Growing up, I had often wondered why the tradition was to show the 10 Commandments on Easter.  I am no scholar although I know that the two commemorations are inextricably linked.

The Passover commemorates the exodus of the Jewish People from Egypt.  Though more accurately it is the remembrance of how the Gracious and Merciful Father took His vengeance out on the first born of the Egyptian captors while sparing the lives of the firstborn of the Jews; Passing Over their houses.

It is then right after the celebration of the Passover that Jesus is tried and crucified.  He had gone to Jerusalem, as was proper at the time, to celebrate the feast.  He knew full well and told the disciples that in going to Jerusalem he was going to die.  Yet he freely went there anyway.

There seems to me an even greater connection and thread to these two events.  Jesus Christ is God (as one of the Trinity) and has been around since the beginning (John 1).  So Christ not knew of but probably had a part in the first Passover (though the Jewish People would have no idea about Him at the time).  He knew that the exodus of the Jewish People would lead to the giving of the law to Moses through the 10 Commandments.  Christ knew that the Jewish People were heading for the promised land and would eventually triumph over many lands who did not believe in God.  He also knew that the Jewish People would rebel against His and Their Father, killing prophets sent to them, squandering their relationship with the Father.

So it came that Jesus would willingly come down to earth.  To heal, yes, and to teach, yes but most importantly of all, to redeem.  He knew that no earthly sacrifice could accomplish what His Father so desperately wanted to accomplish.  The salvation of and ability to relationship with His creation.  So on this Passover another death was required.  A death of One First Born.

And this time the death was not going to be just for the Jewish People but for all people.  Jesus Christ accomplished what no earthly lamb could in His death.  He took all of out sins upon Him.  He freed us from our bondage to sin and allowed us to exodus into a new life.  The scale of His Gift is unimaginable to us.

So while they are definitely connected and the grandeur and spectacle of the movie is impressive.  Understand the scale of the two events don’t really compare.  Moses, a human chosen by God, led his people out of bondage but could not lead them to Salvation.  Christ, God’s own son and as such God Himself, through His Death and Resurrection leads us not only out of bondage but brings about our salvation.  What  is asked in return.  Simply, that we acknowledge Christ as the one true Son of God and that we love.  Love God and each other.

That is something to celebrate.  Amen