Day 2: The Passover Meal

Over 1,400 years before Jesus was born, the people of Israel found themselves captive, serving as slaves in the mighty Egyptian Empire. After 400 years of this oppression, Moses was called by God to lead these Jews out of bondage. Through Moses, God sent ten supernatural signs—different types of plagues—to demonstrate his power and try to convince the Egyptian pharaoh to grant the Jews freedom. Pharaoh refused—until the tenth and most devastating plague.

The tenth and final plague would kill all firstborn males in Egypt—a brutal and tough-to-handle punishment for the Egyptian nation, but one that exhibited God’s deep protection for his people. Before this final plague ensued, God instructed Moses to have the Israelites paint their doorposts with the blood of a sacrificed lamb. This act would be a signal for the plague to pass over their homes and spare the Israelites. They were being commanded to sacrifice a life (in this case, a lamb). The death of that lamb would give them life and lead them into freedom.

These events are still celebrated each year by Jewish families at Passover, when God allowed death to “pass over” them. Passover is (in general) a seven-day Jewish celebration. But one meal in particular, called the Seder (SAY-der) meal, is held the first night of Passover. Each item of food in the meal has a special meaning, tied to Israel’s exodus from Egyptian slavery.

This Seder meal is almost certainly the very same meal Jesus would have had with his disciples, which is commonly known as the Last Supper. As Luke writes in Chapter 22:

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Luke 22:14–15)

For centuries, Jewish families had shared this meal, and every element of the meal pointed back to what happened in Egypt—the suffering of their ancestors, the bitterness of slavery, the urgency of their escape, and the lamb whose blood had saved them.

But on this night, Jesus did something that had to be at the very least confusing and also jaw-dropping. Instead of attaching elements of the meal to what happened back in Egypt, he told his disciples to reinterpret these elements in a new way. Luke tells us,

He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)

The bread, which traditionally represented the affliction of Israel in Egypt, was now a symbol of Jesus’s body, which would be broken for them. They had to be thinking, What could that possibly mean? Then, after the meal, he made another statement:

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20)

The wine, which traditionally reminded them of God’s promises to deliver Israel, was now a symbol of Jesus’s blood. They didn’t understand it yet, but that blood would be poured out for their salvation.

For the disciples, this new way of looking at the bread and wine at Passover would have been hard to grasp, if not impossible. The meal they had eaten every year of their lives was suddenly given new meaning. The bread and wine were no longer just about Israel’s past—they were about Jesus’s imminent sacrifice and the future of God’s kingdom.

Some 50 years later, the apostle Paul would reflect on what Jesus did at that Passover, reminding Jesus followers in the city of Corinth what Jesus had instituted that night. He told the Corinthians,

“…whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26)

The night before his crucifixion, Jesus took the bread and wine and gave them new meaning. What had been a centuries-old remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt became a symbol of a far greater deliverance—freedom from sin and death through his sacrifice.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being a God who rescues. Just like you brought your people out of slavery, you’ve given us freedom through Jesus. Help us live in a way that reflects the freedom and forgiveness you’ve given us. Amen.