Passover to the Last Supper

Passover to the Last Supper

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;  you shall reckon it the first month of the year.  Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.”  (Ex 12: 1 - 3).  “The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.  You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.  You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, and then with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.”  (Ex 12: 5 - 6).

“On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”  He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”  (Mt 17: 17 - 18).

“Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and procure lambs for your families, and slaughter them as Passover victims.  Then take a bunch of hyssop, and dipping it in the blood that is in the basin, sprinkle the lintel and the two doorposts with this blood.  Seeing the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and not let the destroyer come into your house to strike you down.  (Ex 12: 21 - 23).

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, :”Take and eat; this is my body.”  Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on the behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.  I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.”  (Mt 26: 26 - 29).

This Passover by the angel of death after he saw the blood on the lintel and doorposts shall be a perpetual ordinance for yourselves and your descendants.  Thus you must observe this rite when you have entered the land which the Lord will give you as he promised.  When your children ask you, “What does this rite of yours mean?”  You shall reply, This is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt:  when he struck down the Egyptians, he spared our houses.”  (Ex 12: 24 - 27).

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left.   Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”  (Lk 23: 33 -34).

“Who would believe what we have heard?  To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth;  There was no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him.  He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem..  Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God  and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins.  Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.”  (Is 53: 1 - 5).

Ralph B. Hathaway