Matzot and "Holy Week"

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I've been reflecting a lot on what Christian's call Holy Week and how it parallels Matzot (or the week of unleavened bread commanded in the Torah). I never liked Easter with its easter egg hunts and flowery dresses and white lilies everywhere. None of which having anything to do with the messages they were throwing at me about Jesus and his death and resurrection. But when I started being Torah obedient, the festivals commanded in the Torah as "a law forever throughout your generations, in all your dwellings" changed everything for me.

In this case, Matzot. The week including and following the Passover dinner which, today, can only require unleavened bread and bitter herbs while you keep your shoes on and whatever else you put on to go on a journey. A week of "remembrance." 

And I am in awe of Matzot this week. Messiah came and made all of YHWH's festivals that much more meaningful and beautiful, but this festival is full of promise. Where Moses stood as a shadow of a Savior for YHWH's people, Messiah came to be the Savior of YHWH's people. Where we were to commemorate the great exodus out of slavery to follow YHWH into a land set apart for us, we now also commemorate the death and resurrection of our Messiah that represents a rebirth of that same promise. The promise of prosperity in a land and with a people set apart to YHWH. A promise that required Messiah to become the temple, the sacrifices, the priesthood, and all that was set apart, so that His very scattered people could be united in Himself for the day that this Promised Land is realized in a New Earth. This is why I am in awe of Messiah this Matzot. Because His "own arm saved for Him" (Isaiah 59:16) and made it possible to obey His commands outside of Jerusalem. 

 See, I don't think that Messiah's death brought forgiveness because it was not already accessible. I think His death made forgiveness accessible where it was not available. So I am praising YHWH and thanking Messiah this week for His great, painful sacrifice because I know Him and can obey Him even though I grew up in Northern California and have never been to Jerusalem. I am so thankful for Matzot and all the festivals that YHWH set before me in order to know Him and to love Him.

So I remember, this week, the great works of YHWH and the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua as I purify my body of all leaven (or false teaching/things not of Messiah), ready to go wherever He leads me and in preparation for the final night of the festival. The night where I will celebrate the Hebrew people (my people, by choice) having safely crossed the Red Sea after extraordinary acts, and Messiah having risen from the dead. Shalom Aleichem.

 What are you reflecting on this Matzot?

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