Open Subject
Luke 22.14-30 and Exodus 12.1-14 - What the Passover meant to Jesus
Jesus was a Jew, born of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of King David. As a Jew, he lived according to the Law of Moses. In fact, the witness of the NT is that he was born of a woman, born under the Law. He fulfilled the Law kept it, as it was intended to be kept, to the entire satisfaction of his Father although not always to the satisfaction of the religious leaders who had, as he charged them, overlaid the divine Law with human and unspiritual traditions.
The gospels record that the Law's requirements were observed in regard to his birth. He was circumcised on the eighth day and a sacrifice in the prescribed form was offered in the Temple at Jerusalem for his and his mother's post-natal purification. At the age of 12, he returned to Jerusalem where, fascinated by learned rabbis debating in the Temple , he missed the journey home to Nazareth resulting in three days of frantic searching by his parents. That Jerusalem visit had been to celebrate the Passover.
The Passover was a meal to mark the deliverance of the nation of Israel after 430 years in Egypt , much of that period spent as slaves. That deliverance involved the death, at the hands of Yahweh's destroying angel, of every firstborn son and every first-born male of the cattle, in Egypt on the night when Moses would lead Israel out of that country on the first stage of its journey to the Promised Land. The death of every first-born son except for those in Israelite houses the door-frames of which had been smeared with blood.
The blood was that of a lamb or kid, nurtured, observed for defects, slaughtered, roasted and eaten, all without the breaking of any bones, with bitter herbs and unleavened bread! The animal was to be consumed in its entirety - anything left until the next morning must be burned in the fire. The meal itself was eaten in haste - shoes on, loins girded, staff in hand.
So, what was the significance of the Passover for Jesus? Surely, as for every Jew, the deliverance we have just described! But was there some additional dimension for him? In our reading of the account of the Passover meal shared with his disciples in the Upper Room, we heard these words.. 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 fulfilment in the kingdom of God .
We learn then from this statement that just as Jesus was the fulfilment of the Law so he, the perfect Passover Lamb - as Paul describes him - was also the fulfilment of the Passover feast: there would be no more true Passover meals but a new feast to be celebrated in the kingdom of God - a feast which Christians recognise as the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion.
Let me suggest to you then four new things which Jesus saw in the Passover concerning his disciples of whatever period in the church's history. For Jesus the Passover signified a new start bringing a new status and a new relationship - both secured by the terms of a new covenant mediated by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
The Passover celebrated in Egypt instituted a new calendar for Israel . This month is to be for you ... the first month of your year. From then on Israel 's religious year would start in the month Abib or Nisan (the equivalent of our March/April). The idea of a new year - a new start - speaks of both the people's deliverance from slavery and the birth of Israel as a nation. Time and again, when God spoke to Israel he reminded them that it was he who had brought them out of Egypt . I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt , out of the land of slavery.
There is then in the Passover both a continuity and a discontinuity. Israel must never forget its history - its election, deliverance -and its rebellion, punishment. For the Passover may have delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt but there remained many in Israel whose hearts never left Egypt as events throughout its history demonstrate. Nevertheless, the Passover represents a new start - a discontinuity with the past - a new calendar, the birth of a new nation, destined to possess a homeland of its own -and continuity in God's renewal of his promise that Israel is his own chosen people.
Jesus doubtless saw that continuity in the Passover feast with his disciples that looking back to the miraculous deliverance God had wrought for his people in Egypt . But he cannot fail to have seen played out in his betrayal by one of his own disciples what Paul would later stress: not all those who came out of Egypt were faithful and pleasing to God. That's a sad picture for us of the continuity aspect.
When Jesus is betrayed today by a false depiction of his person and work in the lives of those who claim to be his followers, do we not still betray him? There have always been traitors in the midst. And I can never get out of my mind the fact that, still today, the worst and most damaging opposition to the gospel of Christ comes from within the church, particularly from those in positions of authority.
But we have responsibility in this matter too! You probably know that seven out of every ten people who come to Christ do so through the witness of Christian friends. But it may be equally true that seven out of ten who reject the gospel do so because of what they have seen in the lives of those who claim to be Christians!
Before the Exodus Israel had been a people scattered throughout Egypt with no status but that of slaves. Since going down from Canaan 430 years earlier they had largely lost their sense of allegiance to their God and had no awareness of national identity. The Passover and the exodus from Egypt gave them a new status - their departure from the land of slavery transformed them in one night into a nation and set in motion a series of events calculated to lead to the fulfilment of Yahweh's promise to their ancestor Abraham to give them a land of their own, and a king of their own, Yahweh himself - the one and only true God.
