding them of the salvation of their own firstborn; for he himself did not need the sacrifices, but was arranging their benefit. For the law itself also makes this clear: “If your son asks you saying, ‘What is this?’ you shall say to him that with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. And when Pharaoh hardened so as not to send us out, the Lord killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of man to the firstborn of cattle. For this reason I sacrifice to the Lord every male that opens the womb; and every firstborn of my sons I will redeem. And it shall be a sign upon your hand, and immovable before your eyes. For with a mighty hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.” Therefore each of these things took place not for God’s need, but for the people’s benefit.