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Welcome to the Thursday of Jesus’ final week. As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, with these words, we are less than twenty-four hours from the crucifixion. Words wherein Jesus could just as well have said to Peter and John, “Go and prepare my final Passover meal together, so that we can eat it together.”
Jesus will on this Thursday evening celebrate with His disciples THE singular observance on the Jewish calendar, from time of Moses (Exodus 12) even to today. Indeed, as Rabbi Joseph Telushkin so succinctly stated in his classic work, Jewish Literacy, “Passover is the most widely observed Jewish holiday.”
But here’s the thing: Overshadowing this entire discussion tonight is this raw reality around which I cannot begin to wrap my mind: The centerpiece of Passover, of Jesus’ final Passover — the Passover lamb — has throughout redemptive history pictured one and only one person: Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That person, Jesus, whose sacrifice in less than twenty-four hours would pay the penalty for the sin of world.
What emotions must have flooded Jesus’ mind, heart, and spirit…
- As He led this His final Passover Seder?
- As He Himself partook of the Passover lamb that symbolized everything that would happen to Him that very night into the very next day?
- The lamb that symbolized Jesus as the lamb of God?
- The blood that would symbolize His shed blood?
- The entire Passover story retold and in a sense reenacted in that Upper Room that celebrated the Israelites freedom from slavery to the Egyptians?
- That now symbolized our freedom from our slavery to sin, and from the punishment we all deserve?
That punishment paid for by Jesus who is what Paul called “our Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7)?
All of this, and so much more, flooded like a tsunami of emotions Jesus sizable heart on this, the day Jesus told Peter and John, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together.”
Preparing for this Passover meal, and every annual Passover meal, was and is no small thing. Given the enormity of the symbolism of every single aspect of a Passover celebration, preparation required effort and deliberation.
For our many Jewish friends, Jesus’ words to Peter and John, “Go and prepare the Passover meal,” involved much that we might easily miss. Consequently, in order to understand what took place in that Upper Room on this Thursday evening, we’ve got to hear Jesus’ words, “Go and prepare,” as Peter and John heard them.
So let me start with this…
Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together.” (Luke 22:7-8)
Now, one of the most insightful instructions that Jesus gave to Peter and John came immediately after this:
“Where do you want us to prepare it?” they asked him.
10 He replied, “As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him.” (Luke 22:9-10)
What is the significance of this? Well, first of all, men in Jerusalem would never carry pitchers of water on their heads. Fetching water was purely a woman’s job.
…Except for in one tiny corner of the city – in the Essene neighborhoods of Jerusalem’s southwestern quadrant. You see, there were only men living in this particular area. So, there were no women there to fetch the water. The men had to do it.
Now, it’s important to note that Jesus celebrated His final Seder in the Essene quadrant of Jerusalem because every Passover Seder is basically the same since the days of Moses. In fact, the very word “Seder” means order. So, for thousands of years, practicing Jews have followed the same order of events at their Seder. But the Essenes, uniquely, added another aspect to their Seder. They combined the aspect of looking back to Exodus 12 with looking forward to the promises of the prophets. They incorporated what they called “The Anticipation of the Messianic Banquet”.
Their Seder was very much a celebration!
Therefore, the mood in the upper room where Jesus sent Peter and John to prepare was most likely a combination of somber reflection and reliving of the Hebrews’ Exodus along with the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah! Jesus wanted His disciples to know that what was going to happen the very next day was not the end, but rather the beginning. He wanted to warn them that He would suffer and leave them, but He would also return.
You see, the neighborhood where they celebrated what we know today as “The Lord’s Supper” is not a bit of Bible trivia, but a significant and intentional positioning of Jesus – the Rabbi – painting the picture of what was about to occur.
“What we are doing tonight is not merely reliving the Exodus. We are also anticipating the banquet where you and I and all of my family will meet together to celebrate together!”
That’s what Jesus was trying to communicate.
This is also why, as we read in Matthew 26:26-29, we see Jesus going “off script” from the typical Seder that has been practiced for millennia:
As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.”
27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. 29 Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”
Verse 29 refers to the Messianic Banquet. THAT is where he will drink the cup new with us in His Father’s Kingdom!
But, why all the mystery? Why didn’t Jesus simply tell His disciples which address to go to? Why did He have them look for a man carrying a pitcher of water and tell them to follow him? Especially when we know that Jesus did everything with a purpose, not arbitrarily… why didn’t He speak more clearly and concisely?
Well, consider who was looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus that very night.
Judas – one of the twelve – was looking for a private place, away from the crowds, where he could easily point out Jesus without stirring up a riot. And, the perfect time to do this would be in the evening, when everybody else is having their own Seder. And the perfect place to do it would have been in the upper room.
