Despising the Feast?

The suggestion must have seemed strange, even unthinkable, to the Israelites massed around the foot of Mt. Sinai on the eve of the 2nd Passover feast. Who would ever treat this with disdain, who would look for an excuse to skip it. Who would approach it in an unclean state?

Yet this is the very condition that prevailed time and time again down through the history of Israel. The Lord makes clear that the Passover is to be observed every year. He makes clear that they are to follow all the instructions. He even makes provision for those who are unclean when the time comes, to observe the Passover the following month. Then he adds the warning that those who fail to observe the Passover will be cut off from the people of God.

Yet we find time and time again that Israel fails to keep the Passover, or keeps it without observing it properly.

But before we judge to harshly, let us consider the warnings given to the church in I Corinthians 11 in regards to our own feast, the Lord's Table. The instructions are strikingly similar. It is not the 'act' itself that takes place when we gather, but a commemoration and remembering of the act. We are to approach it reverently and 'observing the body'. We are not to come with un-dealt-with sin upon us. To eat and drink 'unworthily' is to eat and drink judgment upon ourselves.

But how often do we despise the feast altogether? How often do we find an excuse to miss the Sunday when communion will be the focus of our service? Because it is a longer service? Because there is so much quietness and reflection upon Christ?

Brothers and sisters, such things ought not to be.