JESUS IS OUR PASSOVER LAMB

The Jewish Passover consisted of selecting a lamb without blemish on the tenth day of the first month (Ex. 12:3), and keeping it until the afternoon of the fourteenth day, killing it, and preparing it to be eaten after sunset, which was the beginning of the fifteenth day, the first day of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12:6-10; Lev. 23:5-8).  Pilgrims to Jerusalem would travel there in time to find accommodations, select the lamb, and wait for the Passover.  Each evening, from the tenth until the thirteenth, they ate a normal supper, but on the fourteenth, they ate the Passover meal.

Nearly every preacher I have heard speak on the Passover traditions of the Jews, has said the Last Supper, celebrated by Jesus and His disciples, was the Passover meal.  They go to great length to say that the cup and the bread were a normal part of the Passover.  However, it should be obvious that what the Lord did with the bread and the cup was different from what had ever been done before, in that He identified with them as being His body and His blood (Lk. 22:19-20).  While the Synoptic Gospels seem to say Jesus was calling the meal they had eaten the Passover, John's Gospel clearly shows it was not.  Here is what John wrote concerning the meal: 

*  "Now before the feast of the Passover..." (Jn. 13:1)

*  "For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast..." (Jn. 13:29)

*  "Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover" (Jn. 18:28).

*  "And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!" (Jn. 19:14).

*  "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away" (Jn. 19:31).

*  "There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand" (Jn. 19:42).

When we compare all that the Word of God has to say about the meal, 

we discover that Christ didn't eat the Passover; 

He WAS the Passover (1 Cor. 5:7)!