The Passover Plot was afoot… but because Jesus spoke vaguely, Judas could not go beforehand and tell the Pharisees where they would be celebrating their Seder.
And, speaking of the Seder, let’s look into what would be going into John and Peter’s preparation for that evening. First off, the entire room would need to be completely cleansed of all yeast or leaven. Now, it’s likely that this would have already been taken care of since Jesus told Peter and John:
“As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters, 11 say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ 12 He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” (Luke 22:10-12)
The reason all the leaven and yeast would need to be removed is because, throughout the Bible, they represent sin. This is also why they use – even today – Matso bread during the Seder, which has no yeast. This is also why the festival is called the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The bread is symbolic, in that it represents the sinless nature (without leaven or yeast) of Jesus who was broken for us, just as He broke the bread in the upper room that night.
Another thing that would have been already prepared for them was the table. Now, unlike what may come to mind, based on DaVinci’s painting, the table in the upper room was most likely not a chair-height elongated rectangle with seats on only one side. It was most likely a Triclinium at a lower height, where Jesus and His disciples would recline at while taking part in the Seder. And they would most definitely be reclining at the table because free people reclined. Servants stood at attention, ready to serve. Upon being rescued from the Egyptians by God, the Jews were free… free to remember the Seder, and free to recline with Jesus that night.
This left it up to Peter and John to prepare the Seder meal.
The Seder always starts with the youngest person in attendance asking: Why is this night different from all other nights?
You see, on all other nights, they would eat leavened bread. On all other nights, they would eat all kinds of vegetables, but at the Passover Seder, they would only have bitter herbs. On all other nights, they would not dip their vegetables, but at the Seder, they dip them twice. And, on all other nights, they would eat sitting or reclining, but at Passover, they only eat while reclining.
Additionally, there would be four cups of wine at the table. There were four for very specific reasons – the four-fold promise of redemption that God made to Moses in Exodus 6:6-7,
Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Within this Covenant is a four-fold blessing: God would bring His people out, He would rescue them, He would redeem them, and He would take them as His people. Four blessings. Four cups.
The first cup, which begins the Seder is the Cup of Sanctification, or Kiddush. With this cup, they sanctify – set apart as something holy – everything that follows within the Seder.
Now, remember “holy” does not necessarily mean “somber”. There can be holy celebrations! The Messianic Banquet will be an extremely holy event… and a huge celebration!!
Before drinking of the first cup, the head of the Passover Seder – in this case, Jesus – would have prayed:
“Blessed are you, Oh God, who kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this moment.”
Just imagine Jesus praying these words mere hours before His arrest and suffering.
But, instead of continuing on with the Seder, as it had been for thousands of years and still is today, Jesus paused. He went off-script again and added:
“I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.16 For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15-16)
He had already made the prophesy regarding the Kingdom of God in regards to the bread, and now He is reiterating it with the first cup of wine – “Next time I have Passover, it will be a Messianic Banquet with you!”
Anywhere else in Jerusalem, with the exception of the Essene quarter, this meal would have been strictly about remembering the past. But there, in that neighborhood, in that upper room, with that Rabbi, the past was combined with the anticipation of an amazing future!
Then, Jesus finished the prayer over the first cup:
Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who created the fruit of the vine.
After this, Jesus dipped His hands into a bowl and ceremonially washed His hands. But, again, He departed from the typical Seder script:
He got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. (John 13:4-5)
This was the supreme example of Jesus’ humility and what became the ultimate symbol of His love for His disciples, including Judas who was still in the room.
Now, back to the elements that Peter and John would have had to prepare:
1. Parsley. The green of the Passover parsley represents life. The parsley is dipped into salt water, which represents tears. During the years of slavery, the Children of Israel were painful and immersed in tears. But, they didn’t stay in tears, which is represented by the parsley being brought up out of the salt water. This is reminiscent of God redeeming His people out of their tears of slavery, through the Red Sea (which is a body of salt water) and into freedom. So, as the parsley is dipped as a symbol of life into the “tears” and lift it out, it represents the lives of the Jewish people being delivered from their years of slavery, through the Red Sea and into the Promised Land.
2. A Bitter Herb. Typically, most Jews celebrating the Passover Seder use horseradish today, guaranteeing that when you taste it, you will cry. It is a symbol of bitterness and tears. It is purposed to induce tears in order to relate to the tears that the enslaved Israelites shed while they were in bondage. The goal was to participate and relive the events of God’s people who were freed at the original Passover with Moses.
Now, while they were eating the bitter herb of the Seder, Jesus said to His disciples:
“I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me… One of you who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me.” (Matthew 26:21-23)
Jesus then dipped His matzo into the horseradish, handed it to Judas, and said, “What you must do, go and do quickly.” (John 13:27)
Then, we read that immediately, Judas left the table and went out into the night.
