The Final Passover
On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain one, and say to him, "The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples.' " And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the passover. Matt. 26:17-19, RSV.
Jesus has been moving toward the cross ever since He first told His disciples about His coming death. Events since His triumphal entry into Jerusalem have begun to accelerate. The Jewish leaders have decided that the time has come to put Him to death. And Judas has volunteered his services to aid them in their designs.
The Passover is at hand. But Jesus and His disciples will eat it on Thursday, the evening before the regular Passover meal. In Jesus' case this is a necessity because He knows that He will be dead by Friday evening. The Passover lambs will be slain in the Temple on Friday afternoon, the very time that He will also die. That timing is significant, since, as Paul puts it, Jesus is "a Passover lamb sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7, Phillips).
The fact that Jesus died at the Passover was no accident. It was in God's plan from the beginning. The Passover finds its roots at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. God instituted it to commemorate the night of the Israelites' escape, when all the firstborn of the Egyptians perished. Each Jewish family was to slay and sprinkle the blood on the doorpost as a sign that their house should be passed over when sudden death invaded the homes of the Egyptians. The sprinkled blood would preserve the inhabitants of the house. And so it was that the blood of the Passover lamb spared God's people (Ex. 12). The New Testament views the Passover as symbolic of the work of Jesus.
J. C. Ryle notes that "the intentional connection between the time of the Jewish passover and the time of Christ's death" is of great significance. "We cannot doubt for a moment that it was not by chance, but by God's providential appointment, that our Lord was crucified in the Passover week....It was meant to draw attention of the Jewish nation to Him as the true Lamb of God. It was meant to bring to their minds the true object and purpose of His death." And it was meant to be a sign of the "redemption and deliverance from the bondage of sin, which was to be brought in by our Lord Jesus Christ."
That fateful Passover is the pivot point of redemptive history.
On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain one, and say to him, "The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples.' " And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the passover. Matt. 26:17-19, RSV.
Jesus has been moving toward the cross ever since He first told His disciples about His coming death. Events since His triumphal entry into Jerusalem have begun to accelerate. The Jewish leaders have decided that the time has come to put Him to death. And Judas has volunteered his services to aid them in their designs.
The Passover is at hand. But Jesus and His disciples will eat it on Thursday, the evening before the regular Passover meal. In Jesus' case this is a necessity because He knows that He will be dead by Friday evening. The Passover lambs will be slain in the Temple on Friday afternoon, the very time that He will also die. That timing is significant, since, as Paul puts it, Jesus is "a Passover lamb sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7, Phillips).
The fact that Jesus died at the Passover was no accident. It was in God's plan from the beginning. The Passover finds its roots at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. God instituted it to commemorate the night of the Israelites' escape, when all the firstborn of the Egyptians perished. Each Jewish family was to slay and sprinkle the blood on the doorpost as a sign that their house should be passed over when sudden death invaded the homes of the Egyptians. The sprinkled blood would preserve the inhabitants of the house. And so it was that the blood of the Passover lamb spared God's people (Ex. 12). The New Testament views the Passover as symbolic of the work of Jesus.
J. C. Ryle notes that "the intentional connection between the time of the Jewish passover and the time of Christ's death" is of great significance. "We cannot doubt for a moment that it was not by chance, but by God's providential appointment, that our Lord was crucified in the Passover week....It was meant to draw attention of the Jewish nation to Him as the true Lamb of God. It was meant to bring to their minds the true object and purpose of His death." And it was meant to be a sign of the "redemption and deliverance from the bondage of sin, which was to be brought in by our Lord Jesus Christ."
That fateful Passover is the pivot point of redemptive history.
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