Reposted from Joli Blog
As we spend the next few days preparing for Easter, we may have a meal planned with family. Many of us will be dying eggs and having egg hunts. If you hail from Ville Platte or some other country community, like I do, you probably will be doing a little pacque pacque. We will be decked out in our Sunday best. I’m already thinking about the chocolate rabbits (I like the hollow ones).
But this year, I really wanted to be focusing on the real meaning of Resurrection Day. So I decided to do this Beth Moore study, Jesus the One and Only, which has enriched my understanding of the events surrounding the life and death of my Savior. Time well spent, I can assure you.
Of course, I found the entire study to be very informative and moving. I learned a lot. But what I would like to share with you are the things I learned about the day before Jesus was crucified that I found to be particularly fascinating.
I think we all know that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. His body lay in the tomb on Saturday and, on Sunday, He rose again. As Christians, we know this Story. But what do we know about the Thursday (which, incidentally, is today)? We know the story of the Last Supper and Garden of Gethsemane, but if you’ve ever done an in-depth Bible study with Beth before, you know that she likes to take you a little deeper into the story. I love that.
So here we go…a little deeper.
The Passover (Luke 22)
As Gentile believers, we usually refer to this being “The Last Supper.” Jesus and His disciples were Jews. What they were celebrating was the Passover. The Passover was a celebration instituted by God through Moses in Exodus Chapter 12. They were to celebrate on the fourteenth day of the first month of the year, “…because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.” Exodus 12:17 (NIV)
The meal consisted of “…[lamb] roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.” Exodus 12:8 (NIV) This meal was a celebration of God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, but it was about so much more. It was foreshadowing what was to come.
The significance of unleavened bread is spelled out for us in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” (NIV)
In the study, Beth says, “The bitter herbs symbolized the bitterness of the suffering memorialized in the Passover observance: the bitterness of slavery, ..death, …and…an innocent lamb’s substitution….the lamb would soon be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.”
Interestingly, Beth also points out that Jesus chose Peter and John to prepare the Passover meal, and they are the only two of the twelve apostles who were ever recorded referring to Jesus as the “Lamb.” (1 Peter 1:18-20 and Revelation 5:6-8, 12-13) Apparently, having prepared that meal, and witnessing the fulfillment of what it represented, affected them greatly.
The Passover meal was celebrated by each family with the father pouring the cups of wine and the youngest child asking the traditional questions that provoked the father to tell the story of the Passover. Christ took the father role in this observance and poured the first of four cups of wine. They would’ve risen from the table and He would have recited the Kiddush, or prayer of sanctification. It is believed that John was the youngest disciple, so he likely would’ve asked the questions.
Beth says that “The four cups of wine served at the Passover meal represented the four expressions, or “I wills” of God’s promised deliverance in Exodus 6:6-7.
First Cup: Cup of Sanctification: “…I will bring you out…”
Second Cup: Cup of Plaques: “I will deliver you from their bondage…”
Third Cup: Cup of Redemption: “…I will redeem you with an outstretched arm…”
Fourth Cup: Cup of Ingathering: “I will take you as my own people…”
Jesus poured the second up of wine and narrated the story of Israel’s exodus. Then they had the meal.
The third cup was taken after the supper (Luke 22:20). Beth goes on to say that “We know Christ did not literally drink this third cup because He stated in Luke 22:18 that He would not drink of another cup until the coming of the kingdom of God. Instead of drinking the cup, He would do something of sin-shattering significance. He would, in essence, become the cup and pour out His life for the redemption of man.”
Is this stirring anything in any of you? Because, I tell you what, I can’t help but shout “Hallelujah!” to that one!
He brought me out; He delivered me from my bondage; He redeemed me with his arms stretched out on the Cross; and when He returns in His glory, He will take me as His own! Give me a minute…gotta get up a dance a little bit!
We will drink that Fourth Cup with Him at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb! I can’t wait! (And my glorified body will be able to handle the wine that my earthly body cannot without overindulging!)
Another very significant event in this particular Passover is that Jesus instituted the New Covenant, represented by the bread and the wine. (Luke 22:19-20)
Garden of Gethsemane
Immediately after Jesus celebrated the Passover with the Twelve, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. While His disciples slept, He cried out to God. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14:36 (NIV)
Beth quotes The Dictionary of New Testament Theology regarding Jesus’ use of the term “’abba.” This gave me chills.
“In Aram, ‘abba is originally…a word derived from baby-language. When a child is weaned, ‘it learns to say ‘abba (daddy) and ‘imma (mummy).’…Nowhere in the entire wealth of devotional literature produced by ancient Judaism do we find ‘abba being used as a way of addressing God.”
She goes on to say, “Never minimize the moment by thinking God couldn’t have removed the cup….That God could have stopped the process yet didn’t is a matchless demonstration of love. Can you think of anyone for whom you’d watch your only child be tortured to death?”
Do you see the value He places on you, Beloved?
That Thursday night was also the same night Jesus was betrayed by Judas, arrested and tried before Annas, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. He was mocked, beat, spat upon, insulted and kept up all night before being tried again the next morning by the Sanhedrin and turned over to Pilate.
I’ll end with this poem of Beth’s:
O perfect Lamb of Passover,
Let me not quickly run.
Recount to me the blessed plot,
Tell how the plan was spun
That I, a slave of Egypt’s lusts,
A prisoner of dark dread,
Could be condemned unto a cross
And find you nailed instead.
Powerful stuff, Baby!
ReplyDelete