Our Passover:
Jesus, the Lamb of God
By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe
John 1:29 (NKJV)
29 The next day John saw
Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world!
God has appointed particular times of worship. These times are proclaimed in Leviticus 23: 1 And
the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the children of Israel,
and say to them: 'The feasts of the LORD,
which you shall proclaim to be
holy convocations, these are My feasts. (NKJV).
The first of
the appointed days is Passover. Passover
was one of the three pilgrim festivals when all Israelite men were required to
come to the tabernacle and, later, to the temple in Jerusalem to bring an
offering and to worship. To the ancient
men of God, the day commemorated their deliverance from slavery in Egypt and
looked forward the sacrifice of the coming Messiah as the complete atonement
for sin.
For us,
Passover is a time to look back to the finished work of the Cross. It commemorates our deliverance from the
bondage of sin. It is a time for us to
come before the throne of God, to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice (Romans
12:1) and to worship in spirit and in truth.
Let’s look at
Jesus’ journey on the Passover that culminated on Calvary.
A few days before
Passover, Jesus fulfilled prophecy by entering triumphantly into Jerusalem on
the back of a donkey. People lined the
roadsides shouting, “Hosanna”, meaning, “Lord, save!” The throngs longed for deliverance from the
oppression of the Roman government.
Little did they know that Jesus came to bring
a greater deliverance, freedom from the bondage and consequences of sin.
One of the
requirements of Passover is that all leavening (yeast) be cleansed from the
homes. Leavening symbolizes sin. On the
day after He entered the city, Jesus went to His house, the temple. He cleansed the leavening by chasing out the moneychangers
and declaring His Father’s house as a House of Prayer and not a den of thieves.
In like manner,
Passover is a time to cleanse our temples (our bodies) of sin through
confession and repentance and to offer ourselves once again as a living
sacrifice to our Lord.
Remember that
the Biblical day begins at sunset.
Therefore, the time that Jesus served the Passover meal to His disciples
was in the evening, the beginning of the Passover day. The day when the ancient Israelites and
modern Jews eat the Passover meal is at sunset after Passover. It is really the first meal of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread.
In His serving
of the unleavened bread and the wine, Jesus explained the symbolism of the
Passover meal. The communion service is
a continual reminder of the sacrifice of the Cross. In it we remember:
Isaiah 53:4-5 (NKJV)
4 Surely He has borne our
griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God,
and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was
upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
After dinner, Jesus went into the
Garden of Gethsemane to pray. That
prayer is known today as The High Priestly Prayer and is recorded in John
17. Jesus prayed for all believers
through the ages. As I have stood on the
Mount of Olives among the olive trees that were alive on that Passover, my
heart has been overwhelmed with the realization that it was in that area that
Jesus sweat drops blood as He prayed for me.
It was in the Garden as He was
praying that Jesus was betrayed and arrested. As the night turned into day, He was tried,
beaten, crowned with thorns, taken to Golgotha, nailed the Cross, and forsaken
by His Father because He carried on Himself the sin of the world.
Then, at the moment when the
sacrificial Passover lambs were slain, He declared, “It is finished” and gave
up the ghost. As that happened, the
earth shook, and the veil in the temple that separated the people from the Holy
of Holies was torn from top to bottom, and believers from that moment on have
had access to the Throne of God.
Hallelujah!
Baruch HaShem
Hamashiach Yeshua. Barach HaShem Adonai. Blessing in the name of Jesus the
Messiah. Blessing in the name of God.
This year,
Passover begins at sunset on Monday, March 25.
