During Passover, we are to "do this" in remembrance of our Master. The "this" to which Yeshua referred was the cup and the matzah of Passover, but also the whole of the festival, and ultimately, all of life should be conducted in remembrance of our Master. Over the course of the festival, we remember the Master's early seder with his disciples, we remember the agony in the garden, the betrayer's kiss, the arrest, and the mock-trial before the Saducees of the Sanhedrin. We remember the trial before Pilate, the scourging, the curcifixion and the tomb.
Apropos to the theme of remembering at Passover is a passage from Abram Poljak's book Early and Latter Rain, as follows:
"For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world" (John 18:37). These are the words Yeshua spoke to Pilate at the end of his life, anticipating the death sentence from the mouth of the Roman. Decades later, Paul was in the same situation. Trapped in Rome, awaiting his execution, he wrote to Timothy: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).
Regardless of what may ultimately await us - our first concern should be our task in life. That should be sufficient. Not everyone has the same task and same destiny. However, before God, there is neither high nor low, and our final end, whether in peace or in suffering, all is equally determined by Him who steers all fates. Everything is certainly in God's counsel, and we can neither add nor decrease a single cubit. Only one thing is in our hands, and therein lies the free choice of our faith: Messiah. We choose whether we will dutifully follow the Messiah or resist him. Our task in life - regardless of the profession or situation in which we find ourselves - is to bear the shield of Messiah, that is, to act as He acted. For this purpose we are born and come into the world. And our return to our Father's house may only be done "with the shield or on the shield." (Abram Poljak, Early and Latter Rain, Part 3)
Regardless of what may ultimately await us - our first concern should be our task in life. That should be sufficient. Not everyone has the same task and same destiny. However, before God, there is neither high nor low, and our final end, whether in peace or in suffering, all is equally determined by Him who steers all fates. Everything is certainly in God's counsel, and we can neither add nor decrease a single cubit. Only one thing is in our hands, and therein lies the free choice of our faith: Messiah. We choose whether we will dutifully follow the Messiah or resist him. Our task in life - regardless of the profession or situation in which we find ourselves - is to bear the shield of Messiah, that is, to act as He acted. For this purpose we are born and come into the world. And our return to our Father's house may only be done "with the shield or on the shield." (Abram Poljak, Early and Latter Rain, Part 3)
~D.T. Lancaster, FFOZ
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