Sermon Tone Analysis

Sunday April 24, 2022

Yeshua - The Pesach Lamb

Yeshua-Jesus & the Passover.

This is an important issue for us to pay attention to, as Yeshua Meshiac, or Jesus the Christ, is the sacrificial lamb that is foretold in the Pesach, the Passover Supper.

It should make all of the difference in the world, then, for us to note what the Holy Spirit captures to bring to our attention.

Note,what is called out - and why it was captured and recorded for us.

I cannot think of anything more Ironic and perhaps more informative than the God-Man himself, Emmanuel - God with us, the Saving Messiah who is the lamb of God, performing the very last Pesach for his disciples, as part of the fulfillment of His requirements to meet the label of “the lamb of God who is worthy to receive the sins of the world”.

Now as we have reviewed before, the feast of the Passover is the first of the seven holy seasons of the Hebrew scriptures, the Torah.

It is the only holy season, all of which are feasts, which is initiated prior to the meeting with YHWH at Mt. Ararach when the law was given to Israel.

Passover or Pesach came before the giving of the law.

All of the other feasts & holy seasons were given with the law.

Pesach is the most frequently mentioned feast in Israel, mentioned 50 times in Hebrew Scriptures, 27 times in the New Testament.

As we have reviewed previously, there are 4 names for Pesach or the Feast of Passover.

Hag HaPesach, which means the feast of Passover, Exodus 34:25

Next it is called Pesach, coming from the Plague of Death motif found in Exodus 12.

Those who had the blood of the slain lamb sprinkled upon the lintel and doorposts of their home were passed over, but those homes that had no blood sprinkled suffered the death of the eldest born son.

This passing over or passing through is our term Pesach.

Our third name is Hag He’aviv, meaning, feast of spring.

It is the first feast of the spring cycle of holidays/feasts on the Hebrew Calendar.

There are 4 feasts that occur in the spring, then there is a long wait, and then we have the 3 feasts of the fall.

The fourth Hebrew name for the festival is Aman Cheruteinu, which means the “time of emancipation.

It is not a biblical reference but emerges from the Jewish prayers for the holiday.

This name emphasized the result of the first Pesach: freedom from Egyptian slavery.

The Main Objective of the Pesach, is remembrance of what YHWH did for Israel; How He did it; Some will only see ceremony - some will see the picture of the Lamb of God who would take the sins of the world.

So today, I want to examine what is recorded of how the Messiah, Yeshua-Jesus observed this final Pesach of His, which He shared with His disciples, who would later become apostles.

The Messiah’s observance of Pesach is recorded in all 4 of the gospels.

Matthew 26:1-5, 17-20, Mark 14:1-2, 12-26, Luke 22:1-2, 7-20, John 13:1-30.

Yshua was following all of the Jewish and biblical practices of observing Pesach.

While not all of the 15 listed steps or the other elements and observances are recorded in the gospel, eight of them are recorded for us.

So these have been called out for us as items that are noteworthy - worth paying attention to.

Let’s examine these 8 elements together:

1 - The Preparation

then later in Matthew 26:17-19

In Mark’s account we read:

and Mark 14:12-16

and in Luke, Luke 22:1-2

and further in Luke, Luke 22:7-13

This was the Pesach when Yeshua-Jesus was destined to die.

He would fulfill the feast on this occasion.

Now note that the conspiracy by the Chief Priests against Him was determined that he was NOT to die during the feast.

Satan did not want Yshua-Meshiac to die at Pesach.

So the plan was to definitely not kill Him at Pesach.

and

But Yeshua Jesus was going to make sure they would act on the very night that they did not want to act.

Yeshau-Jesus had made preparations.

This was His time.

2 - The Kiddush

The Kiddush is the sanctification of the Pesach.

Luke 22:14-18 mentions this:

The blessing over the Pesach is recited, that is the “giving of thanks”, and then the first cup of the night is taken.

