Let Death Pass Over

Prayer

The Passover Meal

We begin this evening with the event that started off the final twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life, Jesus gathering with his disciples with what we commonly refer to as “the last supper.”

After the supper, they will make their way to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, where Jesus will be arrested, dragged before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Ruling Council, to face trial, before he is taken before Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judea.

There, though clearly innocent, Jesus will be condemned to death by crucifixion, whereupon he will be taken outside the city to place known as Golgatha, the place of the skull, where he is nailed to the cross and hangs until his death.

But the evening begins here: Luke 22:7-8, 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.”

This final meal together takes place during the Festival of Unleavened Bread, on the day that they are to share the Passover Meal - the timing of this is no coincidence.

That’s important to understand, what it is that they are celebrating here. What exactly is the Passover meal, and what does it have to do with what is about to happen to Jesus? In order to understand this, we must go back to the Old Testament, to the book of Exodus.

The Book of Exodus tells the story of the Israelites being freed from enslavement from Egypt, where they had been in slavery for 430 years.

They cried out to God in their misery, and God sent Moses to free them. Moses goes to the Pharaoh, demanding that he free the Israelites - but he doesn’t want to lose all his slave labor so he refuses.

God responds by sending plague after plague (plagues of water turning to blood, gnats, darkness, etc.) to stir the Egyptians to free the Israelites, but Pharaoh’s heart remains hardened. So God lowers the boom, one more plague, the tenth, and this one is devastating: The firstborn son of every creature in every household will be killed.

So, not just the people, but their livestock as well. Death will reign over the land. Imagine that for a moment - no household untouched, every single household, from the royal palace of Pharaoh to the humble home of the slave, in one single night they will all experience the tragedy of death.

There is only way to escape God’s wrath - instructions are given to Moses, which the Israelites must follow if they are to escape the coming death. Here are the instructions God gives them.

They are to prepare a meal that anticipates them leaving in a hurry - eat it in a hurry, with sandals on their feet, their cloak tucked in their belts and sandals on their feet - ready to go. They are to bake unleavened bread (bread without yeast, which bakes much more quickly). And the main part of the meal will be roasted lamb.

But here’s the critical part of preparing the lamb, Exodus 12:21-23...Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

So the lamb’s blood smeared on the doorframe will cover the households of the Israelites so that instead of bringing death, the destroyer will pass over them.

Exactly what happen, next morning there is weeping and wailing throughout Egypt because the destroyer has made his way through every single household, killing the firstborn sons. Pharaoh finally relents and lets the Israelites go - after 430 years they have their freedom.

This is the background that informs what Jesus is doing here in this meal with his disciples, this helps us understand the Lord’s Supper, which is happening in the midst of the Feast of Unleavened Bread as they share the Passover meal.

By the way, take a moment to marvel in God’s sovereignty, weaving all this together, timing of when Jesus is arrested and crucified - it’s no accident that it happens during Passover. Jesus himself tells them in verse 15, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

It’s the events of the Passover that shade what Jesus did that night and what we do in remembrance of him every time we gather to share in this meal. When Jesus takes the bread - Luke 22:19, 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.”

Now, remember, this was the Passover, it would have been unleavened bread that Jesus was breaking and sharing with them, the bread with no yeast.

Yeast, or leaven, had become symbolic for sin - listen to what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, when he is confronting them about sinful behavior that they are not only tolerating, but actually celebrating:

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast (sin) leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast (get rid of old sinful self), so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are (made righteous, in Christ). For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul is saying we don’t want yeast (sin) in our lives - because even a little yeast impacts the entire batch of dough. Sin has a way of impacting the whole person, and even the whole community. And Jesus died, he was sacrificed to free you from sin.

If leaven symbolizes sin, then as Jesus holds out the bread, saying to them, this is my body - he’s telling them that this is my sinless self. This is my body, unblemished - and I’m giving it to be broken for you, I’m offering myself, though innocent, on your behalf.

Then Jesus moves on to the cup - vs. 20, 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.

Jesus is holding out the cup filled with wine, declaring to them that this is the new covenant, the new promised agreement God is making with his people - and this covenant is ratified in Jesus’ blood. It’s the blood of Jesus that puts the agreement into affect.

Again, Jesus is holding out this cup to them - it’s poured out for you. I’m giving it for your sake. I’m offering my blood.

Connection to the Passover would have been clear to the disciples - the Passover meal included not just the unleavened bread but the lamb that had been sacrificed, it’s blood spread on the top and sides of the doorframe. The blood covered the Israelites - the angel of death, the destroyer would pass over their homes because of the blood.

1 Corinthians 5:7 again: Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

It’s his blood that covers over us. His sacrifice enables us to escape death. His blood frees us.

Really is amazing how the Bible tells one consistent story, the Old Testament and the New Testament - everything points us to Jesus, and what we are remembering this week, his suffering, his death - his body without blemish broken for us, his blood poured out for us. So that we might escape enslavement to sin - live unleavened, that death might pass us over. And, of course, story continues Sunday as we rejoice in Jesus victory over sin and death.

Let me finish with this as we move into time of sharing in this “Passover meal” made new in Jesus - in both of these stories there is an offer that necessitates a response.

Israelites are given instructions to bake unleavened bread, sacrifice the lamb, placing its blood on the doorframes of their homes and then staying in those homes eating the meals, with their sandals on and belts tucked in, ready to go.

They could have chosen not to do that, to ignore the instructions - not bothered with smearing the blood on doorframes. Or decided to leave the house to walk around and see what was happening. They could have - and of course, they would have, along with the Egyptians, suffered the dire consequences.

Here, too, Jesus makes an offer - in form of this bread and this cup. He is offering himself, his sinless self, his sacrificed body, his shed blood. This is what he explicitly says, as he holds out the bread, this is my body, given for you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you.

Question comes - what are we to do with his offering?...I think what we do with any gift offered to us that is incredibly precious, costly beyond measure - and yet, offered freely and fully - no fine print, no “catch”.

We take that offer and hold on to it. We receive wholeheartedly, please and thank you! We’d be fools not to - it’s really only pride that would prevent it.

To receive it as fully as we possibly can, with heartfelt gratitude - thank you, thank you, thank you.

This is my encouragement to you, as we move toward celebrating Communion, doing this in “remembrance of me.” To see this bread, this cup, as Jesus freely given offer of himself. And to simply receive it, trusting that there’s no conditions, you don’t have to earn it, prove yourself worthy of the gift, but in humble gratitude, receive it, grab it, claim it as yours. And give thanks.