The Second Passover
I’ve always enjoyed the seder feasts that I’ve been to, but a few years ago I began to think about the Exodus story from the perspective of the Egyptians. Not from the perspective of the Pharaoh, the rulers of Egypt, or the taskmasters who subjugated the people of God, but from the perspective of the ordinary Egyptians who were just going about their ordinary lives. The scary thing about this story is that the text makes clear that these people--the ordinary, everyday, barely aware--were under judgment, too. And this threw me through a bit of a loop. It made me wonder if I might unknowingly be an oppressor of the people of God. As an American with plenty, it made me worry that I, like the everyday Egyptians of old, might be on the wrong side of the fence. So I began to think about this story in a whole new way, and wondered what this passage might mean for me and the ones that I love?