03.29. Preparing for Passover

Preparing for Passover On the Thursday, Jesus began preparation for Passover, scheduled for the next day. This feast commemorated Israel’s escape from bondage in Egypt, when each Israelite family acrificed a lamb in place of its firstborn and thereby ensured that God would ‘pass over’ its house. The occupants, having been spared, then escaped from bondage, eating bread made in haste as they fled.¹ The time for a greater deliverance had now arrived. Jesus would die as the true Passover lamb, to bear sin’s penalty and release sinners from its bondage. Normally, the Jews killed the lamb on the afternoon of Passover day and ate it in a meal that night. But Jesus planned to eat the meal with his disciples the night before. And they probably ate it without a lamb, because the next day Jesus himself was to be the lamb.²

Meanwhile, the Jewish leaders were plotting how to arrest Jesus, but they preferred not to do it during the festival. Excitement was high and they did not want a riot. Their task was made easier when one of the twelve, Judas, struck a deal with them to betray Jesus. He could tell them of Jesus’ movements, so that they could arrest him without the public knowing.³

Jesus, however, knew what Judas was plotting. Therefore, he made careful arrangements for the feast, so that the only people who knew where it would be held were various unnamed people to whom he gave secret instructions.⁴ We know the place simply as ‘the upper room’. The treachery of Judas was in sharp contrast to the affection of a woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume.⁵ Judas saw her action as a waste of money; the woman saw it as an act of devotion; Jesus saw it as symbolic of his anointing for burial.

1. Exodus 12:1-20; Exodus 12:39 2. Exodus 12:6; Exodus 12:8; 1 Corinthians 5:7 3. Matthew 26:3-5; Matthew 26:14-16 4. Mark 14:12-16 5. Mary of Bethany, if Matthew 26:6-13 and John 12:1-8 refer to the same incident

Middle Eastern perfumes