Exodus 12:1-14

Ancient lens

What's the historical context?

Original Passover

If you frequent any web sites that have thread or message board formats, you occasionally run into the acronym “OP,” meaning “original post” or “original poster.”  If a thread has gone sideways or devolved into nitpicking about semantics, a forum moderator or knight in shining armor will intervene and try to call people back to the OP.  Well, our primary passage for Maundy Thursday this year calls us back to the OP, as in the original passage that Jesus and his disciples would have had in mind as they met on a Thursday night on the eve of Passover.

Exodus 12:1-14 is, of course, the OP—Original Passover—that God instructed His people to…