Today is the 4th of July.
It is appropriate that we reflect on another freedom event in the Bible. It is called the Passover.
Jewish people commemorate the Exodus event every year in a meal called the Passover meal. They commemorate the meal while reclining- reclining to the left.
Why so?
In ancient times only the kings and rulers reclined. They were after all gods, and the regular people were forced to worship and serve these gods. This was true in Ancient Egypt; Ancient Sumeria; Ancient Rome; Ancient India; Ancient China; and so on. Low class people, who were treated as slaves, served these divine beings, who reclined.
Reclining is a special way of eating. It is the kingly-divine way of eating. The low classes of society could never dream of this way of eating. It usually involved a nice sized cushion, or lots of cushions. The divine-kings reclined to the left, so that they would receive the food offerings with their right hands. It was becoming of divine-kings.
The Passover meal, for this reason, thumbs its nose at those divine-kings. When Jewish people commemorate the Passover, they always recline to the left. This is what the divine beings of the ancient world always did. Now, that the children of Israel were freed from slavery, they reclined to the left, so that they can receive the bounty of God, with their right hand. They are kings, queens, princes, and princesses now. It is like entering into the Garden of Eden, and reclining, to enjoy the joys of the Garden of Eden.
In Hebrew, there is play on words between the salvation that the Hebrew slaves experienced and reclining. They were led (yeseb) out of the enslavement in Egypt (Exodus 13:18), so that they may recline (yesub). The freed slaves are called mesubim, or recliners.
Freedom and reclining go together.
I have recently returned from visits to different parts of the world: the largest refugee camp in the world, Kakuma Refugee Camp, in Kenya; and the war-torn areas in Congo; the outcaste/low caste peoples groups of India, etc. Each of these people are yearning for a salvation experience, yeseb, so that they also may recline, yesub, and be finally called recliners, mesubim.
This is what Jesus did throughout his ministry. He enabled the enslaved people of his time, called the ‘am ha-aretz, to experience freedom and to recline. The most famous is the incident where Jesus saw a huge crowd of people- 5,000 men. The total number, including women and children could well have been 20,000. This event is recorded in all four Gospels- John 6:1-4; Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:31-44; and Luke 6:1-14. Obviously, all four Gospels wanted to highlight this event in the life of Jesus.
The following things happened when Jesus saw the crowds of low class people:
One, he was filled with compassion (Matthew 14:14; Mark 6:34). The Greek word for compassion, is splangchna, which is quite descriptive. It is passion that arises from a person’s womb or deep inner being. It then completely overpowers the person. This was what Jesus experienced often, when he saw the injustices encountered by common people. Sometimes this was at the hands of the elite- the Sadducees and the Pharisees; at other times at the hands of the Roman kings and soldiers; at yet other times at the hands of militants, called the Zealots.
Two, he asked Phillip, the pragmatic disciple to feed the 20,000 or so people. Phillip of course, scoffed at Jesus, “Are you crazy or something? This will take thousands of dollars- a whole year’s salary!”
Three, he turned to the simple disciple, Andrew, who responded, “Well there is slave boy! (That is what the Greek word means). He has five simple barley unleavened flatbread, and two fish!” (This was the Passover meal of the poor). But, then he saw the looks of astonishment on the faces of the others, and he said, “But, these are thousands of people!”
Four, Jesus calmly said, “Make the people ‘recline.’ We are going to have a Passover party, with the food of this poor slave boy! These people are not poor people. They are kings, queens, princes, and princesses. It is Passover!”
That is what happened. The poor, enslaved people had an existential experience of knowing that they were the children of the King. They were royalty.
Jesus did these kinds of things several times in his incarnational ministry. (Matthew 9; 22; 26; John 12:2; and so on)
This is what freedom means. It is to take people who have been pushed into poverty and slavery by society, and give them the freedom to “recline,” and become royalty.
The very last act that Jesus did with his disciples was to celebrate the Passover. In John 13 he helped his disciples experience royalty. They ‘reclined’ like royalty (John 13:23, 28). But, before he did this, he showed them another crucial lesson. He showed them that the only way to enable people to experience royalty, is to become slaves yourselves. He washed the feet of this disciples, with the bucket of water, used only by slave boys; and wiped their feet with the towel, used only by slave boys. He said to them, “So if I, your LORD and your Rabbi, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another’s feet.”
This is what it means to celebrate Freedom!
This is what it means to celebrate the 4th of July!
Happy 4th!!!
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