“The Passover – Humility and Grandeur”

Steve Corley

Given in Kingsport on Sabbath, March 18, 2023

Given in Roanoke on Sabbath, April 1, 2023

Given in Knoxville on Sabbath, March 16, 2024

When we think of the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread one of the first related concepts which does – and should – come to mind is that of humility.  On the evening of His last Passover as a human being, Jesus humbly washed the feet of the disciples, even though He was Lord and Master, second in command of the universe (John 13:1-15).  Unleavened bread itself also symbolizes humility – it is not “puffed up” (1 Cor. 5:1-8).  It does not give the appearance of being more massive – or greater – than it actually is.  Passover certainly is a day of humility – when we realize our failings after a period of self-examination, understand how badly we fall short in our own lives when we compare ourselves with the sinless Jesus Christ, and how badly we need the application of His sacrifice for forgiveness of our sins.  But there is another attribute of Passover that we may not have thought about – in addition to being a day of humility, it is a day of grandeur.  In this sermon I would like to discuss both aspects of the Passover and what they mean for us.  We can title it “The Passover – Humility and Grandeur.”

In order to understand the humility – and the grandeur – of the Passover, we need to look back at its beginnings.  And I am not talking about selecting and later killing, roasting and eating a lamb from the flock, as God told Moses to command the Israelites to do the night before the Exodus – although this was an important stage too.  The Passover goes back to before that time.  And to understand the first Passover observance actually mentioned in the Bible, we need to understand a bit about Melchizedek (whom Abraham met in Gen. 14:18).  Jesus Christ, in His current function as our High Priest, is described as “High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:6, 20; Psalm 110:4).  Who really was Melchizedek? 

Let’s turn to Hebrews 7:1-3.  Melchizedek had “neither beginning of days nor end of life.”  This statement in itself proves that (1) Melchizedek was the preincarnate Christ and (2) Christ inhabited past eternity with the Father and never had a beginning.  Since all humans have a beginning, Melchizedek could not have been a human.  Since all angelic beings were created by the preincarnate Christ (as shown in Col. 1:16) and hence also had a beginning, Melchizedek could not have been an angel.  Furthermore, the Hebrew name Melchizedek itself means “King of Righteousness” (cf. Heb. 7:2), a title which would certainly not have been appropriate for any human being, or any angel for that matter.  Melchizedek is also identified in Gen. 14:18 as “king of Salem” – which means “king of peace” (as also mentioned in Heb. 7:2).  Remember that in Isaiah 9:6 one of the titles of the Messiah to come was listed as “Prince of Peace.”  [By the way – just an aside – do the titles in Isaiah 9:6 perhaps correspond to some of the “many crowns” which the returning Christ is described as wearing in Rev. 19:12?  A crown is a glorified hat.  When a person has many different functions even today we say that that person wears “many hats.”]  Since Abraham saw Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18) and no human (except Christ) has seen God the Father (John 5:37 and 6:46), Melchizedek could not have been God the Father.  This leaves Christ as the only Being with the attributes described for Melchizedek.  Melchizedek indeed was Christ before He became a human being (cf. John 8:56-57).  The greatness of Melchizedek (and thereby of Christ) is pointed out in Heb. 7:4.  [Melchizedek is spoken of as “without father” in Heb. 7:3 because God the Father did not become the Father of Christ until He begot Him as a human being.  However, Proverbs 30:4, for example, does refer to both a Father and a Son within the God Family as a prophecy that this begettal was going to occur – an example of “declaring the end from the beginning” as mentioned in Isaiah 46:9-10.]