3. Charoset. This is a sweet mixture of apples, nuts, honey, raisins, and cinnamon. It tastes as good as it sounds, but it represents the mortar that was in between the bricks of the buildings that the Hebrew slaves were forced by the Egyptians to build for Pharaoh. They also represent the fact that even the most bitter of our toils grow sweet when we remember God’s promises of redemption… and our redemption is drawing nearer every single day.
In regards to this, Peter went on to write:
There is wonderful joy ahead even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. (1 Peter 1:6)
But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13)
4. The fourth item of food in the Passover Seder is Lettuce. Lettuce is used because Exodus 12 speaks of bitter herbs – plural – so a second bitter herb is included in the Seder. Now, while the leaves of romaine lettuce are not bitter, their roots are and act as a reminder that the root of life is often bitter, as was the Hebrews’ years of slavery.
5. A hard-boiled egg. Peter and John did not have to prepare this item for their Passover dinner, but it is used in the Seder today. It is peeled, sliced, and before it is eaten, it is dipped into salt water. Once again, the salt water represents tears. Today, the participants mourn the fact that Passover lambs can no longer be sacrificed at the Temple, as it no longer exists. Therefore, it is a reminder that the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D. But, additionally, it is a hope that next year the Temple will be restored in Jerusalem and the Seder can be celebrated there once again! However, the disciples did not incorporate the egg into their Passover meal, as the Temple was right there in the Holy City, and, as Jesus knew, the Sacrificial Lamb, was in the room with them.
6. The final item on the Seder plate is the unbroken shank bone of a lamb. Now, in Jesus’ day, they didn’t need this, since they had the lamb. Instead, the disciples would have gotten an unblemished lamb, taken it to the priests at the Temple, where it would have been slaughtered. Then they would bring the meat home and prepare it for the meal, and that would be the centerpiece of the Passover meal. Also, in Exodus 12, it states that the lamb must be without blemish and…
Each Passover lamb must be eaten in one house. Do not carry any of its meat outside, and do not break any of its bones. (Exodus 12:46)
Today, as there is no Temple nor sacrifices, people celebrating the Passover Seder place a lamb shank bone on the Seder plate as a reminder.
Additionally, this reminds us today about John 1:36,
As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!”
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in Him. (1 John 3:5)
…the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was Passover week). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. 33 But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. (John 19:31-33)
All this to say, there was quite a bit of work to do for Peter and John.
But, moving along the Seder that night in the upper room, we come to the second cup – the Cup of Plagues. Prior to the Exodus, there were ten plagues that God sent to Egypt, each one taking on one of the Egyptian gods. They culminated in the final plague, the killing of the first born including Pharaoh’s son. To commemorate the plagues, before drinking from the second cup, the head of the house – in this case, Jesus – would dip his finger into the cup and drop ten drops of wine onto the Seder plate. The idea is that the full cup represents unbridled joy, but we need to call to mind and remember our redemption was paid for by suffering.
This brings us to the bread – the Bread of Affliction. It is broken in half. One half is wrapped in a linen cloth. Then, typically, a child in attendance is told to go outside and hide or bury it. Once it is hidden or buried… that’s when the feast begins!
And this turns into boundless celebration.
Now, after the banquet and festivities are over, the children are allowed to go out and find that linen-wrapped bread and bring it back, where it is broken up and divided amongst everyone in attendance. This is the portion of the Passover meal that Paul described in 1 Corinthians 11:23 – 24,
On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
This was the Bread of Redemption that had been buried and then returned.
Right after the bread, Jesus took the third cup – the Cup of Redemption…
And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. (Matthew 26:27-28)
After this, the Seder ends with the singing of Psalms 113-118 and the fourth and final cup of wine – the Cup of Praise – was shared. After praising God with songs, Jesus and His disciples then left the room and walked to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Now, on a final note, one aspect of every Seder dinner today – though not in Jesus’ day – is that a place at the table is set and left empty. This is called “Elijah’s Chair”. This place at the table represents the undying hope of every Jew that as they celebrate the Passover, maybe – just maybe – Elijah, the forerunner of the Messiah, will come to the table and announce that the Messiah is on His way!
So, even today, as the Passover celebration formerly ends, each person in attendance will look at that empty seat and proclaim in unison:
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Now, we know that when John the Baptizer came, he came in the power and spirit of Elijah (Luke 1:17) John also was the one who announced that the Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sins of the world, was Jesus.
Elijah has come. And he did announce the coming of Messiah.
Which is why Paul wrote in Romans 9:2-5,
My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters, I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. 4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.