The Road to Easter: God's Eternal Planಮಾದರಿ

The Passover

Sometimes all you need is new eyes.

Maybe you have had the experience of looking at something you have see a thousand times but suddenly it's different. It might be a tradition, a word, or a familiar action that suddenly shifts in your mind, revealing a new layer of significance. You have seen it with new eyes - maybe the eyes of your heart.

This is the transformation Passover underwent as Jesus celebrated it for the final time with His disciples.They were about to see the ancient symbols of Passover with new eyes and discover that God had been preparing His people for something far greater than they ever expected—something that would change everything.

For the Jewish people, Passover had been a long-standing tradition passed down for generations. A festival mandated by God, it served as a yearly reminder of His faithfulness in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and delivering them from slavery. They celebrated the story of the lamb’s blood on the doorposts, the angel of death passing over their homes, and the freedom they received through God's mighty hand. But in many ways, all of that was just a shadow—a picture of something even bigger that God was going to do.

When Jesus gathered His disciples for His final Passover meal, He wasn’t just participating in a tradition His people had celebrated for 1,500 years. He was fulfilling it. He was showing them that He was the true Passover Lamb—the Lamb whose blood would be shed not just to free them from physical slavery, but to free them from the slavery of sin and death. In 1 Corinthians 5:7, Paul declares:

"For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."

This wasn’t just another Passover—this was the Passover, the fulfillment of the promise God had been preparing for all of history.

First, Jesus did something unexpected—He washed His disciples' feet. The disciples would have expected Jesus to wash His hands before the meal, as was customary, but instead, He knelt down and performed the task of a servant. It wasn’t just a symbolic gesture—it was a powerful act of humility. Jesus was showing them that He "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." In that moment, He was preparing them for the ultimate act of service: His own death on the cross.

Then, as they broke the unleavened bread, Jesus did something even more astonishing: He said, "This is my body, broken for you" (Luke 22:19). The bread, which symbolized the haste with which the Israelites left Egypt, now became a symbol of His own body, about to be broken on the cross. The bread, once a reminder of deliverance from physical bondage, now pointed to the ultimate deliverance from sin.

Jesus was saying, "This is how you will truly be set free. Partake of me!"

And then, the cup. The Passover meal traditionally included four cups of wine, each one representing a different aspect of God’s promises. But when Jesus took the cup and declared, “This is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20), He was revealing that the old covenant, based on law and sacrifice, was being replaced. His blood would be the ultimate sacrifice, fulfilling everything the old covenant had pointed toward. In Egypt, the blood of a lamb spared their lives for a day, but the blood of the Lamb of God leads to life everlasting. The cup was a symbol of the new promise that God was making—a promise of forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life, all made possible through Jesus’ blood. For "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22).

Even the bitter herbs, which were eaten to remind the Israelites of the bitterness of their slavery in Egypt, now took on new meaning. As Jesus sat with His disciples, He was about to face the bitterness of the cross—the suffering and separation from God that He would endure in our place. The bitterness of the herbs became a picture of the bitterness of His sacrifice, the pain He would bear for our freedom.

As Jesus guided His followers through that last Passover supper, He became the fulfillment of the Passover before their eyes. Jesus took the ancient symbols of deliverance and made them personal. He became the Lamb whose blood would save us. He became the bread, broken for us. He became the cup of the new covenant, pouring out His life so that we could be free. What was once a ritual, a reminder of what God had done for Israel, now points to what God is doing for all of humanity through Jesus.

As we move nearer to Easter, we too can see and appreciate with new eyes that Jesus is He is our Passover Lamb, and through His death and resurrection, we are delivered—not just from physical slavery, but from the power of sin and death itself. The road to Easter blessedly goes through Passover.

Reflection/

1. How can you make the sacrifice of Jesus more personal to you this Easter? What do you feel Him calling you to reflect on or respond to?
2. In what ways has Jesus shown you the true meaning of servanthood? How might you embrace this attitude in your own relationships this week?
3. The Passover meal pointed to the promise of freedom. How does remembering Jesus as our Passover Lamb change the way you view your freedom in Christ?