A NEW WAY TO SEE PASSOVER

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And He said to them, “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.”

After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.”

Luke 22:7-20

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It was Thursday, the day before Jesus would be crucified, a day He knew would be His last in physical ministry on earth.

So what did Jesus do on this day? How did He spend His final day of human life?

Well, as we see in today’s scripture passage, He chose to share one final meal with His disciples and in doing so, provide them with a new way of seeing Passover. Look again at these verses from the Gospel of Luke:

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And He said to them, “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.”

After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.”  Luke 22:7-20

It wasn’t just any ordinary Thursday on the Jewish calendar. For the scriptures tell us that it was the “day of Unleavened Day”, the day the “Passover lamb had to be sacrificed”. And so Jesus, the obedient Jew that He was, sent two of His disciples, Peter and John, to prepare the Passover meal, giving the two men specific instructions as to where the meal was to be made.

We read where Peter and John went and did what Jesus said, finding a man carrying a jar of water as they entered the city and allowing him to lead them to a furnished, upper guest room where they prepared the Passover. Jesus and the rest of the apostles joined Peter and John later, all of the, reclining at the table where Jesus made this statement:

“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.”

Prior to this crucifixion eve, Jesus had told His followers that He was going to suffer and die on more than one occasion. Now, on the brink of those assertions becoming reality, He reminds them of His coming suffering and adds that the Passover meal they would share would be His last for a long time, adding that He would not eat of it again until it would find “fulfillment in the kingdom of God”, until “the kingdom of God would come”.

And with that, He shared the bread and the wine with the apostles who had been with Him along the way during His ministry. Of course, none of them would be able to fully understand what Jesus meant as He made the first of two statements until they witnessed the suffering He endured:

He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

As Jesus broke the bread in His hands, He must have envisioned the brokenness that awaited His body in the hours ahead as He surrendered Himself to horrendous and horrific beatings and torture, beatings and torture that would fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah when he wrote this about Jesus, the suffering Servant:

There were many who were appalled at Him—His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and His form marred beyond human likeness. Isaiah 52:14

You see, Jesus knew He wasn’t going to just be merely fractured. He knew that He was going to be completely broken, physically and emotionally, to where He would be unrecognizable. That’s how brutal His abuse would be and the broken bread was to serve as a reminder of how much Jesus suffered, not just for His beloved twelve but for all disciples from that point forward. We’re still reminded of the severity of Jesus’ brokenness every time we partake of the sacrament of communion today.

Well, such a battering and the subsequent brokenness, coupled with having His hands and feet being nailed to a cross, left Jesus bleeding from multiple parts of His body. And as we see from Jesus’ second statement to His disciples, there was special power in the blood He would shed:

In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.”

The time for the new covenant had arrived and it would be sealed by the blood shed by Jesus on Calvary’s cross, the blood of the Lamb of God who indeed had come to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

All the world, Jews and Gentiles alike.

It was a new way to see Passover, the meal that commemorated the day when the Israelites were spared from an angel of death who was sent upon Egypt to strike down the firstborn of people and animals (Exodus 12:24-27).

So what protected those Old Testament Israelites from the judgment God sent?

It was the blood of a slain lamb which was applied to the sides and the top of the doorposts where the Israelites were housed. When judgment came, the angel of death “passed over” the houses where the blood was present (Exodus 12:7, 12-13).

Fast forward to Jesus and you’ll see how there would now be a new way to look at Passover, a way that still endures today and will so forever.

You see, death is as certain for all mankind as the fact that all people are sinners. No one is going to live forever and everyone stands deserving of God’s harshest punishment. That is, unless something is put in place so death might “pass over” someone facing the threat of judgment and save them from punishment and damnation.

Enter in to this scene the blood of Jesus, the blood of the Lamb that not only washes every sinner white as snow but serves as the covering which shields every disciple of Christ from death, helping usher them into God’s promise of eternal life through His Son (John 3:16). This is what we are to remember when we drink from the cup of communion, giving thanks for the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, the unblemished lamb of God, the sacrificed Passover lamb of the New Testament (1 Corinthians 5:7) who brought atonement for all, once and for all.  

Tomorrow, we look at the sacrifice.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com