Our church have been enjoying a series working through Exodus. We’ve actually taken a break from it for ster. However, the Exodus story is intrinsically connected to Easter. The account of Jesus’ death and resurrection echoes the Exodus narrative. Here are a few ways in which it does.
Jesus is betrayed, beaten, mocked, oppressed, identifying with the oppression of the Hebrew slaves. Pilate and Herod act as Pharoahs to Jesus’ Moses. Just as it is the women (Moses’ mum and sister, the midwives) who step in to protect God’s people and keep watch over the baby in the ark, so it is the women who follow Jesus all the way to the Cross, keep watch over his tomb and are there on Easter morning.
The beloved son becomes the firstborn, the lamb that takes the place of God’s people to face death, just as the Passover lamb had. Jesus’ body is placed in the tomb, the place of death waiting for the moment on Easter Sunday when he will rise from the dead. This echoes the way in which Moses was placed into the basket waiting the moment when he would be drawn from the waters. There’s even a “Miriam” or Mary on hand.
The people pass through the Red Sea, they go through the waters of death. It’s even referred to as a baptism in 1 Corinthians 10. Jesus goes down to death and the tomb before being raised to life. Baptism is seen as a picture of how we are buried into his death so that we can enjoy his resurrection life.
Faithroots 