The New Testament priesthood (in the form of Melchizedek, who was the preincarnate Christ) preceded the establishment of the Levitical priesthood and continued after the Levitical priesthood lapsed (Gen. 14:18, Heb. 7).  Likewise, the New Testament Passover (or at least two of the three parts of it) preceded the establishment of the Old Covenant Passover (Gen. 14:18) by at least 430 years and continued after the Old Covenant Passover became obsolete.  Let’s first turn to Exodus 12:40-42.  The night that the Israelites walked out of Egypt – which falls at the beginning of Nisan 15, the time we now celebrate as the “night of watching” or “night to be much observed” (verse 42) – fell 430 years to the day after the beginning of the “sojourn of the children of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt [and Canaan].  But this passage in Exodus does not tell us what event was considered to be the beginning of that “sojourn.”  To answer that question we need to turn to Galatians 3:16-18.  We see here that the [ceremonial and sacrificial] law – which was given during the Exodus – was given 430 years after the original covenant was made with Abraham.  [By contrast, the moral/spiritual law had existed from eternity.] 

When Christ – this time as a human being – washed the feet of the apostles in reintroducing the New Testament Passover over 1500 years later, the act of humility was also an act of grandeur.  Jesus was too great not to do this.  Likewise He was too great to refuse to fulfill His mission and die for our sins.  In humility there is grandeur!  When we follow Christ’s example by humbly washing each other’s feet (and keeping the rest of the Passover), we are likewise participating in an act of grandeur – an act given grandeur by God, an act in which all humans who seek salvation will eventually be required to participate.  We are the bellwether people, whom God the Father has decided to call now in this age.  And we are indeed promised grandeur in the future!  Under Christ, we are to be given power over the nations (Rev. 2:26-27) as kings and priests (Rev. 5:9-10).  As members of the God Family, we will be worshiped (Rev. 3:9).

But he who refuses to be humble, to humbly follow whatever God commands (including washing the feet of others at the Passover) will not be given grandeur – will not be given rule over the nations, under Christ.  The one who exalts himself – who shows a “puffed up” or “leavened” attitude – will be brought down in the future (Matt. 23:12).  We must humble ourselves under the hand of God now if we hope to be exalted later (1 Peter 5:6).  Whoever desires to become great must have the attitude and heart of a servant (Matt. 20:25-28).

The ultimate example of refusal to be humble is Satan.  Heylel/Lucifer had been given tremendous power, status and grandeur (Ezekiel 28:12-15) but he wanted more – something which he most assuredly had not been given, equality with God as co-ruler of the universe (Isaiah 14:12-15).  Hence he knowingly and willfully lifted his hand against God and tried to take over God’s position.  Lucifer had the ultimate “puffed up” or “leavened” attitude.  As a result he became Satan and will someday be stripped of all power, status and grandeur (Isaiah 14:15-20).  Human beings who proudly resist the truth, who resist submitting to God, become the children of Satan (John 8:44) and will eventually be slaughtered if they do not repent of this attitude (Isaiah 14:21). 

Notice that Joseph did not grab power in Egypt.  It was given to him by the Pharaoh.  Joseph did not exalt himself in front of the Egyptian people.  Rather, others (under the command of the Pharaoh) commanded that the crowds bow a knee as Joseph passed by (Gen. 41:43).  David did not grab the kingship.  He had been anointed [future] king by Samuel at God’s command (1 Sam. 16:13).  When the time came for him to actually assume the office he did not take it to himself – the people anointed him (2 Sam. 2:4, 5:1-3).  [Contrast the men who later grabbed the kingship of the northern kingdom of Israel through military coups – all of whom turned out to be evil kings.]  Even Jesus Christ did not exalt Himself (cf. Heb. 5:5) – God the Father (His superior) exalted Him.  I cannot think of any Scripture describing an event in which He actually asked His disciples (or anyone else) to worship Him.  People came to worship Him voluntarily – after God the Father (again Jesus’ superior) had brought them to the knowledge and understanding that Jesus was also God and was worthy of being worshiped (cf. John 6:44).  Christ humbled Himself – and subsequently was exalted (Matt. 23:12) with the glory, the grandeur, which He had shared with the Father before ever becoming a human (John 17:5).  [We might note that Matt. 23:12, like many Bible verses, probably has a double meaning.  The Greek word translated “exalted,” ὐψόω (“hupsoo,” Strong’s #5312) also means “lifted up.”  And a few hours after Jesus humbled Himself by washing the disciples’ feet, He was indeed lifted up on the cross.]  If we have actually put on Christ, even when we are given grandeur we will not exalt ourselves.  God will exalt us.  We will not take to ourselves power over the nations, or positions as kings and priests.  Those offices will be given to us – and we will be the servants of the people over whom we will rule.

