Introduction: How old was the little Lord Jesus when his family returned from Egypt? You remember the story; the wisemen came and brought their gifts to the little child. Many feel that Jesus may have been nearly 2 when they arrived. Herod insanely jealous and anxious to keep his throne declared the slaughter of every child under the age of 2 in the region, but Joseph is warned in a dream to flee to Egypt, and in Egypt they remain until it is safe to return? Thus the prophecy is fulfilled, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
I wonder if when Jesus was in Egypt he ever visited Goshen, the home that his ancestors had known for so many years. Rich Mullins asks the question in a song,
Joseph took his wife and her child and they went to Africa
To escape the rage of a deadly king
There along the banks of the Nile, Jesus listened to the song
That the captive children used to sing
They were singin’
My Deliverer is coming - my Deliverer is standing by
My Deliverer is coming - my Deliverer is standing by
Whether Jesus thought these thoughts as a child is beyond our knowledge. But we do know that for four hundred years the Hebrew people were shackled to Goshen, making bricks for Pharaoh. There seemed to be no hope of release. Moses once tried to free the slaves with his strength as a Prince of Egypt, but this failed and Moses fled. When God elected him to act again he came hesitantly. Through him God brought sign after sign to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh’s heart was hard. The greater the sign, the more severe the punishment on the captive Jews.
Finally in what appeared to be a last ditch effort God instructed the people to take for each family a lamb. In the spring of the year, on the 10th Day of Nisan they were to bring the lamb into their home. There it was to become a part of the family. Then on the 14th Day in the evening they were to take the lamb and sacrifice it and they were to apply the blood to the doorposts of the home, this would be a protection on their homes when the final plague, the destroying angel visited Egypt.
With these things complete night fell, and in the night a cry and wail grew in Egypt as each firstborn son of every house without blood was found dead. In the midst of the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and for the last time stood face to face with God’s representative and commanded him to go and take the people with him.
In a great long jubilant procession the people of God began their journey from Egypt to the promised land. Made free by the blood of a lamb. So began the annual feast of Passover. A feast which had first occurred some 1400 years before the time of Christ. A feast which would become the highlight of the Jewish year. An act of redemption that had become the rallying point for captive Israel.
I. With Fervent Desire
As we begin to read Luke’s account we come across the words of Jesus, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…’
Passover began that year as it had for many years previous. It was a great celebration. A jubilant time. Thousands of pilgrims would have packed the city, the silver trumpets announcing the temple was open for worship. Throngs of people began the celebration together. Today was the day when the lambs would be brought in, today the sacrifice was chosen. Today and for the next part week the spotless lamb would be cared for and celebrated.
How many had come for the first time this year? To be in Jerusalem for the highest and most holy day week of the year?
Who had traveled the furthest? Surely there were Jewish people from every corner of the empire and beyond. Scripture identifies the fact that their were people there from all over Palestine and even from Egypt in North Africa. How appropriate to travel from Egypt to Jerusalem for the Passover.
Truly it could be said of them – ‘With fervent desire we have desired to eat this Passover…’
Among them was the buzz of a question. Who is Jesus? He had arrived on this day, riding in to Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey, the recognized sign of royalty for the Jews. In the already jubilant spirit the people came out to meet him. The children cried out Hosanna, and their parents cut down palm branches and olive branches for them to wave in the impromptu parade.
Walking along beside and behind him were the dozen men who were his constant companions. They were beaming ear to ear. Each of them had great expectations. Already Jesus had settled a dispute about who would sit at his right hand in the kingdom. But each one of them had wild expectations. This was greater than winning a lottery – surely this would be the week in which the Lord revealed himself to the world as the deliverer of Israel. Surely this would be the long awaited deliverance from captivity, how appropriate it fell at Passover.
Truly of them it could be said – ‘With fervent desire we desired this…’
But what of Jesus. He alone bears the knowledge of what this week is. This is the prelude to the end. For even as the sacrificial lambs were being brought into the city, so he had entered in – the Lamb of God.
Tonight is the last night of ministry; the last night of fellowship with this little band of 12 before the cup of sin must be consumed.
How many memories flooded his mind as he thought about each of them. It is with these thoughts that Jesus speaks, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you…’
II. Broken Bodies
It was the custom of Passover in Jesus day, that certain acts be performed during the meal. A number of times a cup was shared and a blessing pronounced. After the second cup is readied the youngest member at the meal asks, “Why is this night special from every other night?”
