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Here is some background before we partake of our annual Passover memorial of Israel’s and our freedom from bondage and of the great Passover offering, Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) .
Yeshua starts Matthew 26 warning of His disciples of His upcoming death. He spoke this discourse on either the 11th or 12th of Aviv, shortly before the Passover. This is after His triumphant entry to Jerusalem.
We read this story and wonder why the disciples didn’t get it? It’s because they weren’t supposed to understand what was going on until after the fact.
Shortly after, they were the guests of Simon the Leper, a former leper, who may have been healed by Yeshua Himself. The disciples were upset that a woman had covered Him with expensive perfume and Yeshua’s response in Matthew 26:10-13, But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me. ‘For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me. For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.'”
This perfume was very expensive and Judas and even the other disciples were focused on the cost of the perfume and the “waste” of it and Yeshua’s words that they would always have the poor with them but they would not always have Him escaped them completely.
It was after this rebuke that Judas decided to betray Yeshua and he went to the chief leaders to conspire to betray Yeshua to them.
In Matthew 26:26, Yeshua gathers with His disciples to have final supper with them and He tells them, “While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Yeshua was beaten severely by the Romans. They did not follow the Jewish convention of 40 lashes minus 1, which is a small measure of compassion because in Jewish tradition, they didn’t beat a person to kill them but to punish them. The Romans did not have any compassion for those who broke their laws at all. They didn’t care if the person died of the beating and didn’t then need to be crucified. The chief leaders wanted Yeshua to be beaten as severely as possible and they didn’t want any mercy for Yeshua at all.
He suffered this for all of us, for those who believe in Him. The beatings He endured were to heal all of us not only of physical sin but spiritual sin, too. God allowed Yeshua’s suffering for our physical and spiritual healing.
Matthew 26:27-29, “And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.'” What is the New Covenant? It’s the remission of sins through Yeshua. This was God’s plan from the beginning.
Every time we come to Passover and we take up that cup, it is about a New Covenant. It’s a reminder that our sins are gone and over with.
After the meal was over and they were leaving for the Mount of Olives, Yeshua makes another profound statement that they didn’t understand at the time either. He said, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, …” He was warning them that He would be taken from them and they would scatter. They weren’t united, they still argued and squabbled about who was the greatest and who should be their leader.
We need to center in the two symbols of Passover: the bread and the wine. Sometimes we look at this story and we just want to say “Thank you” but we don’t want to remember. Yeshua calls on us to remember His suffering, His crucifixion and His death because this is how He heals us.
Yeshua tells them in John 13:31-32, “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.” How is being betrayed and killed a glory? It’s because Yeshua saw how His death would bring about mankind’s healing from sin, transgression and iniquity. What did Yeshua give up on the Cross? He gave up His spirit but God gave it back to Yeshua and healed Yeshua of the wounds the Romans inflicted upon Him to the point that the disciples did not recognize the resurrected Yeshua at all.
The Passover is not for the sinner but for those who already have their sins remitted. 1 Cor. 5:7 says, “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”
The Passover shows us how we can overcome the world, and not to be afraid of the world. If we love Yeshua, we keep His commandments. How do we do that? Go back and read them. It takes a lifetime for us to grab a hold of and understand many things. There are so many opportunities to be awestruck by God’s word.