Passover ⛬

Passover

 Most Christians know the Last Supper as the origin of communion. What most do not know is that the Last Supper was a specific Jewish ritual meal — the Passover Seder — and that understanding the structure of that meal completely transforms what Jesus was doing and saying during it.

The Passover Seder was — and remains today — one of the most precisely structured ritual meals in the history of religion. God commanded it in Exodus 12 as an annual commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. Every element of the meal had a specific prescribed meaning. Every cup of wine had a specific name and a specific place in the service. Every food on the table was a theological statement. The Seder was structured around four cups of wine — each one corresponding to one of God's four promises of redemption in Exodus 6:6-7. The first cup — the Cup of Sanctification. The second — the Cup of Plagues. The third — the Cup of Redemption. The fourth — the Cup of Praise. When Luke 22:20 records Jesus taking "the cup after the supper" and saying "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" — He was taking the third cup. The Cup of Redemption. The cup that for centuries had represented God's promise to redeem Israel from slavery. Jesus was declaring that this cup — at this meal — was no longer pointing forward to a promised redemption. It was being fulfilled. Now. In Him. The unleavened bread Jesus broke and called His body was the afikomen — the piece of matzah that was broken at the beginning of the Seder, wrapped in a cloth and hidden, then brought back out and eaten at the end of the meal as the last taste of Passover. In Jewish tradition the afikomen represents something hidden and then revealed. Jesus was declaring that He was the afikomen — broken, buried, and brought back. The bitter herbs on the table recalled the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. Jesus was about to take on the bitterness of the world's sin. The Passover lamb on the table recalled the lamb whose blood on the doorposts caused the angel of death to pass over Israel in Egypt. Jesus was hours away from being the Lamb whose blood would cause judgment to pass over all who trusted in Him. He did not randomly choose to hold the Last Supper during Passover. He chose it because every element of the Passover meal was a detailed description of exactly what He was about to do. He was not just attending the Seder. He was fulfilling it.