Jesus, the Passover Lamb

An Easter message

Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover Lamb must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.” (Luke 22:7, 8 NKJV)

Just before the last supper Jesus tells two of his disciples to go and prepare for the Passover. This was not unusual for neither Jesus nor the disciples. Throughout his childhood, in the home of Joseph and Mary, celebrating Passover was a normal tradition.  He had seen his mother carry out the ritual house cleaning and his father go to the field to search out the perfect lamb, one without spot or blemish.

During this preparation they would reflect on the stories they had heard from generation to generation. The story about how God rescued them from Pharoah’s hand and led them out of Egypt. It started on a terrible night when the angel of death came to kill all the first born throughout the land. Only if they had killed a lamb and spread its blood on the door post would the angel of death pass over them and they would be safe. Joseph had told this story year after year as the family would gather and he would read the Haggadah, which means “tell you son.”  So when Jesus tells his disciples to go and prepare the Passover they knew exactly what to do.

Later on during the Passover meal known now as the Last Supper, Jesus raised the cup, the cup that is used for celebrating and remembering the Passover lamb. He boldly proclaimed: “This is my blood, this is a new covenant.”  It must have been a strange moment for all of them. Jesus basically said that he was the Passover Lamb and that he was the one they should remember from now on as as they raised this cup.

As the story goes on Jesus is later captured and killed and it all starts to make sense.

Is this what John the Baptist meant when he pointed at Jesus and said:  “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world?”

Or as the Book of Peter later describes it, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (I Peter 1:18, 19 NKJV)

You see, through the sin of mankind we are held in bondage and captivity of sin, very much like the people of Israel were held bondage in Egypt. Our Father in heaven wants us to live in freedom and in fellowship with Him, so He sent his only son to earth to pay the price for our sin. There was nothing that we could produce in ourselves to bring such an offering to God. All our lambs had blemishes and spots. So God sent His own solution from heaven and as Jesus lived a sin free life on earth, he qualified as the spotless lamb needed to pay the price in full.

I wonder what went through Jesus’ mind when he told his disciples to “Go and prepare the Passover” fully knowing that He was that lamb and that this would be His last Passover.

As you read this we are preparing for Resurrection Sunday (Easter), the time when we celebrate the empty cross. The blood that was shed on the cross is like the blood swiped on the door posts of our hearts. The Resurrection swings the door wide open all the the way to the father. It is a doorway to freedom, freedom from bondage and captivity.

My prayer is that you will find that freedom, that as you leave Egypt and as start living in this new land that God has given you, you  will soon found that not only does he take you out of Egypt, he takes Egypt out of you.

Every year thousands of Jews pilgrimage to Jerusalem to remember what God did, they tell the story to the next generation that no one will forget.

This Sunday gather your family and make a pilgrimage to church, remember what Jesus has done, tell the next generation, we can not afford to forget.

God bless you.