How to Remember What You Need to Know

(Lectionary for September 10, 2107)

The book of Exodus, despite our general memories of it, and despite the movies that use it as a springboard to continuously connected actions and adventures, is in reality a hodge-podge of material glued together over time, presenting modern readers with a number of challenges for full understanding. Ex.12 completely shatters the narrative flow that has been built up over the preceding 11 chapters. Indeed, at the very end of Ex.11, Moses delivers a terrifying announcement to pharaoh that because of his refusal to grant the Israelites their freedom, “every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn of a female slave who works a hand mill, along with all the firstborn of the livestock” (Ex. 11:5). Moses goes on to warn the world’s greatest monarch that in due time all of his courtiers will “bow low to me,” and beg the Israelites to leave Egypt (Ex.11:8). Then the lawgiver “in hot anger” leaves pharaoh’s presence. He exits stage right, and we expect some immediate reaction to follow.

But the promised death of the firstborn is delayed until Ex.12:29, the delay caused by the institution of the Passover celebration in the text we read today. Talk about an anticlimax! Just as we approach at last the triumph of Moses over pharaoh and the escape of God’s chosen people from their slavery and the beginning of their march to the land of promise, the author slows everything to a crawl by offering—in rather exact detail—how we are to celebrate the Passover. No narrative artist would ever do such a thing, namely stop a roaring tale in its tracks by describing a ritual!

But as often in our reading of the Bible, rather than chide the editor for boneheadedness, we need to explore what the text actually is doing. What might be the reason for speaking of ritual at this very point? I suggest there may be two significant ideas at work in the collector’s mind.

First, if the story stays only at the level of breathless action, it might distance itself from the ones who are reading or hearing it. If I witness the exciting tale only, not as a participant but as an observer, I run the risk too easily of forgetting what I have read or heard. But if I slow down and ritually celebrate what I am experiencing, the likelihood is that I will more precisely remember and in later, multiple celebrations will surely remember the story that birthed the celebration. How often can you remember the details of a very good movie you have seen unless you see it again and again, speak to others about it, reflect on its power again and again?

Thus, and second, the ritual fixes the story in me more solidly, more surely. Rather than get swept up in the story, not allowing myself to reflect on it, the ritual enables me to step back and at the same time to get more directly involved with the story along with others who are similarly led to reflect and get involved. When looked at in these ways, Ex.12:1-14 is a helpful addition to the narrative in that it enables me genuinely to see the story and to make the story my own by ritualizing it.

And there is an additional value to the particular ritual. Not only is it communal, in that all are invited to participate, but it is also marked by equity in the practice of it. “The whole congregation of Israel” is “to take a lamb for each family” (Ex.12:3). If the command stopped there, then obviously a wealthy family would grab a larger, more succulent lamb for itself, leaving the smaller poorer families to fend for themselves. But, “if a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it” (Ex.12:4). In other words, each person, whether rich or poor, whether small or great, shall eat the same sized portion of a lamb. It is just like Israel, even in the midst of ritual detail, to be careful to make all things equal! It is of course human instinctual greed to get the best and the most, but in a celebration of the Passover, all are equal in the sight of YHWH; this fact is what also makes the ritual celebration so important. When YHWH passed over the Israelite houses that had blood smeared on the doorposts of the house, the angel of death treated all Israelites as equal no matter their social status.

In addition to this rule of equality, the ritual goes on to insist that the lamb must all be eaten; “none of it (shall) remain until the morning” (Ex.12:10). This is reminiscent of the tale of the divine manna that YHWH will later provide for the people in the wilderness. Though they are warned not to keep any manna for the morning, nor to hoard any of it over the Sabbath day, some of the people do just that. But despite their greedy desires, the manna rots and stinks if hoarded (see Ex.16). The command not to hoard, not to set any aside, is a way of preventing inequality of access to the gift of YHWH. If I have no extra lamb, no extra manna, I have no way to increase my leverage over others, no way to gain power over anyone else. These crucial lessons about greed and equality are locked into the ritual and teach those who participate in it.

We Christians have an obvious parallel in our celebration of Holy Communion. The ritual enshrines the life, death, and resurrection of the one we call Christ. In the taking of Communion, we are all equal in the sight of God and the Son. Further, in the ritual we recall Jesus’ ministry as well as his call for us to participate with him in his ministry of reconciliation. In the ritual, I become a part of the work of Christ, not merely a witness to what he has done.

I suggest that the placement of the Passover ritual right in the middle of the ongoing tale is fully appropriate. However much it stops the flow of the narrative, it equally calls attention to the narrative, bids the hearer/reader to participate in it, and helps her to reflect on its ongoing meaning. In short, the ritual helps us to remember what we need to know.

In a time when ritual is too often seen as rote work, repeated actions that lead to boredom and indifference, the Passover ritual of Ex.12 reminds us of its possible and essential power to remember, and to remember well exactly what we need to know.