10 Days to Passover: The Last Day Before Passover

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10 Days to Passover

The Last Day Before Passover

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Point for Meditation: John 13:1 - “Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love” (New Living Translation).

It’s the last day before Passover, which begins at sundown tonight. In His day, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come, and that He would be delivered into the hands of the Romans to be killed, gave His disciples the lasting, unforgettable ceremony of the New Covenant Passover. The whole story of what happened during the supper He had with His disciples goes from John 13-18, but the first sentence of John 13 is what we will focus on:

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Before humans existed, before the Earth was formed, before the physical universe was created, God had a plan. It was the plan to end all plans: He would create physical beings who would inhabit a physical realm and live finite, physical lives of infinite smallness in comparison to His own limitless eternity. The purpose of creating them would be to teach them the right way to live and give them eternal life to live with Him. God is a family of two beings (the Father and Jesus Christ) of supreme good and light. As the Creator of everything, He has set the rules that govern everything—the laws of physics, the laws of biology, the laws of the invisible spirit realm. Being perfect, good, full of light, and fully comprehending what eternity means, He made humans and encouraged them to seek to live by the same set of rules He Himself exists by—rules of love. He created humans to love each other, serve each other, and in so doing build character that would last for an eternity.

But He created them with a will to choose, and the presence of Satan swayed the first humans to choose a path in the wrong direction—away from God. It was a tragedy, but one that didn’t catch God off-guard. Having infinite wisdom and perfect clarity of understanding, God had enacted a plan in advance, knowing that they might make that wrong choice.

He gave mankind His laws to live by; laws of outgoing concern for others and of obedience to God. He set up a physical system to help physical humankind understand—a physical metaphor for the eternal and spiritual. In that system, breaking one of His laws meant blood had to be spilled as restitution. And in one of the most dramatic events of the Old Testament—Passover—He had His people kill an unblemished lamb in order to signify that they were His; that they were obedient to Him and were seeking to live by His ways. That yearly reminder was kept for generations until its meaning would come to be fulfilled.

So then, having stripped Himself of His eternity and living a perfect life for three decades as a physical human being, Jesus showed His disciples the full extent of His love for them, and for the world. The next day, He would be slaughtered as the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover—the perfect Lamb, unblemished by the world; the One whose blood covered all sin forever. No longer would His people slaughter physical animals as payment for breaking His perfect law. Instead, His sacrifice would cover it all—and allow for imperfect, physical human beings to be not just forgiven for sins, but to become eternal beings in the family of God.

So as the Passover comes at sundown, meditate deeply on the sacrifice that Jesus gave for our benefit. Without His life, without His shed blood, and without His resurrection to eternal life, we would be physical creatures living lives of an infinitely small significance. But by His life, we are redeemed from that.

Today’s Point for Meditation: John 13:1 - “Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love” (New Living Translation).

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Comments

  • maliziajj

    Hi Mitchell - ran past your wonderfully put together blog items and presented it in sermon format this last Sabbath to the UCG SF Bay Area... received lots of feedback on how thought-provoking and useful this material is! Makes me think about what God says in Isa 55:10-11 "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:  :11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. "

    Thank you for your posts!!!

  • sa
    Mr. Moss, it has been a pleasure to read your blog, " Ten Days To Passover", it has given me a deeper insight to the mind of Christ and he he must have felt in the days leading up to His crucifixion . How the Love of His Father can be soooo deep that He gave you and me and the world His only son in order for us to be able to become "sons". I see all the different people's acknowledgements that knew who Christ was and their actions told me of their humbleness in honoring their Creator. How much can I do to show just as much as deep grate fullness for he has done. Words cannot capture this human emotion to begin to express a great fullness . But I truly appreciate you taking the time to write this blog and how much it means to you as well. Thank you ever so deeply. Sa
  • babsie
    The Countdown to Passover blogs were very helpful for many reasons, and helped to keep a structure and focus to each day. The blogs really helped me to bring the events to life in my mind each day and made them seem very real. Thank you!
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