In Luke 22:1-23 we read Jesus gathered His disciples in the upper room to celebrate Passover. Passover was instituted some 1,500 years before Jesus Christ when God told Moses and the Israelites to place the blood of a slaughtered lamb on the two doorposts and on the lintel of each home so that the Lord would "pass over" those homes and not kill the firstborn living there when He executed judgment on Egypt for refusing to free the Israelites from slavery. God told Moses, "And when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:13, NASB).
And so for nearly 1,500 years the Israelites would celebrate Passover to remember how God judged Egypt to set them free from bondage, and the blood of the lamb was what protected believers from God's wrath. So the object lesson for Israel was blood protects the believer from God's wrath against sin. Later at Mount Sinai God would institute animal sacrifices for Israel to perform to drive this point home. These sacrifices had to be performed over and over again to cover the sin of the individual sinner and the nation of Israel. These sacrifices only covered sin but could not take them away (Heb 10:3-4). All this can be read about in the book of Leviticus.
Finally, 1,500 years later, Jesus arrives on the scene. When John the Baptist saw Him he said of Him, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Yes, Jesus is the Lamb of God that does not merely cover our sin but takes it away. Thus, when Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples, He inaugurated something new. Passover became the "Lord's Supper," and it was not the blood of a lamb that was shed, but His very own blood on our behalf. Jesus said of the bread and the cup of wine He shared with His disciples, "This is My body which is given for you," and "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood" (Luke 22:19-20). The "old covenant" was the Passover and all the sacrifices associated with it that covered sin, but the "new covenant" is the one that saves us by taking away our sin forever. The new covenant is far better and if offered freely to all those who will believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (John 3:16). Today we celebrate not Passover, but the Lord's Supper, to remember that Jesus suffered and died to take away our sins and give us eternal life.
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