As the disciples were preparing for the Passover meal, Jesus was preparing to die as the Passover Lamb. He didn’t just enter Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover that week, He came to be the Passover. The very literal fulfillment that was foreshadowed in that first Passover when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and the plague of death passed over the homes that had the blood of a lamb on their door posts. Following this last and most deadly of plagues, the people were freed from their bondage of slavery in Egypt.  God instructed the people in Exodus 12 that they were to remember and commemorate this event with a week long celebration and feast. And so Jesus came into Jerusalem during Passover week, surrounded by throngs of people and the bleating of the Passover lambs.

1 Corinthians 5:7 states that Christ is our Passover lamb.

According to Jewish tradition, the Passover lamb was to be without spot or blemish. So too, Jesus was totally and completely without sin.

 The Passover Lamb was brought into the family home and subjected to further inspection for four days but not before it was wiped down, sometimes putting oil on its feet and wrapping them is swaddling cloths to keep them clean.

Jesus entered our home, our world. He was wrapped in swaddling cloths. He was subjected to fierce inspection. He was tempted and tried in every way and found to be without spot or blemish, without sin. And just before He entered Jerusalem that last time, oil was poured upon his feet.

John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!

And so, even as the lambs were being led away for sacrifice, Jesus was carrying his cross to calvary to become the once for all sacrifice for sin. Even as the people were remembering how the blood of the Passover lamb saved them from death and opened the door for their freedom, Jesus was making a way for all people for all time to pass from death to life and be free! 

In Revelation 13 Jesus is described as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But it’s really Revelation 3:20 that brings us back to our text, back to the last supper as it usually is called.

 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.

In Luke 22 Jesus tells his disciples, “Go and prepare the Passover meal so we can eat together.”

And so tonight, let us prepare our hearts, that we too might share a meal with Him, so to speak, and remember his sacrifice in just the way He has asked us to. It’s always about invitation with Jesus. Invitation to simply come to the table and eat of his goodness and drink of his grace. And remember.