We are currently going through the book of Numbers in our daily chapel/catechesis at Christ Lutheran Academy. On Friday our reading was Numbers 9:1-14, which is the second Passover. I was particularly interested in this verse:

But if anyone who is clean and is not on a journey fails to keep the Passover, o?that person shall be cut off from his people because he did not bring the Lord’s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. (Numbers 9:13 ESV)

So what we see from this chapter is that the Passover is for everyone, including the stranger sojourning within their midst. There are even provisions for the Israelite who is on a journey. But the one thing that holds a man to his sin is if he doesn’t show up. If he is clean but decides that he doesn’t need to keep the passover, then he is “cut off” from the people. In that case, the man bears his own sin, because he has rejected the Lord’s work of cleansing and forgiveness.

So how does this apply to our understanding of the Sacrament of the Altar?