Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Passover and the Crucufixion

I posted a blog about Communion on Monday, and it occurred to me that, although I alluded to the idea that the Passover foreshadowed the Crucifixion, I didn't go into a lot of detail about it. I will attempt to rectify that now.
In Exodus 12, God told Moses to have Israel prepare for the tenth plague--the death of the firstborn. On the tenth day of the month, the Israelites are to pick out a lamb for each household; the lamb is to be a perfect lamb, without any blemish on it. On the fourteenth day of the month, the lamb was to be sacrificed, and its blood applied to the doorposts of the house. God said that He would pass through Egypt and take the firstborn from any household that didn't have the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. In Numbers 9, God tells Moses that the children of Israel should celebrate Passover every year, and He says that they should not let even one bone of the Passover sacrifice to be broken, not even after it was dead.
In John 1:29, John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God, a sentiment echoed in Revelation 7:17, 14:10, 15:3, 19:9, etc. In First Peter 1:19, Peter compares Jesus to a lamb without blemish, and even says that it was the blood of Jesus that redeemed us. In Hebrews 9:12, Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus' blood gives us eternal redemption (as in, the sacrificial offerings of various animals has to be done over and over, but the sacrifice of Christ was done once for all of us). Also, in John 19:33, we are told that the soldiers came around to break the legs of the three men being crucified, so that the could entomb them, and not worry about them getting away, but they saw that Jesus was already dead, so they didn’t bother to break His legs.
So, the sacrifice should be a lamb, check. The lamb should be without blemish, check. The blood of the Lamb signals the death angel to pass over, check. No broken bones, check. It’s also clear that Jesus was crucified the week of Passover: Matthew 26 indicates that the Last Supper happened on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread (Passover lasts a week), but Matthew also tells us that the chief priests and scribes didn’t want to take Jesus on the feast day, because it might cause an uproar (Matthew 26:5). Mark 14:12 also indicates that the Last Supper was on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. Luke 22:7 indicates the same thing. John 18:28, on the other hand, says that when Jesus was taken into Pilate’s judgment hall, that the scribes and priests had not yet celebrated Passover. I think that it’s a pretty safe bet that Jesus wanted to celebrate Passover once more with His disciples before His crucifixion, so He had them prepare Passover early, but none of them thought to mention that in the narrative. In fact, John 19:14 says that the day of the crucifixion was the preparation for the Passover, which, if I’m reading that correctly, was the time that the lamb was sacrificed for Passover. It’s hard to be sure, the way the Gospels were written, but it seems like Jesus was actually crucified on the fourteenth of the month.

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