Note that He indicated how He desired to eat this Pesach with them - fervent desire.

The word ἐπιθυμία (epithymia) means a longing, a yearning, a craving.

He wanted this before He suffered.

It was a special Pesach indeed for Yeshua-Jesus.

The phrase “fruit of the vine” in v. 18 is a technical term applied only to describing the Pesach Wine.

Not only was this Pesach special because it preceded His suffering, crucifixion, and judgement for the sins of all mankind.

It was special also, because it was His last with them until rejoined at His second advent, in the Messianic Kingdom - when the Kingdom of God comes.

3 - The Urchatz

The 3rd Element of the Passover Feast that we see in the Gospels is the Urchatz.

This element which is mentioned here in the Gospels, and which correlates with Jewish Practice, is the washing of the hands.

We find this account in John 13:1-11

Normally the hands are washed by a servant.

In this instance there are no servants, only disciples.

And it seems frankly, that none were willing to demean themselves to lower than the others.

Jesus broke with Jewish tradition as he first took the servants role in doing the washing.

Second he washed the disciples feet.

Now this was not required for the feast - hand washing was.

But in polite society, including the Greeks, the Romans, the Hebrews, and the Egyptians, it was always good form to wash the feet at the door.

Everyone knew what you were stepping in on the highway, like it or not.

Also, it has been mentioned that this is the upper room of their host that they are using … so it tended to be cleaner, less used, perhaps made of wood flooring.

Also, during the meal there were times when everyone would recline on the benches all towards the LEFT OR RIGHT, which would put them all in close proximity to the feet of their neighbor.

Christ makes a point about how far the love of the Shepherd must go.

How often the kids understand this better than the adults.

And those who change diapers better than those who haven’t for a while.

It is the essence of servanthood which should be manifest in the life of every Christian, every follower of Yeshua-Jesus.

4 - The Karpas

This karpas is the point in the meal where the parsley or greens are dipped.

We find it in Matthew 26:20-25

and again in Mark 14:17-21

Yeshua-Jesus announced that His betrayer was in their midst.

They wanted to know who it might be … He named no one.

But he gave a hint to those who were paying attention:

And apparently at that point as Yeshua-Jesus dipped his green vegetable into the salt water, Judas did the same.

Judas knew that He knew, and apparently John who was closest saw it.

Matthew heard it, as did Peter - who passed it on to His disciple John-Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark - but it is not clear that anyone realized what was happening at that point.

5 - The Yachatz

The next ceremonial point mentioned is the breaking of the middle of the three layers of matzah.

The middle loaf of Matzah bread is removed from the middle compartment of the cloth bag called the matzah tash, which has three compartments with a loaf of matzah bread in each.

Once removed, the loaf is broken in half, the larger portion hidden for the end of the feast, and afikomen ceremony which reminds of the Paschal Lamb, and the smaller portion is placed back in the middle compartment.

The theme of the Seder is to remind what YHWH did in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt.

Remembrance is to enable thinking.

Remembrance for remembrance sake is quite meaningless.

They are to remember how YHWH was invoking His covenant relationship with Israel to deliver them, as He told Abraham He would, after 430 years in an alien land.

Now, we are to remember Yeshua, the one who is the theme of Pesach, the one who would provide spiritual redemption, the final Paschal Lamb.

He who delivers all mankind from an alien land.

The Yachatz preceded the reading of the Haggadah, the Pesach book detailing the storyline of the Exodus and several Psalms to be read.

6 - The Korech

Our next ceremony mentioned is the korech, the making of the sandwich with horseradish and an apple-nut mixture.

Yeshua-Jesus uses this ceremony to again identify His betrayer for a second time.

Our narrative actually moves from the end of a prior step of the ceremony, a step where our Pesach guests are all to leaning to their left, and while in this leaning position Christ discloses the betrayal and announces that someone will betray Him, and Peter asked John, who was leaning on Jeshuah-Jesus to ask who it might be.