I do not know if i will be adding to this long section or not. If i do make changes, i will repost.
Ex, 12

We may well be deep into the mists of history. I was taught, before the enlightenment, that this reflects a spring festival of some sort that morphed into a ritual for Passover. After the exile, this is a festival for the new year, as opposed to an older autumn calendar. Some would cite its connection to a full moon as further evidence of a truly ancient festival. Here we get a good example of biblical stories having layers that are integrated, sewn together, and re-interpreted within a narrative framework

1) I cannot tell if this initial description is before the temple, working with it or after its first destruction. I say this as it is a household feast but also sees a congregation in play. See books such as Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews for a description of the bloody mess the temple precincts must have been for Passover in the time of Jesus. Notice the lamb is to be unblemished, only the best for sacrifice, sheep or goat.

2) I love that it takes into account family size for economy but also waste.

3) Many Jewish entrances feature a mezzuzah, a sense of a sacred entrance to the home. In the same line of thought, the blood, life blood, marks the door. It has a sense, to me anyway, similar to putting wolf bane or garlic around to keep a vampire at bay. BY v. 22 we get mention of a destroyer. Remember how DeMille imagines its tentacles creeping around in 10 Commandments. Hyssop seems linked to ritual of purification.

4) Again, I don;t  have a sense of why the whole animal is roasted but it moves smoothly into becoming food on the run, food for a journey.

5) After all these years, the ordinance proclaimed is still being followed. For me this is a double-edged passover, from death of course, but presage passing form slavery to freedom.

 

Is. 52:12-53:12-How do we keep this from becoming a glorification of suffering?

This is the last of the four servant songs. indeed it seems to serve as a template for the trials of Jesus as much as Ps. 22. Joel Marcus concludes his book the Way of the Lord with some good examination of the passage in the time of Jesus, especially its end times readings for the suffering of the righteous. He has a good chart on noticing Markan use of phrases, perhaps drawn from the passage.
1) We rush into the suffering too quickly. Contemplate, as we are told, the end of ch. 52.

2) Whom do we hold of no account that may well reveal the arm of the Lord?

3) vv.4-5 are difficult for me. How and why would this process inhere? I assume sin emphasizes the diseases mentioned in the first set. What does it do to theology to perceive sin more as a disease than a choice?
4) v. 9 clicks in frame Joseph of Arimathea, but I am also struck by linking wicked and rich.
5)

Ps. 116:1-2, 12-19 Again, please be reminded that 113-118, the praise set fo psalms were sung at major Temple festivals, including Passover. Again, this could be a hymn sung before the move to the garden.

1) cup of salvation ma have direct or more tenuous relation to the cup we now see as the communion cup. Indeed, if you are having Communion on Maundy (mandatory0 Thursday, how does this psalm fit into your liturgy?
2) do you think we have relation to the cup of wrath of which Jesus speaks?
3) of all people, Calvin did not see v. 15 as God looking for martyrs, but instead sees it as a protection thanksgiving
4) why do many of us find it hard to make thanksgiving offerings, including prayer?
5) the land of the living at v. 9 gives a good linkage to Easter.

Ps. 22 Along with the Is. passage, this seems to act as a structuring device for the events of the Passion (see Crossan, Who Killed Jesus and the article Costly Loss of lament, its restoration in at least one Montreat program and the Billman/Migliore book) . I am being lazy at this point, but I am confident that the end of the psalm had some end time relevance in the time of Jesus.It is a marvel that the words of this psalm are among the last things Jesus says. i don;t have patience with those who rush to say that ti is not really a lament, given its ending. Jesus could then have quoted that part. Further, if Jesus would pray a lament psalm in anguish, where do we get the notion that lament is not for us? Note also the sense of abandonment/absence of God at the start. for me, this Psalm points us to the concern for anyone who suffers and should not be placed only in the box labelled, atonement for sin.

1) For some media adventure, compare the psalm to Jesus Christ Superstar in the garden and moving toward the end of Jesus of Montreal.
2 Why the doubling of "my God?" (v. 1?) what seems god-forsaken in current conditions where you are right now?
3) v. 6 worm- Isaac Watts would use that line in a psalm, would we self-esteem proponents?
4) Wild packs of dogs would scare me enough, but if we apply them to crucifixion, would they not be the ones that would attack the bodies, dead or alive?
5) the ending certainly has an Easter feel to it, no?