Perhaps Jesus has that in mind when he tells his disciples he is conferring a kingdom on them - a kingdom of which he is himself king. And Peter reflects on that in his first letter: You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation , a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. But this kingdom, as Jesus will soon explain, is not of this world. It's within - a kingdom to be found in every forgiven heart which beats with love and joy at the thought of him who confers it by the giving of himself. A new, exalted, status!
It's a kingdom of delivered people enjoying a new relationship. The incarnate God whose eyes are too pure to look on evil, gazes at his disciples and says, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you! The Passover is a family meal. Jesus eats it with his disciples. Who then is my mother, who are my brothers and sisters? Those who do the will of my Father in heaven! They're my mother, my brothers, my sisters!
When God gave Israel laws to govern their conduct as his people, he reminded them of their deliverance from Egypt . And then he found it necessary to warn them, You shall have no gods but me! Weigh for a moment God's gracious calling with all its multitude of blessings and promise of eternal bliss - weigh that against the times we forget what he has done for us and turn from him to go our own selfish way. That's the nature of the people on whom Jesus still looks with unimaginable love and says, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you ... !
Israel displayed their true nature within days of leaving Egypt . Here Jesus' disciples, at table with their soon-to-suffer Lord, fall to arguing which of them is the greatest! The very disciples who, within hours, will have forsaken him leaving him to face alone the hatred of the authorities, the brutality of the Roman soldiers - these craven men hear him express his desire to eat this meal of remembrance with them and commend them as those who have stood by him in his trials! For God such people are in Christ his chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. See then in this Passover, what it means when he views you and me as made the righteousness of God in him.
How beautifully the book of Hebrews contrasts what happened in Egypt with what we have received in Christ! Hebrews speaks of the blood of animals bringing outward cleansing and a temporal inheritance in Canaan; and it contrasts that with the blood of Jesus which has brought us cleansed consciences, the power to live God-pleasing lives and an eternal inheritance - which, as Peter delights to remind us, can never perish, spoil or fade because God is keeping it in heaven for us while he shields us with his power until the day when our salvation shall be complete - and we stand in his presence to receive our inheritance.
We are to remember our new status as God's people and to rejoice in it - we are to remember our new relationship as his children and delight in him. We are to remember the cost and be thankful!
The Passover looked back to Egypt . When your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' 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. That question is asked, that answer is given, in Jewish homes today whenever the Passover is celebrated. But the Passover Jesus celebrates with his first disciples looks to Calvary , to the once-for-all perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
It looks too on from the cross to the kingdom of God which, within the next few hours, is to be opened to all who will give their allegiance to him who, as that Passover Lamb, is also. Jesus reminds his disciples, its king. My Father has conferred [a kingdom] on me... A new start or, as Jesus put it to Nicodemus, a new birth. bringing to us a new status - a royal priesthood, a holy nation; and a new relationship - to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And all secured by a new covenant!
Jesus is here almost certainly looking back to Jeremiah 31 where, in the context of the Passover deliverance, God promises a new covenant with his people - a covenant to be written, not on stone tablets, but on their hearts. A covenant in the ANE was made under oath - but where is the oath in Jesus, new covenant? It's there in the taking of bread and wine which was the act which sealed covenants in ancient times. A new covenant sealed with the body and blood of the Lamb of God - who, for the joy of welcoming me into his kingdom, into his family, endured the cross, despising the shame!
And in the book of Hebrews, we read that by an oath sworn by God himself, Jesus is made a priest forever - a priest who is both the offeror and the sacrifice. It has been beautifully expressed in a hymn we'll sing in a moment.. Before the throne of God above I have a strong, a perfect plea; a great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me. Behold him there, the risen Lamb! My perfect spotless righteousness,- the great unchangeable I AM, the King of glory and of grace.
When we ponder the Last Supper Jesus ate with the Twelve - a new start bestowing on us a new status as God's people, a new relationship as his children under the new covenant of grace written on our hearts - when we remember what all this cost -how does it impact on the way we come to the Lord's Supper? What does it say to us about a rebel sinner such as I coming to the throne of grace with a confidence borne of his boundless love? How does it shape our attitudes, reactions, conversation - our love for him and for one another, as redeemed people?
I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.. This is my body given for you ... This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Vernon Cobb
Choose your preferred style for this site: