The Passover Meal
Description
It would be the last meal Jesus would eat with his disciples. He knew it. All the pieces were in place. The script had been written. Jesus’ somber mood unsettled his friends. To them, Passover was simply an annual feast to remember their ancestor’s deliverance from bondage. It was a time of great celebration. But to Jesus, the meal was much more… he knew that the greater Passover Story would soon commence.
Symbolism
The Passover meal commemorated the historic event of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The Israelites were descendents of a Hebrew immigrant called Jacob – whose name was also “Israel.” (This is, of course, how they got the name “Israelites.”) Jacob had moved to Egypt to escape a famine that ravaged his homeland. After the famine ended, his descendants remained in Egypt and lived there for several generations. Initially, the Egyptians welcomed them, but as time wore on, they began to regard the foreigners as a threat, and enslaved them. The Egyptian Pharaoh consigned the Hebrews to forced labor, and put them to work building his pyramids and monumental structures. The conditions were harsh and oppressive. The Egyptian taskmasters were cruel.
It was into this situation that God sent Moses. Moses was to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan, the land God had promised to Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather. God sent ten spectacular plagues to force Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to leave. The 10th and final plague was the plague of the firstborn. The Israelites were instructed to slaughter a lamb – one per household – and smear the blood around the doorframes of their houses. That night, the angel of death passed through the land. The firstborn of all the Egyptians died. But the angel “passed over” every house that was marked with blood. After this plague, Pharaoh finally relented and let the Israelites go. The Passover was instituted as an annual ceremony to commemorate this event.
The Bible refers to Jesus as “the Passover Lamb.” Jesus was the lamb that was slain for the forgiveness of sin (see explanation on the symbolism of the slain lamb), but was also the lamb whose blood secured life. All those who would figuratively smear his blood on their doorframes by believing in him would escape spiritual death. The original Passover lamb prefigured what Christ would accomplish through his blood. The historic event of the sacrifice of the lamb to secure Israel’s freedom from slavery foreshadowed the spiritual event of the sacrifice of Christ to free all people from bondage to sin.
As Jesus looked at the meat of lamb on his plate that night, he couldn’t keep his mind off of these things. He said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ? For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
The Script
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD , who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.
8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
9“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.
10He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
13They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
14When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 5:7
“…for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
