Passover Begins with Self-Giving Love

The first Passover was born out of God’s compassion for the children of Israel, delivering them from their slavery in Egypt with the hopes of entering a covenant relationship of mutual love. Then in the fullness of time the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem the world, opening the door for a life of intimate communion with the God who loves us.

The Gospel of John gives us a unique view into Jesus’ last Passover with His disciples. The thirteenth chapter makes a clear transition from the narrative of Jesus’ public ministry to the Passover evening He spent with His disciples. This significant time just before His arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection is recorded in the thirteenth through seventeenth chapters of John.

The Holy Spirit begins Jesus’ last Passover by saying, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). In other words, He loved them completely, to the uttermost, and eternally. Following this statement of His love, Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, leads the Passover supper, teaches and comforts them, and prays to the Father on their behalf. Everything He says and does is born out of His self-giving love, leading His disciples into an intimate relationship of abiding with Himself and the Father. So at the very end of seventeenth chapter, He prays:

"Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them"

(John 17:24–26).

The Passover death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s love that forgives our sins, removes our separation from Him, and opens the door for us to know Him and walk with Him in intimate fellowship. God spoke about this through the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. . . for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:34). The apostle Paul says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13). For this reason John the beloved disciple tells us, “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

Remember, the purpose of the original Passover was to deliver the children of Israel out of their slavery to the Egyptian empire and bring them into a covenant relationship with their God who would love them, provide for them, and dwell in their midst. And the purpose of Jesus’ Passover death and resurrection is to redeem us out of our slavery to sin and lead us into a restored relationship as sons and daughters of our Father. Therefore, we are encouraged to see the great love the Father has bestowed on us—the love that calls us His sons and daughters (John 3:1).

This Passover, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, don’t just stop with remembering and celebrating what Jesus accomplished in forgiving our sins. Go further to abide in His love and follow Him into an intimate relationship with Himself and the Father—this is what He gave His life for us to have.