Christ Our Passover

Jesus’ sacrificial death occurred during the Jewish feast of Passover. Mark’s gospel specifically connects Jesus’ last meal with His disciples to the day “when they sacrificed the Passover lamb” (Mark 14:12). John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Years later, the Apostle Paul wrote that Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us (1 Cor 5:7).

It is significant that each of the four gospel accounts devote chapters to the sacrificial death of Jesus. Jesus also tells us to remember His death in partaking of communion. We are to always remember and look upon the Lamb that was slain, the eternal sacrifice on our behalf. For it is through the shed blood of Christ that we are delivered from slavery to the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Father’s beloved Son “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13–14). And it is through partaking of His body that we receive our healing and sustenance to walk in newness of life.

The book of Revelation shows a picture of heaven. There in the presence of the Father, before His throne, is the Lamb Who was slain (Rev 5:6). Every created being in heaven and on earth worships Him, singing, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain Who purchased with His blood men and women from every tribe on earth” (Rev 5:9, 12). Later in the book there is a description of a great multitude of people from every nation and tribe, a multitude so great no one can count. And it is said of this great multitude, “They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Rev 7:16–17).

The Lamb is our deliverer and redeemer. By His shed blood we have forgiveness and enter a new life. We have a new life where He leads us, guides us, instructs us, and transforms us as sons and daughters in the household of our Heavenly Father. Therefore, every time we gather together in His name, we are to remember Him by partaking of bread and wine. When we drink of the wine, we partake of the blood of the New Covenant—the forgiveness of our sins and restored relationship with God. We eat the bread, His body, our sustenance, healing, and life. We partake of the Lamb ready to journey forward with our families into a life that continually unfolds as God’s beloved children.