Jesus - Our Passover Lamb

Today’s Through the Bible Reading: Mark 14:12-21; Matthew 26:17-25; Luke 22:7-18; Luke 22:21-30; John 13:1-30

And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Luke 22:15-16 ESV

The disciples, who had celebrated the Jewish feasts year after year, were experiencing the actual fulfillment of the Passover they had so faithfully celebrated all their lives, though they didn’t realize it at the time. Jesus, however, knew what He was about to go through. With every symbolic act of that Passover meal, He understood that He was the Sacrificial Lamb who fulfilled its promise (1 Cor. 5:7; John 1:29-36).

Think back to that first Passover night in Egypt, when God instructed all of Israel to apply the blood of a lamb to the doorposts of their homes so that the angel of death would pass over (Ex. 12). God instructed His people to prepare a feast that night consisting of a sacrificed lamb, unleavened matzah bread, and bitter herbs (Ex. 12:8). But it was the lamb that was the core requisite for Passover (Ex. 34:25; Deut. 16:1-7). If there was no lamb, there was no blood to apply, and therefore no deliverance.[i]

God commanded His people to observe Passover as a memorial forever (Ex. 12:14, 26-27). Over a thousand years later, Jesus – the perfect Lamb of God, sat and ate this meal with His disciples and said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you.” For Jesus knew it would soon be fulfilled through His suffering (Luke 22:15-16).

Just as the people of Israel escaped death because in faith they marked their doorposts with the blood of the lamb, so too, we are spared eternal death because the doors of our hearts are covered with the blood of Jesus, the spotless Lamb.

“For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things…But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:18–19

Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God (John 1:29), sacrificed for the sins of the world.He was the perfect fulfillment of Passover and it is His blood that covers our sins and completely set us free.

[i] “The Record of Passover.” The Feasts of the Lord, by Kevin Howard and Marvin J. Rosenthal, Zion's Hope, 1997, pp. 50–51.

by Sharon Kaselonis / All rights reserved ©