We are reflecting on the final days before Christ's crucifixion, and now we arrive at the day when Jesus reclined at the table for one last Passover meal with His disciples. Before discussing Passover, it would help to explain what was necessary for the forgiveness of those who repent of sin and turn toward Christ. God needed an innocent substitute to break Satan's hold on humanity. The punishment for rebelling against God's moral law is death (Ezekiel 18:4), which means separation from God, the source of all life. In His love for mankind, God planned from the beginning that He would come as a Substitute and pay the price to buy us out of Satan’s slavery with His blood, i.e., a life for a life. Without the shedding of blood, there is no redemption (Hebrews 9:22). When Peter the Apostle preached to thousands on the Day of Pentecost, he told them:
This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23; emphasis added).
The cross of Christ was not a mistake for God. He does not make mistakes. The plans of evil men against Jesus were allowed to fulfill the plan of redemption for all who trust in Christ. This plan was clear to all the early believers:
27“Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen” (Acts 4:27-28; emphasis added).
Satan and evil men conspired against the Messiah. They will be/are being held accountable for their actions, but God had a plan for a Substitute to pay the price of deliverance. Jesus said, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded” (John 10:18).
Now, let’s discuss Passover:
Twelve hundred years prior to the crucifixion, God foreshadowed His act on the cross by rescuing the children of Israel from Egypt. This event, known as Passover, marks the beginning of a seven-day celebration called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Last Supper was the last Passover meal Jesus shared with His disciples.
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed (Luke 22:7).
In our study of the Last Supper passage, it helps to imagine what it was like to be a Jew living in Egypt during the time of Moses. The descendants of Jacob, renamed Israel, had been in Egypt for four hundred years when a new Pharaoh came to power and forced the Israelites into harsh slavery. When Pharaoh decided to limit the number of Israelites born in Egypt (Exodus 1:22), the people of Israel began crying out to God under their oppression; God sent Moses as their deliverer. When Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt, God demonstrated His power through Moses by judging Egypt’s false gods with ten plagues. Although the Egyptians suffered greatly, God protected the Israelites. As the plagues worsened, God told Moses that He would visit upon Egypt what they had done to Israel—there would be one more plague, and then Pharaoh would let them go. The last plague God sent was to kill all the firstborn children in Egypt. God told Moses that He would protect the Israelites if they slaughtered a lamb as a substitute and placed the lamb's blood on the lintel and sides of their house doors. The blood would serve as a sign of the substitute lamb instead of the firstborn in the families of Israel.
12On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt (Exodus 12:12-13; emphasis added).
The night Jesus sat down with his disciples was a celebration of what God did in providing a substitutionary Lamb to deliver the Israelites from slavery, something that Christ would now do by offering His own blood as a substitutionary Lamb. Let's talk some more about this tomorrow. Keith Thomas
Click on the following link for all our 3-minute Bible meditations:
Taken from the series in the Gospel of Luke. Click on Study 59. The Last Supper.