From the beginning of Israel’s history, when God called Abraham and anointed him to be the founder of God’s elect people, God promised that in Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed. Therefore, God’s salvation of Israel from Egypt via the Passover was good news not only for Israel but for the world – for it meant that one day God would act to rescue all humanity from death. And this would be accomplished (Isaiah would later reveal) by one Man, the Righteous Servant, sacrificing Himself not only for the life of Israel, not only to redeem Israel from her darkness and chains, not only to bring Israel out of slavery, not only to rescue Israel from death, but to rescue all the world. He would come to give His life a ransom for many.
And it is this feat of our God – sending the Righteous Servant to become the Passover Lamb, the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world – that is remembered in our words today and that is commemorated in the Supper that His people share every week. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.