This Sunday we hear the fourth of the Cycle C first readings, which recount great moments in Israel’s history. These readings place Jesus’ passage from death to life in continuity with the love God reveals to Israel in making a covenant with Abram, in calling Moses to lead the Hebrew slaves to freedom, in leading the people through the desert to settled life and nationhood.
Joshua leads Israel into the promised land after Moses’ death. The people pass over the Jordan River into Israel in Joshua 4.8-24, ending the 40-year journey in the wilderness that began when they passed through the Red Sea.
God dries up the waters of the Jordan for the people to cross over just as God opened a dry path through the waters of the sea (Exodus 14-15). This imagery calls us to recognize that the God who separated the sea from the dry land at creation is at work making a path for Israel through history.
In the promised land God directs Joshua to remove the reproach of Egypt by having all the men among the people circumcised. Sunday’s reading begins with these events just completed. The people who enter the promised land with Joshua have a common heritage — circumcision, the law given to them at Mount Sinai, and their experience of God’s care in the wilderness.
God’s saving care which Israel celebrated on the first Passover in Egypt continues, giving the people new reason to celebrate at Gilgal. They eat cakes made from the grain of the land, a sign they are leaving the desert and returning to the home of their ancestors.
This brief passage from Joshua shows how rituals and feasts establish continuity and identity for a people. Passover as a feast gathers new moments of God’s love into the celebration of past deeds.
Passover at Gilgal
The Holy One said to Joshua, “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.”
While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth of the month. On the day after the Passover they ate of the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain.
On that same day after the Passover on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. No longer was there manna for the Israelites, who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan.
Joshua 5.9,10-12
- How does your family celebrate and preserve its identity? With what feasts, reunions?