This year, the Jewish Passover began on Tuesday the 19th of April. In reality, it began Monday evening after sundown. That is how Jewish days are counted - from sundown to sundown. Obviously sundown fluctuates all year - so they have to pay attention more keenly than we do. Our day ends and begins at midnight. Always.
The beginning of the Passover was on Thursday the year Yeshua presented Himself as the One John the Baptist proclaimed when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). That means, technically, it began at sundown on Wednesday night. Just as a point of reference, the Passover celebration lasts 8 days.
Jesus and His family went 'up to Jerusalem' from their home in Nazareth for the Passover annually (Luke 2:41). When he was 12 years old, after the days celebrating the Passover, when his family was on their way back to Nazareth - and assumed he was with their group - Jesus was back at the temple chatting with the teachers of the law (Luke 2:42-50).
Jesus knew about Passover - from His family - from His heavenly Father - and from the perspective of the teachers of the law. He knew that He was the fulfillment of the prophecies, and the fulfillment of Israel's hope. He was (and is) the Messiah!
When the Passover was first instituted, it was the final straw in getting Pharaoh to let the Hebrew people (the Israelites) leave Egypt. Pharaoh's heart was hardened for every other plague. After all, the Jewish people were the slave labor of Egypt. If they lost their slaves, their entire way of life would change. They wouldn't have anyone to do their work for them - with all that implies.
But God's redemption for Israel was determined and designed - to the day! God instructed His Hebrew people to take a lamb into their homes, to kill it and put its blood around the doorway to each home where the lamb would be eaten. Then to stay in the house and not go out. He also instructed that they make unleavened bread to take with them on their journey for when they were freed. Every instruction, every element, was instructive for then as well as for the future.
In that first Passover (c.+-1446 B C), the Angel of Death visited Egypt. As promised, for those who had the blood of the lamb over their doorpost as instructed, the Angel of Death 'passed over' that house; and for every family who didn't have the blood of the lamb over the doorpost every one of their firstborn males died that night, from the eldest to the youngest. That meant that all the people of Egypt (who didn't have the blood over the doorposts) lost all of their firstborn sons. In abject grief, Pharaoh let the Hebrew children go. They were ready for the instruction to move out - and they did.
The Jewish people celebrated that day from that time forward. Annually, they retold the story of the exodus - of God's salvation. That salvation was through the blood of the lamb. When Jesus was 33 years old, they had been celebrating passover for some 1479 years. They all knew what it stood for, and why they celebrated. It was a celebration of freedom from horrible oppression - and now, in 33 AD, Jesus completely changed the reason for the celebration.
When He sat down with His disciples in the upper room that Thursday evening, they had all of the prescribed elements of the traditional Passover. Two disciples had spent the day preparing it. It was tradition - something they'd done with Jesus since He began His ministry - but this year was different. He abrogated the former traditional story and made it all about Him.
When he took the unleavened bread and broke it as was the custom of the Passover feast, instead of the familiar words they'd all been raised with and knew by heart, He said, "This is my body broken for you." Before they could even grasp what He was saying, He raised the cup, and as they waited to hear the familiar instruction of its meaning, He said, "This is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Drink all of it...."
Whoa. What did He just say?
They knew about the Old Covenant with Abraham. It was instituted about 2090 B C - give or take a few years.
And they knew about the very specific sacrifices of The Law instituted under Moses for the forgiveness of sin. That happened in the desert when the Wilderness Tabernacle was built and instructions were mandated. They knew what had to be done historically for the forgiveness of sin. Now Yeshua, the Messiah who was (in their minds) supposed to come to rule and reign and wipe out the terrible scourge of Roman rule was saying what????? It didn't compute.
I'm going to take a little bunny trail here (after all it is almost Easter.) Sorry. Enough of the tongue-in-cheek humor....
Bringing up the wilderness tabernacle is my segue. Jesus was the fulfillment of every element of that tabernacle. It was the foreshadowing for all He was and is.
The altar for animal sacrifice: He became the sacrifice. His blood atoned for our sin.
The lavar for washing: He is the water of life. He promised that anyone who drinks of Him will never thirst.
The table of shewbread: He is the bread of life....
The candelabra (the Menorah): He is light. In Him there is no darkness.
The altar of incense: He sits at the right hand of the Father and He prays for us.
The Ark of the Covenant: Jesus fulfilled the law. The law was instituted as a mirror so man could see there was no way he could live up to the law; The old covenant man had to live under was the law. The new covenant was in His blood. He shed His blood for our sins. He paid the price.
The Mercy Seat: He is mercy. God ordained Mercy to be a companion to Law, and Jesus was that mercy personified, the One who made God accessible to us. In fact, that is what happened at the moment of His death, when the very thick curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was torn in two from the top to the bottom.
From the time the Wilderness Tabernacle was constructed in the Sinai desert (c. +-1444 B C) until 33 A D when the veil was torn in the Temple located on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a high priest had been going in to the Holy of Holies just once a year to stand before God, in His presence, to bring atonement for the sins of the people accumulated for the entire year. It was on one such Day of Atonement +-1 BC that Zechariah was visited by an angel who told him Sarai would have a son - John the Baptist.
I really have to stop this bunny path. It could get completely out of hand....
The point is: Jesus knew all of that history - both as God (who instituted it) and as man (who honored it).
Now - He was saying, pretty much, "Hey guys, when you get together after this for Passover, instead of being about celebrating your ancestors being freed from slavery in Egypt, celebrate me. Remember my death until I come back. When you drink the cup, remember my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of your sins. When you break that unleavened bread, and hear it crack, remember my body that will be broken for you. Remember me."
They didn't get it. Not yet. A lot of people still don't get it. I pray that this year there will be people who do. People who for the very first time, realize what Jesus (Yeshua) did for them on the cross. But - I'm getting ahead of the story.
Obviously I didn't stick to Mark's gospel today - but highly recommend reading the gospel accounts!
From the time of the beginning of Jesus' last supper - that Passover dinner that changed the night for all time - the events of the subsequent 24 hours were set in motion.
In truth, that year, Judas Iscariot had already agreed to betray Jesus - and he was there, feigning love - even dipping into the same bowl Jesus dipped into to eat from.
Soon after that, Jesus would tell him, "Go do what you must - but do it quickly."
The story of the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed, and his disciples fell asleep, comes in just moments.... But the message to us is 'remember' - When you eat this bread (unleavened always at Passover) and drink this cup, remember....
When we have the 'blood of the Perfect Lamb, Jesus the Messiah,' over the doorpost of our hearts - He grants us eternal life. Death in this life is not the death to be feared - but eternal death is. Original sin broke the relationship between God and man. The foreshadowing of that payment was years and years of the shed blood in animal sacrifice. But Jesus changed all of that. He became the blood sacrifice required for all time - reaching back into history and forward to eternity. On that Thursday of Passover - the Perfect Lamb presented Himself to His disciples as the payment for all sin for all time. The timing was no accident.
Amazing love, how can it be, that you, my King, would die for me?
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