In Exodus chapter 12, God spoke to Moses and Aaron with detailed instructions for selecting a lamb to institute the Passover meal. He described how to select the lamb, when to sacrifice it, what to do with the blood, and how to prepare the animal for the meal.
In reading this passage, the words in verse 8 caught my attention . . . “they shall eat the flesh on that night ….” Then, in verse 46 God instructs them, “nor shall you break one of its bones.”
Curious, I searched in the concordance. In Numbers chapter 9, the 2nd Passover meal is recorded. God again told Moses to speak to the children of Israel, and in verse 12 God once again instructed Moses, “They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones, according to all the ordinances of the Passover, they shall keep it.”
In Luke 24:27, Jesus is walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.”
So, if the Old Testament is about Jesus, then we will do well to read these scriptures looking for the archetype – the foreshadowing – of the coming Messiah.
Psalm 34:20: “He protects all his bones, Not one of them is broken.” This verse (as well as >20 other verses in the Psalms), is considered to be a Messianic Psalm – meaning the verse is prophetic in foretelling of the coming Messiah.
In the gospel of John, the beloved disciple describes the final moments of the crucifixion. In order to accelerate the slow, gruesome death on the cross, soldiers would break the legs of those hanging on the tree / cross. This would prevent the person from being able to push up with their legs to take a breath. Therefore, they would suffocate and die sooner.
The religious Jewish leaders did not want Jesus hanging on the cross during the Sabbath, so they requested that the three men have their legs broken. The soldiers indeed did break the other two men’s legs; however, when they came to Jesus, “when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.” (v.33)
John then makes this statement in John 19:36: “For these things took place so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN.”
I offer that the “Scripture” he is referring to as fulfilled are Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12. John is intentionally linking Jesus’ death on the cross to the Passover Lamb in these Old Testament passages.
Additionally, in chapter one of John’s gospel, the disciple recorded John the Baptizer’s response when he saw Jesus: “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29) And, Revelation 13:8 refers to Jesus as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Both John the Baptizer and John the disciple both make statements declaring Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures regarding the Passover Lamb. And with regard to the Old Testament scriptures Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)
Dictionary.com defines “Fulfill,” as follows: to carry out, or bring to realization, as a prophecy or promise.
In my previous Blog I offered my reflections regarding John chapter 6, where it is recorded that Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” (v.35) I feel prompted to revisit this chapter and Jesus’ words, looking at them in the context of Jesus as the Passover Lamb.
John 6:4-6 says, “Now the Jewish Feast of the Passover was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” But He was asking this to test him, for He knew what He was about to do.”
I find it interesting that John included the detail that “the Jewish Feast of the Passover was near.” The beloved disciple was intentional to record this detail. Jesus was also intentional in His choice to perform this miracle of feeding the five thousand when the Feast of the Passover was near.
John 6:11 describes this miraculous provision: “Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.”
Please keep this description in mind . . . .
In the last week of Jesus’ earthly life, what is commonly referred to as Holy week, it was at the time of the Passover Feast. The physician Luke recounts details of this Passover meal. In Luke 22:7-8: “Then came the first day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. And Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.” Later in this chapter (vs 14-20), what we refer to as the Lord’s supper is recounted. This is the Passover meal. Jesus and His disciples are keeping the Passover meal as described in Exodus chapter 12 and Numbers chapter 9.
Luke 22:19: “And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’”
In John 6:11, Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks. In Luke 22:19, Jesus took the bread and gave thanks and broke it. He then plainly stated, “This is My body.”
So, let’s revisit Jesus’ words to the masses of people who sought Him, the day after he fed the five thousand. . . .
In John 6:26-27, Jesus responds to the crowd. He says that they are not following Him because he performed a miracle, but rather because “you ate the loaves and had your fill.” He then instructs them, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you….”
He is making the distinction between the seen and the unseen; the temporal and the eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)
People in the crowd ask what they must do to “work the works of God.” Jesus responds that the work of God is that “you believe in Him whom he sent.”
Even though – only the day before they witnessed and received a miraculous meal – their response to Jesus’ instruction regarding belief was to ask this question: “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe you? What work will you perform?” (v.30)
They then declare, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.’” (Exodus 16:4; Nehemiah 9:15)
To which Jesus responds, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” (v. 32)
He goes on to make the distinction between bread and “true bread.” And he defines true bread as “that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” (v. 33)
Through this discourse, Jesus goes on to say three more times, “I am:”
“I am the bread of life. . . .” (v.35)
“I am the bread of life.” (v. 48)
“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. . . .” (v. 51)
He took great care to explain this principle with relentless detail. He then made a statement that provoked arguing, offense, and ultimately, “many of His disciples left, and would no longer walk with Him (v.66):”
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” (v. 51)
As the Jews argued, Jesus responded with what feels to me like greater emphasis, authority and resolve:
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread will live forever.”(vs. 53-58)
Jesus’ followers, including those closest to Him, thought and processed through the lens of the natural. What they could see and touch. Jesus consistently utilized aspects of the natural to teach eternal principles, evinced through the parables that He taught.
Yet, on a much grander scale, Jesus Himself is the eternal truth, wrapped in flesh, and the fulfillment of the natural, tangible principles and ordinances in the Law and the Prophets (Old Testament).
Jesus, aware of the disciples complaining, asks them if they are offended; (v. 61) then says to them, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh provides no benefit; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are life.” (v.63) He is telling them that He is not literally saying to eat His flesh, but that His flesh represents an eternal principle, in the unseen – in the spirit.
This encounter took place in the spring of ~29 A.D; one year before Jesus and the disciples would meet in the upper room to have the Passover meal.
Exodus 12:5-8 describes the details for the Passover meal:
“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”
At the beginning of this blog, I shared the words in this passage, “they shall eat the flesh” from Exodus 12, which caught my attention; connecting the passage from John chapter six when Jesus said, “the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”
In the Old Testament scripture, the Passover meal included: (Exodus 12)
1) A spotless lamb, without blemish
2) Blood on the doorpost which spared those in the house from the plague of the death of
the firstborn
3) Unleavened bread with bitter herbs
The night of the Lord’s supper (the Passover meal): (Luke 22:17-20; Mark 14:22-25; Matthew 26:26-28)
1) Jesus – The Lamb of God
2) Fruit of the vine (wine) – “this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many
for the remission of sins.”
3) Bread – “This is My body which is being given for you”
I believe that – one year prior in the synagogue in Capernaum – when Jesus told His followers that “The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life,” He was telling them that He is the Passover Lamb.
That His flesh was sacrificed and His blood was poured out in the natural (on the cross) as fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover meal and Feast of Unleavened Bread.
That, by believing in the one Whom God has sent (John 6:29), we enter into the New Covenant. That by receiving Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God, His blood covers us; our debt of sin has been forgiven.
We are protected “In Christ,” now an eternal reality made manifest in time and space; just as the Israelites were protected from the plague of death with the Passover Lamb’s blood on their doorpost.
