Memorial Day

The first Memorial Day in the United States occurred on May 30, 1868 and was known as Decoration Day. It has since been changed to the last Monday of May, and is a day for recognizing and remembering the US soldiers who have given their lives in service to the country, making it easily one of our more noble holidays

God’s people have celebrated their own Memorial Day for thousands of years before the devastating War Between the States wreaked havoc across our land. Meant here as only a side note, it is interesting that both the Memorial Day of our country and the Memorial Day of God’s people have a connection to slavery, though with a different perspective.

When God led his people out of Egyptian captivity the very first official act He had them do as a nation, the sprinkling of blood on the doorposts and lintels to deflect the “death angel,” was memorialized in the Passover Feast. In Exodus 12:1-14, God institutes and explains what they are to do and how they are to do it regarding what He names in verse 11 as “the Lord’s Passover.” Besides the meal and the burning and a few other particulars, the part most of us remember is the blood on the doorposts and the lintel.

Here is what God says about it, “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance,” Exodus 12:13-14.

So there is one Memorial Day set aside to remember people who died, and another Memorial Day for the purpose of remembering how God kept people from dying; one Memorial Day which exists because of people shedding each other’s blood, and one Memorial Day in which the shedding of blood by another saved people from having their blood shed.

Another difference in these two memorial days is that while the US Memorial Day looks only toward the past and those who have died, the Jewish Passover looks both backward and forward. It looks back toward the Exodus from Egypt and how God spared those Israelites who put blood on their doorposts and lintels from the plague of the death of the firstborn. It also looks forward to another time when the shedding of innocent blood would spare people from an unfortunate fate.

The concept of the shedding of blood from another source as a means of escaping punishment or terrible results is presented in Exodus 12 in the blood of the Passover lamb sparing the Israelites from their first born son dying. But this wasn’t a guarantee without obligation. After the blood of the lamb had been shed, there was another step. To receive the reprieve from the death of the first born son, it was necessary for those of the household to put blood from the lamb on the doorposts and the lintel of their house. As God passed through the land causing the death of the firstborn of the households, He passed over the houses with the blood on the doorposts and lintels. Thus was their salvation achieved.

This whole event was a “type.” It was an original occurrence which was similar to something which would occur later. The later occurrence is called an “antitype.” The antitype in this situation was the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the cross and how that saved all people, not just Jews as had the Passover lamb.

But just as the blood of the Passover lamb did not save anyone just because it was shed, so also the blood of Jesus did not save anyone just because it was shed. The Israelites who hoped to be saved by the blood of the Passover lamb had to apply it to the doorposts and lintels. So also, those today who hope to be saved by the blood of Jesus have to apply it to their lives. Paul points out in Romans 6 that the application of Jesus’ blood occurs in baptism.

So the memorial of the Passover looks forward to the death of Jesus on the cross in which the Son of God, Himself, would be the antitype to the type of the Passover lamb. It memorializes the salvation God provided the Israelites from the Egyptians by means of the blood of an innocent, and it promises the salvation God provides all of sinful man from the guilt of that sin, again through innocent blood applied to their situation.

Then, in emphasis of its unequalled importance, as history moves past the death of Christ on the cross, it does so with this event having its own Memorial Day, specifically in recognition of that event. Jesus institutes this feast in Matthew 26:26-29. Paul recounts this event in 1 Cor. 11:23-26. “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus Christ on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread and when He had given thanks He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me.’”

So we have this event, the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, unequalled in all of history, which has one memorial that actually points forward to it, and then its own memorial looking back at it. For those alive before it occurred, it was hinted at in their first ever national feast. For those alive after it occurred it is memorialized in the Lord’s Supper, its own memorial feast, instituted by the Savior of the world; a memorial that every Sunday is all about.

The US national holiday, Memorial Day, is indeed a noble holiday. But it can’t touch the memorial of Jesus death on the cross to save the world from sin. God emphasized the need to remember important events. This is a memorial for the whole world. Now we must follow through and do our part.