Passover, Predators, and a Very Weird Week

Dubious dentists, a church full of predators, and how it all fixes our eyes on the return of Jesus Christ.

I’m not gonna lie, this last week has been unusually stressful and eventful. It all began at my dentist. I went in for a routine teeth cleaning, and after counting all my teeth they started telling me I have issues that I know I do not have. I’m in no discomfort and I have no symptoms. So, the whole thing seemed, as my kids say, “pretty sketch.” They wanted to charge me $1,200 for a treatment I didn’t need and that my insurance doesn’t cover.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I hate being lied to. Especially when someone is trying to con me out of money I could be spending on my kids, groceries, or other necessities. It’s just a sleazy thing to do. Even if I needed this procedure, it should have been something they’d let me consider and come back for later. So, I tried to back out politely saying, “I don’t have the time for that right now because I have a meeting at noon, and I need to think about the expense. I’ll just have a regular teeth cleaning today.”

Sounds reasonable, yes? But no. After haggling with me for nearly an hour, they refused to clean my teeth until I forked over a bunch of money and agreed to stay there for three more hours. I said, “This makes no sense. Why can’t you just clean my teeth?” And the gal responded, “We’re just trying to educate you.”

Now, by this time, they’d already wasted most of my morning and I was extremely irritated, so those words were like pouring gasoline on a flame. I said, “I don’t need to be educated on what a scam looks like,” and stormed out of the office.

I also recently learned that my local OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church) presbytery is considering letting a church of convicted criminals (including sexual predators and murderers) join the presbytery. I’ve known for some time that the Presbytery of the Southwest has serious issues and far too many weak men in their ranks, but this is so profoundly stupid and dangerous. I’ll be publishing an article in the coming weeks explaining the whole situation and its risks. If you’re in the OPC (or any NAPARC church), you need to know about this, because it will set dangerous precedents and have ripple effects throughout the denomination. Not to mention, it’s gambling with the safety of children. But more on that later.

Then, on Wednesday, I got a call from my kid’s school nurse. Gwynevere, my 8-year-old, got poked in the eye with a pencil. I picked her up from school and she seemed fine so I took her home. Her eye was a little pink and her eyelid was swollen, but she was happy and excited about painting and watching cartoons. After playing for a bit, she fell asleep in front of the TV, but around 4:00 PM she woke up screaming bloody murder. She clasped her hands over her eye, clearly in agony, and wouldn’t let me look at it.

Two doctor appointments and three pharmacy trips later, she’s been diagnosed with a large corneal abrasion (AKA a scratch across the clear membrane of her eye). Apparently, it’s common for such injuries to start hurting really bad several hours after they occur. She’s now on antibiotics to prevent infection and pain medicine, and is expected to fully recover within a week. It turns out, the eye is the most sensitive yet fast-healing organ in our bodies.

Finally, yesterday, after picking up my kids from school, I had a near catastrophe. As we pulled into our driveway, Luna the Husky (who was in the car with us) started going nuts because she saw one of her neighbor-dog-friends taking a walk. She began barking, whimpering, and bouncing around the car. I pulled into the driveway and parked, but in my distraction, I forgot to take the keys out of the ignition. I got out of the car, and just as I realized I didn’t have my keys, Luna’s leash tangled around the gear and she leaped out of the vehicle, switching it into drive.

Suddenly, the car started rolling slowly toward the house. I tried to grab the doorframe but I couldn’t stop it. Panicked, I dropped Luna’s leash, jumped into the car, and slammed on the breaks before the car smashed through the garage door. By some miracle, Luna did not chase after her dog-friend, but stayed in the driveway like the good dog she rarely is.

So, here we are on Good Friday, and I’m just trying to inhale deeply, destress, and focus on what Christ has done. In one horrible, awful week, he defeated sin, death, and even Hell itself. His suffering was far greater than mine, yet he endured it with infinite patience. He has credited that patience - and all his righteousness - to me. And yet, he weeps with me. He walks with me. He is present with me in my every challenge and difficulty, no matter how small or strange.

Yesterday, I had planned to celebrate Passover with our family and friends. Because of my daughter’s eye injury, we’re rescheduling to a later date. Nevertheless, I’ve been thinking on what the Passover means.

As Christians, we refer to this sacrament as The Lord’s Supper, because Jesus observed Passover with his disciples and friends, saying, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The wine represents his blood, the bread his body, and he was broken for the sins of many. But this sacrament’s roots branch thousands of years back into history, when Moses confronted Pharaoh, and God freed his people from slavery to Egypt.

You’re probably familiar with the account in Exodus 7-11, but I’ll give us a brief recap. The Hebrews were enslaved, and the Egyptians were brutal and cruel. Pharaoh murdered their children, beat and abused them, and made impossible demands upon them. Under God’s direction, Moses confronted Pharaoh and told him to free the Hebrew slaves. Pharaoh refused. After many warnings, signs, and wonders, Pharaoh’s heart remained hard and belligerent. That’s when God came down to Egypt.

God instructed his people to paint their doorposts with the blood of a lamb, so that when he judged the nation of Egypt, he would pass over their homes and families. All those who believed and all those who obeyed would be spared from the coming judgement and wrath of God against evil.

That night, as promised, God passed through the land of Egypt. Every slaveholder and enemy of God - from merchant to monarch - was judged and punished for their wickedness. But God spared all those with the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. The line of the Messiah and the people of God were preserved and spared from judgement.

Because of this story, The Lord’s Supper is more than just a remembrance of what Jesus did when he died on the cross. It’s more than a commemoration of how the Lamb of God metaphorically painted the doorposts of our hearts with his own precious blood. It’s also a reminder of what he is going to do. Yes, we remember how Jesus broke the bread and drank the wine. We remember how he died for our sins and rose again so we could rise too. But the Lord’s Supper is a promise.

One day, God will pass through all the peoples of the world. Jesus Christ will judge the nations once more. The plagues of Egypt, while terrifying and severe, were a drop in the ocean compared to the coming judgement. At the return of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that our Savior is Lord, and glorify God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

One day, there will be no more scams. There will be no more need for dentists or doctors, because we’ll all be healthy and whole and never suffer again. One day, there will be no more sexual predators, murderers, foolish pastors, or abusive church leaders. The old order - the ways of sin and suffering in this fallen world - will pass away (Revelation 21:4). Death itself will die and be no more.

Until that day, we wait. Until that day, we remember. Until that day, we pin our hopes on a promise. We break the bread and drink the wine, and remember that Jesus died for us, and Jesus is coming back.

Social media preview photo by Ksenia Chernaya. Technically it’s a Hanukkah dinner, but the tulips remind me of Easter!