The Passover

Before Jesus was crucified, he celebrated the Passover with his disciples. The Passover was Israel’s celebration of God’s deliverance from Egypt. On that day, the Jews sacrificed a lamb, and smeared some of its blood on the lintel, and door posts of their houses. The blood marked that house as having people, who belonged to the God of Israel. Judgment would pass by that house. That night, they ate bread made without yeast. They needed to eat, but they needed to hurry, because they were preparing to leave their current life, and current home, behind.

During the meal, Jesus made several things very plain to his disciples. (Although, what he told them was so foreign to their thinking, judging by their actions in the next few hours, that the did not understand what Jesus was saying.)

First, he was going to be betrayed by one of his disciples.

Second, he was going to be delivered over to those who hated him, and killed.

Third, his death was, in reality, like the Passover lamb. His blood, like the lambs, would mark those who were his, and protect them from God’s judgment. His body was like the bread, sustenance leading to a new life.

This new Passover meal was a celebration of deliverance from a different cruel master – sin – and a transition to a new promised land.