Alive-O 4Term 3: Lesson 2

We Gather Together to Celebrate

The PassoverMoses and his people had been slaves in Egyptfor many years. They had been badly treated

bytheir Egyptian masters. They longed to be free. They longed to be back in their own land.

Then one day, Moses called all the leaders of the people together. ‘From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for us; this will be the first month of our people’s freedom.

I will lead you out of slavery, out of Egypt. The Lord your God is setting you free.

In preparation for this great event, the people followed the instructions the Lord God had given Moses. They prepared a special meal of lamb, and as the Lord God had said, ‘if any family is too smallto eat a whole lamb, they and their neighbours should share one between them.’

On the night they were to leave, the peoplegathered in their family groups. They ate the roast lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. They ate quickly, as they stood dressed and ready to flee.

Before they left, Moses told the people, ‘Whenyou have left Egypt, when you are no longer slaves in a strange land but are free people in your own land, you and your children must celebrate this day.

You must celebrate it each year. When your children ask you what you are doing and why you are doing it you must say to them, ‘We continue

tocelebrate the Passover, to remind us of what the Lord our God has done for us’.

Many years later, in the first month of every year, Jesus got together with his family or friends and disciples to celebrate the Passover as a reminder of how the Lord our God had set the people free.

At the Last Supper Jesus celebrated the Passoverwith his disciples. During the Last Supper Jesus took bread, blessed it and shared it. He said, ‘ Thisis my body.’

He took wine, blessed it and shared it. He said,‘This is my blood’.

He told his disciples to do this in memory of him. He told them that he would be with themalways.