The Passion Week: Thursday

This Easter season, I’ve made a series of posts addressing skeptics’ criticism surrounding the Resurrection.  As we close in on Easter, I want to do a day-by-day detail discussing the events happening during the Passion Week. 

Please keep checking back!

Thursday

Mark 14:12-15 tells us that this day began with the disciples asking Jesus where they would eat the Passover.  He told them to look for a sign which ultimately led them to a room already prepared.  This has come to be known as the Last Supper.

There is some debate as to which meal this actually was.  Some speculate that this was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which marked the official beginning of the Passover.  Others believe that this was the Passover Seder.  Any discussion of which meal it was will have to be the subject of a future post.  Regardless, this would be the last meal Jesus would share with His disciples.  As such, Jesus has a very poignant evening with them - one where He shares some of His most direct teachings.

Many notable things were said and done during the Last Supper and much could be written about any of them: the washing of the disciples’ feet, the announcement that one of them would betray Him, and the prophecy of Peter’s denial.  By far, though, the most important thing that happened was the New Covenant.

Matthew 26:26-28, And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

When Adam sinned in the Garden, he and Eve saw they were naked and became ashamed.  They tried to cover their shame with an apron, sewn together from fig leaves (Genesis 3:6-7).  Verse 21 says God made coats of skins to cover their nakedness which ushered in an era of sacrifices where the shedding of blood was made for a covering of sin (Hebrews 9:22).

When God made His covenant with Abraham, it was sealed with the sign of the circumcision (Genesis 17:10-11).  This covenant, made in blood, was a picture of the blood sacrifices that began in the Garden and continued until Jesus.  These were only temporary, though.  They were a typology of The Sacrifice that was to come - the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

The old covenant was not abolished; rather, it was fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ.  The shedding of His blood ended the need for any more sacrifices.  The veil was torn.  The Temple would be destroyed.  The penalty for sin is now satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.  We no longer identify with the old covenant: the sign of the circumcision and the continued shedding of blood.  We now publicly profess our faith through baptism, a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  Amen!!

The Scriptures tell us that, after the meal, they sang a hymn and traveled to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus earnestly prayed while His disciples slept.  As the pressing weight of His impending suffering bore down on Him, He nevertheless prayed that His Father’s will would be done.  Even as He prayed, the Temple guards were marching to arrest him, being led by one of the 12, Judas.  That night, He was arrested and taken away to be tried.  His hour had come.