3.- the Paschal Evening Anticipated

The Passover, according to the Levitical law, was kept by the Jews on the fourteenth day of the first month, at even. It is evident, however, that Christ, in the especial year that he suffered, anticipated the day of this feast; that He and His disciples kept it together the evening before, at the close of the thirteenth day. If it be asked, How He came to do this, and whether, in thus altering the time, He was not breaking the law, which even He, as a Son of Abraham, was bound to obey; we answer, that He was also the Jehovah of Israel, and therefore that He had full title to set aside the law as He pleased. In this case, however, while He seemed to be transgressing, He was in reality keeping, it, that is anti-typically doing so, inasmuch as He Himself was the true Paschal Lamb, so that by this arrangement on His part as to the feast, He was offered up on the fourteenth day, the day appointed by Moses. Thus the type and the antitype met, so that, while the nation, lost and degraded, as they were, were merely observing a powerless ordinance, the faithful among them (though not as yet realizing it themselves, it is true), were spiritually feeding on Him who had already died for their sins, and who was at that solemn moment of darkness in Israel, lying dead in the sepulcher.
And now, in proof that the day was thus changed, I cite the following passage. " Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas, unto the hall of judgment; and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover" (John 18:28). Then again we read, "And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour, and He saith unto the Jews, Behold your King" (John 19:14). Now, here the passover is spoken of as not eaten as yet by the Jews, but as that for which they were making preparation, whereas, as we know, Christ had eaten it already, even before his betrayal. This then explains the following passage, " Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father; having loved his own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him; Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God; he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and girded himself, etc." (John 13:1-4). Here, observe, that it was after the Paschal supper eaten by Himself and the twelve, but at the same time before the feast kept by the Jews, that He rose from the table in order to serve His disciples. Thus we see how a comparison between the three above passages, namely, John 13:1-4; 18:28; 19:14; clearly establishes the fact, that Christ acted in this case in the sovereignty of His own power, in thus changing the day with a view to the fulfillment of the eternal counsels of God as to the time of His death.