Exodus 12:41-50 - Homiletics

Passover precepts realised in Christian practice.

The precepts were:—

I. THAT NO UNCIRCUMCISED STRANGER , NOT EVEN THOUGH A HIRED SERVANT IN A HEBREW FAMILY , SHOULD EAT OF IT . Formally, baptism corresponds to circumcision, both of them admitting into covenant with God; and thus the rule of Christian communities generally, that the reception of baptism must precede that of the Lord's Supper, is a carrying out of this precept. But it is also carried out in another way. Spiritually, the correspondent to the circumcision of the flesh is the circumcision of the spirit; and thus all Churches which warn the wicked from approaching the Lord's table, do their best to enforce the precept, "No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof." Hired servants of the Church, unless circumcised in heart, are as unfit to communicate as those who have no external connection with Divine things. Nay, may we not say more unfit?

II. THAT ALL THE CONGREGATION OF ISRAEL , FREEMEN AND SLAVES ALIKE , SHOULD EAT OF IT . The frequent exhortation of all Christian Churches to all their members to receive the Communion, especially at Easter-time, and the general allowance of the duty by those who have any real sense of religion constitute a realisation, to a considerable extent, of this precept in Christian practice. It is to be wished that the realisation were complete. The joint participation of freemen with slaves has always charactcrised the Christian Church; and though there have been Christian communities which have acted differently, the cases are too exceptional to deserve much notice, and are disappearing as slavery disappears.

III. THAT IT SHOULD BE EATEN IN ONE PLACE , AND NONE OF IT CARRIED FORTH . Churches which allow not only reservation, but the carrying forth of the holy elements to the bedsides of the sick, break at any rate the letter of this precept. But the Reformed Churches, which disallow even reservation, keep close to it.

IV. THAT NOT A BONE OF IT SHOULD BE BROKEN . This precept can only be spiritually observed, for in the Christian passover, the "flesh" to be eaten has no "bones." But it is spiritually kept wherever communicants are warned against dividing Christ in their thoughts, against separating his humanity from his Divinity, or against practising special devotion to any separate portion of his person, as to his "Sacred Heart" or his "Five wounds." It was the essence of one of the early forms of heresy to "divide Christ;" and on this account the Church of England protests in her second article of religion, that in him "two whole and perfect natures are joined together in one person, never to be divided , whereof is One Christ."