The New Exodus

"[So it shall be] as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." Isaiah 11:16

The overarching narrative for Israel was the Exodus. The Temple came from it, many of the festivals and feasts days centered around it, and Messianism found its meaning in it. God's final redemption of His people would be "after the manner of Egypt." In a way, the Exodus was their central mythos, the one key event in their history that set their identity. Since then, they were no longer merely the wandering children of Abraham, but the covenant people of Yahweh, their faithful redeemer. That one grand display of God's presence and power in their lives affected their perspective on themselves and their circumstances when they became a nation, when they went into exile, came out of exile, when they were under foreign rule, and even today when they are a nation once more.

Now, Jesus was born right at the height of Messianic fever. Rome was viewed as the new Egypt, and many were declaring that the Messiah would come soon to lead a Maccabean-style revolt against the last and greatest empire of antiquity. When John the Baptist's ministry began, he preached that deliverance had come at last, and began to reenact the ending of the Exodus by having people "cross" (i.e., be baptized in) the Jordon River. Jesus' own ministry was inaugurated at the Jordon and then tested out in the wilderness immediately after, symbols that aptly identifying Jesus' ministry with the Exodus.

Near the end of His life, Jesus' ministry was further identified with the Exodus when at the Last Supper He proclaimed Himself to be the Passover Lamb, the same claim John the Baptist had made of Him three years prior. As the Messiah, Jesus was claiming something quite different from a Maccabean-esque revolt. He was claiming that He would be another divine shield against a terrible plague of death, and that such a deliverance would mark the end of a long tyranny. His disciples would have thought that the Caesars were undone. Instead, the prince of this world was cast out (John 12:31).

Jesus' ministry was started under the symbol of the crossing of the Jordon, i.e., the end of the Exodus. His ministry ended under the symbol of the Passover Lamb that was sacrificed, i.e., the beginning of the Exodus. Thus is the paradox. As Messiah, Jesus finished the first Exodus as expected, but He did it in a way that was unexpected. In ended the first Exodus by inaugurating a new one. Just as the old Exodus looked back to a key event that identified its people (i.e., the exit out of Egypt), so the new Exodus looks back to a key event that identifies its people (i.e., the passion of the Christ); and just like the people of old, we too wander for now in the wilderness, looking for Messiah to come and lead us to the Promised land, and those who wish to join us may come.