Holy Week Count Down – Day Three

While the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke make it clear that Jesus and his disciples ate the Passover meal together on Thursday evening, the gospel of John does not carry any such indications as it recounts the Last Supper in chapters 13-17.

That seems strange, since John always connects Jesus’ life and teaching with great symbols. In chapter 6, for instance, Jesus feeds the crowds, and then tells them to eat his flesh as well!

So why no Passover connections in John 13-17?
It has to do with timing.

Most Jews in Jerusalem that year were celebrating their Passover meal on Friday night. But Friday’s sundown was the beginning of the Sabbath, rabbis taught that it was also permissible to eat the Passover meal on Thursday night, helping some conscientious Jews keep the no-work-on-the-Sabbath regulations.

Thus Jesus and his disciples celebrated Passover on Thursday evening, while most Jews in the city waited for Friday evening.

For the many who ate the Passover meal on Friday night, lambs were selected Friday morning, and killed in the Temple courtyard between noon and 3 p.m. This is why John does not make any reference to the Passover at Jesus’ last supper with his disciples.

John does not deny that it was a Passover meal. But he wants to make another connection.

At the very beginning of John’s gospel, the first thing anyone said about Jesus was this: “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! (John 1:29). That redemptive idea continued throughout the gospel, until this Passover climax on “Good Friday.”

While the lambs were gathered in the Temple courts, Jesus was gathered into the Fortress of Antonia, right on the same property!

While the lambs were being selected for slaughter, Jesus was selected by several agencies and courts for a death sentence!

While the lambs were being slaughtered in Temple square, between noon and three, Jesus was slaughtered on the cross, only 100 yards away!

Never since Egypt, had the Passover been so fully the Passover!

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him might be saved!