LESSON 1

The Passover and the Last Supper

Scripture

The Passover -Exodus 12: 1-14

The Last Supper - Luke 22: 7-24; Matthew 26: 17 - 30

Overview

Much of life is centered around the table and food. Considerable time is spent in gathering, preparing, eating, and cleaning up after a meal. Family life is nurtured as the family gathers together to eat and share in the morning plans for the day and in the evening sharing how the day has gone. Many holidays and family celebrations center around food, often very specific foods prepared in specific ways. Those celebrations are held annually in specific places, and the extended family often travels some distance to gather together.

In our home each of those annual celebrations has its own unique menu. Turkey will not be served at Christmas. Turkey is reserved for Thanksgiving and will be prepared the same way that mom prepared it. Unique foods and how they are prepared often identify us with a specific family. For a mother-in-law to share the family recipes with the new daughter-in-law is a big deal. It is a way of saying welcome to the family; you are one of us.

That is the context in which we ought to approach this lesson on the pivotal meal of the Old Testament and the pivotal meal of the New Testament. In both cases the meal gives identity to the faith community. A person is really not a part of either of these communities, if they have not participated in the meal that is particular to that community. Identity as a person of faith is attached to both meals. This meal helps define both communities. Each meal has a strong remembrance element. In both meal settings, we are asked to remember God's specific action on behalf of the community and the individual. In both cases that action of God revolves around the theme of deliverance. God will deliver his people from slavery and from sin. Each meal features specific foods prepared in some very specific way. The extent of specific direction is amazing in both cases, even to the extent of how the food is to be eaten and what is to be said as the meal is repeated and remembered in the future.

But the one factor that really links these two meals together as parallels is that Jesus intentionally uses the Passover meal as the setting for his Last Supper. Jesus is very specific about our understanding his Last Supper within the context of the Passover meal. That suggests we need to pay particular attention to the themes that are similar in both meals. Several themes run through both stories. There is the theme of deliverance. There is the theme of sacrifice. There is the theme of death as the penalty for sin. There are the common symbols of bread and blood and wine. There is the promise of a new beginning. There is the theme of remembrance.

The theme of deliverance in the Passover is expressed in two different images. The first is the deliverance from slavery. Four hundred years before the exodus, Joseph had been sent to Egypt as a slave. God is at work in Joseph, and through Joseph Egypt is delivered from a seven year famine. Joseph becomes second only to the Pharaoh. Joseph brings his family to Egypt to save them from the famine as well. The family that was to become Israel consisted of seventy two persons when they arrived in Egypt. After four hundred years, they have become six hundred and five thousand men over twenty not counting the women and children. They have been enslaved by the Egyptians as they grew in numbers. They are an oppressed people. There is a contradiction in their enslavement. Through Joseph, God has saved Egypt. Egypt does not turn to God but will enslave Israel, the people who worship God. Moses is sent to Pharaoh with the message to let my people go. The Passover meal will be the celebration of Israel's deliverance from slavery in the land of Egypt. They are to eat the meal with their loins girded, sandals on their feet, and staff in their hands ready to get out of Egypt.

The second image of deliverance in the Passover is deliverance from death. The angel of death passed through the land, and the first born of every family would die before the night was over except where the blood of the lamb was placed upon the doorposts and lintel of the house where the meal would be eaten. The deliverance from death would be accomplished through the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb. The people appropriate the sacrifice by intentionally placing the blood of the lamb upon the entrance of their home.

The image of deliverance in the Last Supper is expressed by Jesus as he says, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin." (Matt. 26:28) The image is deliverance from sin. Since the wages of sin is death, the implication is also deliverance from death. Sin also enslaves. To tell one lie is to set a person up to tell another. There is an element of addiction to sin. To forgive, to break the bondage of sin is to set a person free from slavery to sin. The blood of Jesus given as a sacrifice is the method of deliverance from sin. Jesus emphasizes several times that his life is not taken from him, but rather given freely. The sacrifice of Jesus is to be seen as a part of the intentionality of God acting on our behalf. That same intentionality of God is seen in his actions on behalf of Israel in Egypt. The image is of Jesus' blood that will be shed later upon the cross

The two meals interpret each other precisely at the point that God is at work to deliver the people whom he has created in his own image. He delivers Israel from slavery and death in Egypt to set them free to be a new nation that worships him and lives by his law and purpose. The image of deliverance continues in the Last Supper as Jesus gives himself as the sacrificial lamb. The blood of lamb upon the cross breaks our bondage to sin and sets us free from the death that sin brings. Freed from sin and death, we can live in relationship with God for eternity.

The second theme is sacrifice. In the Passover scripture, a lamb is the sacrifice. The lamb is to be one year old and without blemish. The lamb is to live with the family from the tenth day to the fourteenth day of the Passover month. The blood of the lamb on the doorposts will be the sign for the angel of death to pass over that house. The roasted lamb was to be eaten so it could furnish strength for the journey to the Promised Land that was to begin the next day. A lamb being sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins was a regular practice in Jewish worship at both the tabernacle and later the temple from their...