Passed Through the Sea

1 Corinthians 10:1-3, Colossians 1:13

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Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! It is the joyful Easter season right now in the church, and it’s such a wonderful time. I remember as a kid just going into church early on Easter morning and smelling those Easter lilies and that fresh baked bread and muffins and that Easter breakfast that was cooking in the oven. What a wonderful, joyous, celebratory feast that Easter can be for us as Christians, as we rejoice in everything that Jesus our Savior did for us.

Interesting family tradition we always had at Easter time was the old movie The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston was always on TV and we would watch that. And I always remember that it was a striking movie, right? And it tells the story of the Exodus, God’s people, the children of Israel, how they were able to be delivered from slavery in Egypt. He led them out by a mighty hand. The ten plagues that he worked to get Pharaoh to let his people go. And then they went, traveled out of Egypt and God led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. What a miracle. And you always remember that image of Moses standing there with the waters being separated. This is a beautiful picture for us as Christians of our baptism. Saint Paul tells us in first Corinthians chapter ten he writes,

For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea [The Red Sea], and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food. (1 Corinthians 10:1-3)

The children of Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea, and this was a picture of their liberation from slavery to Pharaoh. For us in baptism, we are set free from a very real Pharaoh. That Pharaoh is the devil, Satan. He was the one who once held us in slavery to sin and fear. And he made us do the works of iniquity, and we were pushed around by him and abused by him. But then our Savior Jesus came to set us free. Jesus is the greater Moses who showed up on the scene and delivered us from the devil. And he did this by his death on the cross, where he paid for all of our sins. He took the punishment for our sins upon himself, and he ransomed us and paid the ransom price for us so that we might be free, so that we would be set free from the devil’s dominion of darkness. As Saint Paul tells us in Colossians one,

For he [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son. (Colossians 1:13)

And so we pass through the waters of Holy Baptism. We’ve been set free from that old Pharaoh, Satan. We’ve been set free from our sins and from death. And now we journey together as Christians on our way to our promised land, and we journey through the desert wilderness that is this world. We know this place isn’t our permanent residence. We pitch our tents here for a while, for a time in this life. But we’re journeying together toward our promised land, the promised land of heaven, God’s heavenly kingdom, where Jesus is leading us to as his dear followers.

So we follow him through this life, and he provides for us on the way. He feeds us even with bread from heaven, with manna from heaven. We think about in Holy Communion, where we receive his very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. We’re journeying together and Jesus is leading us, and one day we’ll pass into our promised land. We’ll cross over the waters of death, and there be with our God forever and joy and in peace. And what a comfort this is to us. And what a beautiful picture the Exodus story is of our baptisms. And so we rejoice that Christ has brought us over. We have passed over with our Lord Jesus from death to life. With him we have all things, we are forgiven and we have eternal life. And so all thanks and praise be to Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior. Amen.