This year during the season of Lent through Easter Sunday morning we are continuing what we started during our Advent season, that is we are looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, passages including His life, trials, suffering and crucifixion and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus. Today we rehearse the events of the day of Unleavened Bread or Passover.
After their deliverance from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, the Lord gave the Children of Israel the moral law, the civil laws and the ceremonial laws including the sacrifices and the feasts they were to celebrate. Concerning the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the Passover, from which we get the Lord’s Supper, Moses writes in Leviticus, “4These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. 5In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD’s Passover. 6And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 8But you shall present a food offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work” (Leviticus 23:4-8).
The Feast of Unleavened Bread was intended to be a reminder to the Children of Israel of their deliverance from slavery. Indeed, even today we use the church year calendar and the seasons of the church year to remind us, lest we too, as the Israelites often did, forget our deliverance from our bondage to sin. Thus, the feast was an important part of life. The important parts of the feast were that a lamb is selected and slaughtered. Indeed, as John the Baptist recognizes Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Because leavening is compared to sin in that sin continually multiplies in our lives, so at Passover time the leavening was removed from the homes and just as the children of Israel ate unleavened bread because of their quick exit from Egypt, so it is eaten at the feast.
The blood of the lamb that was slain was used to mark the door post and lintel of the homes of the children of Israel so that the angel of death would pass over and not kill the firstborn. More on this later. And finally, all of this celebration was done in remembrance, lest the people forget.
On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus gathered with His disciples to celebrate this feast given back in the Old Testament. The Gospel writer Matthew narrates the events of that night, “17Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?’ 18He said, ‘Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, “The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’ 19And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. 20When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. 21And as they were eating, he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’ 22And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, ‘Is it I, Lord?’ 23He answered, ‘He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. 24The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.’ 25Judas, who would betray him, answered, ‘Is it I, Rabbi?’ He said to him, ‘You have said so.’ 26Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ 27And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, 28for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’” (Matthew 26:17-29).
Jesus sent His disciples to prepare the Passover in the guest room, the upper room. Evidently Jesus had made prior arrangements and moved in the hearts of people to willingly agree. The Passover Seder was a feast rehearsed according to the instructions given in Leviticus. There are certain foods which are eaten as well as four glasses of wine which are consumed during the Seder.
According to the commentator Paul Kretzmann, the Seder was administered as such: “Jesus had all twelve of His disciples with Him when the meal began. It began with the benediction over the wine and the feast and the drinking of the first cup, the master of the house drinking first, after him the rest. After all had washed their hands, they ate the bitter herbs, dipped in vinegar or salt water, as a reminder of the sorrows of Egypt. In the mean time the paschal dishes were brought in, the charoseth, or broth, the unleavened loaves, the festal offerings, and, above all, the roasted lamb, after which came the explanation of all these dishes by the head of the household. They now sang the first part of the Hallel, Ps. 113 and 114, and drank the second cup. Hereupon began the feast proper, the householder taking two loaves, breaking one in two, laying this upon the whole loaf, blessing it, wrapping it with bitter herbs, dipping it into the broth, and handing it around the circle, with the words: This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in Egypt. The master next blessed the paschal lamb and ate of it; the festal offerings were eaten with the bread, dipped in the broth; and finally also the lamb. The thanksgiving for the meal followed the blessing and the drinking of the third cup. In conclusion, the remainder of the Hallel was sung, Ps. 115-118, and the fourth cup drunk. 195) “The first cup was thus devoted to the announcement of the feast; and Luke tells us that with this cup Christ announced to the disciples that this was the last feast which He would celebrate with them in this world…. The second cup was devoted to the interpretation of the festal act; with it the Apostle Paul connects the exhortation: ‘As oft as ye eat of this bread and drink of the cup.’ The third cup followed the breaking of the loaves, which celebrated the unleavened bread and was the cup of thanksgiving; this the Lord consecrated as the cup of the New Covenant.’”
What does this mean? And why is this sacrament so important? Jesus was celebrating the Passover, that is the passing over of the angel of death over Egypt as the Children of Israel were being delivered from bondage to slavery. The night of the Passover those in the house were eating the lamb that was slaughter and the blood of that lamb marking door.
As Jesus gives to us His Sacrament of Lord’s Supper He is giving us our deliverance from our bondage of slavery to sin. At the Lord’s Supper, like the Children of Israel in the homes, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is giving us His body to eat. Thus, just at the lamb became a physical part of the children of Israel, so the Lamb of God becomes a physical part of us.
In Egypt the blood of the lamb was painted on the door post and lintel of the door, making the sign of the cross in the upward and cross motion. In the Lord’s Supper Jesus gives us His blood to drink, the blood of the lamb of God marking us so that the angel of eternal death will pass over us so that we have eternal salvation.
From the Passover Jesus gives us a new sacrament, the Lord’s Supper. Jesus then goes to the cross where He suffers and dies and pays the complete price for our sins. Yet, we do not go to the cross for forgiveness. If we want forgiveness we go to His Supper where He gives what He earned and paid for, forgiveness of sins. And most certainly, as Jesus is now in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, so as true God He continues to be everywhere present so that He is in the bread and wine so that we are eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus, just as His words tell us because He is the One who makes it His Sacrament and through His Sacrament He does great things.
As we rehearse once again on this Maundy Thursday we are reminded of what a great God we have, what a loving God we have, what a gift giving God we have. He has done everything for us and He gives everything to us. He has paid the price for our sins. He gives us the forgiveness He earned for us and we are given to. Thus, we rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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