We as human beings must learn to be humble servants before we can be given grandeur as kings and priests (as we read in Rev. 5:9-10) – and even in that status we will forever be servants of God the Father and of Jesus Christ.  As spirit beings in the family of God during the Millennium, we are to be kings and priests.  The Bible does not tell us (to my knowledge) whether some of us are to be kings and others are to be priests, or whether we will all simultaneously hold both offices as priest kings.  [Of course, Jesus Christ is both King of kings (Rev. 19:16) and, as we mentioned before, our permanent High Priest (Psalm 110:4, Heb. 5:5-6).]  In either case, we must internalize fully the law of God and have it written in our hearts (Jer. 31:33, Heb. 8:10).  Kings are supposed to administer the law of God to the people – and priests are supposed to be teaching the law of God to those same people, so they in turn can internalize it.  In Deut.17:14-20 we are given what God expects of a king.  A king was supposed to write a copy of the Law for his own use so he would know how to use it to judge and rule the people – and also as a reminder to the king himself that he must obey it.  The law was above the king, not vice versa.  The king’s heart was not to be lifted up – or might we say puffed up, leavened? – above the people who were his subjects.  A king was supposed to be the servant of his people – remember what we read in Matt. 20:26.  Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, obeyed Deut. 17:14-20 perfectly – just as He obeyed all the rest of God’s Law, never sinning.  Christ was the perfect example of servant leadership and we must follow His example (as we read earlier in Matt. 20:25-28). 

We are to be like little children in terms of humility (Matt. 18:4) [although not in terms of foolishness (Prov. 22:15, 1 Cor. 13:11)].  Just as little children learn quickly that adults are smarter than they are and that they have much to learn from adults, we are supposed to realize that God the Father and Jesus Christ are infinitely smarter than we are and that we have much to learn from Them through Their word of Scripture.  We are to be learning from our Teacher (Matt. 23:8,10) – from His word.  He wants us, as His students, to become like Him (Matt. 10:24-25) – as students we are to become like our Teacher.  He wants more people like Him, with His heart, who have internalized Him – who have let Him and His Father make Their home with them (John 14:23) – who can become future rulers under Him.  On the other hand, we must never get the idea that we know better than our Teacher – this was the downfall of Lucifer and also of his human type, Judas Iscariot (who, like Lucifer, knowingly and willfully lifted his hand against God Himself).

And how would imagine we would act after Christ returns, when He does finally exalt us and give us grandeur?  [If we have not internalized Christ and His Law has not been written on our hearts we will not be there.]  Imagine that you are a king over a certain area then.  You will of course remember that you are still a servant – not only of God the Father and Jesus Christ, but also of the people under you, over whom you rule.  At some point during the Millennium – when poverty is essentially eliminated, when everyone has his own adequate house – then the people under you will probably, in gratitude, build you a magnificent palace.  So what would you do then?  You don’t really need the palace as a place to live.  As a servant ruler, wouldn’t you then turn around and open the palace to the public, as a beautiful meeting place for public functions?  Remember that the Hebrew word referring to the Temple was “heykal” (Strong’s #1964) which also means “palace” – and the Temple was to be “a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7, Mark 11:17) – open to all. 

So let us go forward.  Let us examine ourselves and remind ourselves of how much we really need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Let us keep the Passover as He commanded, humbly washing each other’s feet and taking in the unleavened bread and the wine – the symbols of His body which was pierced for us and His blood which was poured out for us.  Let us spend the next seven days taking in more of the unleavened bread – the symbol of humility, that which is not “puffed up” or “lifted up.”  And let us keep the humble, unleavened attitude throughout our lives – and let us be there when Christ returns and does exalt us, to be kings and priests to serve humanity throughout the Millennium and Great White Throne Judgment, and to serve God the Father and Jesus Christ for eternity.