On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” (Matthew 26:17).

Considering the contents of Scripture, God has chosen to communicate with us most often via story. The stories He has included there invite us in, speak to us, and then stick with us.

Scripture remains the same, but since it is alive and active, our experience and comprehension of it expand. That happens when we see a new detail or glimpse the bigger picture or become deeply touched by what we read or hear. 

A friend of mine noted that Jesus told us a story we can eat. (I’ve been chewing on that ever since!)

In Matthew 17 we are told that before the final events of His life unfolded, Jesus and His disciples ate the meal commemorating the centuries-old story of Passover. 

Passover was the night the Hebrews—who had been enslaved by the Egyptian Pharaoh for 400 some years—were freed from their bondage.

It is a poignant story that required the killing of a lamb, whose blood was applied to the top and sides of the door of each home. This blood indicated that death had already taken place in that home so the angel of death would pass over it. 

Their escape also required such haste that no leaven could be used in the baking of bread for the journey.

Jesus, during the eating of this story of liberation, specifically called the disciples’ attention to two Passover meal items: the wine and the unleavened bread. This was His invitation for the disciples to keep chewing the old story in order to discover the new story baked into it.

He knew they would soon see His own blood at the top and the sides of the cross on which He would die. Would they remember the lamb’s blood at the top and the sides of the doors of the enslaved Hebrews’ homes? Would they remember that John had called Jesus the Lamb of God at His baptism and then identify Him with the lamb from whom that blood—represented by the wine—poured? 

Would they realize the unleavened bread symbolized Jesus—the Bread of Life, broken for them? Would they remember that yeast was a metaphor for sin, and, therefore, unleavened was a metaphor for sinless?

It took the disciples more chewing—more living, and the infilling of the Holy Spirit—to gradually digest the story they were eating.

Now it is our turn. We who live after Jesus’ crucifixion have heard the old, old story many times, just as the disciples had heard the Passover story many times.  Let’s keep eating that story and then sharing what it progressively means to us with one another.