The Exodus . . . lies at the very heart of Jewish identity. Throughout the centuries, as the Jews have endured persecution, pogrom, and holocaust, the remembrance of God’s deliverance has sustained them.
This story of Exodus also shaped the telling of the Christian story from the very beginning. Matthew’s gospel sees Jesus as the new Moses. Mark’s gospel characterizes the work of Jesus as deliverance.
The Exodus story creates hope for any number of communities that have experienced oppression; for example, the Liberation Theology of our own time is a direct descendant of this Exodus tradition and continues to spark a hopeful fire within oppressed peoples across the globe . . .
Whether the liberation from Egypt is a story set in time or one of those deeply true stories that transcends time, the power of the story continues to give life and hope to oppressed people in every age. Oppression of any kind (the story suggests) is never God’s will. Rather God’s way is liberation, freedom, wholeness, life—and God is ever at work in the world bringing life.
The call to “remember rightly” includes the call to remember the wrongs done by and to the human family and to stand in opposition (as Moses did) to any abusive power, to stand against all the pharaohs of the earth.
The call to “remember rightly” includes the memory of the Passover lamb, a meal with a strong tradition of community and covenant that weaves throughout the biblical texts. Abraham killed the fatted calf to welcome his angelic guests. The father killed the fatted calf to welcome home his prodigal son. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, signifying them as part of his kinship community.
The Passover lamb represented the covenant God initiated with an unlikely people.
Read more at Charlotte Vaughan Coyle. Living in The Story: A Year to Read the Bible and Ponder God’s Story of Love and Grace (pp. 120-121). Resource Publications. Kindle Edition.
Readings for Living in The Story Week 8