In reply the head of the household tells the story of the Exodus. Reminding all that this act is a present remembrance of and thanksgiving for God’s past liberation of oppressed people, a celebration of God’s faithfulness leading to hope in the future deliverance of God’s people. This would be followed by singing the first part of the Hallel.
It seems likely that this would have been a part of the Passover Jesus hosted. Was it John then who was the youngest, or another of the disciples who held that rank that spoke to Jesus asking him ‘Why this night was different from any other?’ How little they knew about the reality of that question.
But Jesus takes the bread then and breaks it, saying “This is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me.”
What does the word ‘broken’ mean?
The dictionary defines break as – ‘to become damaged or damage something so that it separates into pieces, to cause something to stop functioning properly.’
Isn’t it remarkable that when the Lord took up the loaf and made this pronouncement he was the only one who was not broken? If the opposite of being broken is being whole than Jesus, to this point, was the only unbroken man who had ever lived.
Those sitting around the table were intimate with brokenness. They knew it and felt it in their everyday life. Do you forget who is sitting with him? Levi, the hated tax collector, who carried the scars of having broken, having cheated and stolen.
There was Simon, the zealot – or in modern language Simon the terrorist. A man who had been once broken by hate and revenge.
Sitting across from him was Peter, the impetuous one, who had been warned already once about getting in God’s way, and would be warned again tonight, rebuked for his passion to fight, and ultimately broken by his final failure in the wee hours of the morning when he would swear he never knew Jesus.
Already Judas has departed from the supper and is picking his way through the darkened streets to meet the temple guard who will shortly seize the Lord.
And as we flip through the pages of scripture we find face after face that is broken. Broken by sin, scarred by evil; people without a hope of patching together the few pieces they still have.
In the midst of them we have watched the unbroken Son of God walk, talk and eat. We have sat with him at tables as a broken woman fell at his feet. We have sat at his feet on the hillside as he makes much of little so all can eat. We marvel at his insight and teaching.
Now we marvel as the perfect unbroken Son of Man takes the bread and says, ‘This is my body, broken for you.’
For the brokenness of humanity his body would be broken.
For the eternal life of humanity he would give his eternal life.
For the Son of Man comes to give his life ransom for many.
III. Changing of the Covenants
On the 14th Day of Nisan the lambs brought into the city with such celebration were taken out and sacrificed. Unlike other sacrifices, this sacrifice had many meanings. It reminded the people that a substitute had to die. It brought to their mind the fact that through this sacrifice God had wrought deliverance from bondage. It was recalled that this sacrifice once brought protection to their homes.
Had it not been planned this way, it would have seemed ironic. But it was not ironic, it was deliberate, the pre-meditated self-sacrifice of the Holy One of God would occur on the most significant day of the Hebrew calendar. It is the final blazing image of God’s deliverance.
For the Passover in Egypt and the festival that reminded Israel of what God had done for the past 1400 years was simply a type, a shadow, a picture of the reality that would take place. It was a shadow that was cast from the foot of the cross back into pre-history.
Like some giant tumblers of a great combination, the last events have fallen into place, and now nothing will stop the door from swinging open to reveal the salvation which was planned from the foundation of the world in eternity past, which was foreshadowed at the fall, which has been illustrated for centuries with sacrificial little lambs. The Son of God will become the sacrifice from the foundation of the earth.
Taking up the cup, the Lord Jesus imbues an old and now forgotten symbol with something new. For centuries the Jews have known the first covenant, the Old Covenant, a covenant which demands the pouring out of innocent blood, the sacrifice of bulls and goats and lambs. The sacrifices which cannot erase sin, but simply serve as a reminder of the separation that stands between the sinner and his God.
Now the Lord Jesus takes the cup and says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.”
In a few hours the Lord Jesus will offer himself as the only acceptable offering. In a divine mystery that we will never fully understand, God accepts as payment the life of his sinless son, in exchange for the lives of a world of sinners. So a new covenant is struck, in which through the Blood of Christ we can draw near to God without fear, for Christ himself has become both the offerer and the offering.
Conclusion: With these common table elements Jesus left a remembrance of his love, not only for his beloved disciples, but for every Christian to trod this way. So we are reminded that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
Without the cross there is no salvation. If Christ had not died I would stand guilty before God with no hope of defense. But in the same way that it was not sufficient that the first Passover Lambs be slaughtered only, but that the blood had to applied to each door, so today, the blood of Christ has no effect for me until it has been personally applied to my account.
This is salvation, applied and accomplished. Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
