[I apologize for the length of this devotion/Bible
study. However, there was no other way to explain this important timeline. My prayer is that you receive a
special blessing as you persevere through the text and Scriptures.]
Long before Jesus and His disciples reached the last
week of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the events of the most important week in
eternity were planned in detail. The pattern
was first laid out when God freed His people from slavery in Egypt. The events of this Holy Week had to fit exactly into the timeline
in order to fulfill all the related prophecies in Scripture. This includes the one Jesus Himself made
comparing His time in the grave with the time Jonah spent in the belly of the
fish. (Matthew 12:40) This specified
length of time– three days and nights has caused a lot of questions regarding
the traditional Good Friday crucifixion.
However, by lining up the Passover in Exodus, the Jewish calendar and
the Gospel accounts of this Holy Week, not only are these questions answered, but
also the amazing sovereignty of God becomes clearly evident.
Commemorating the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt,
God established a specific timeline that they were to follow in their annual
celebration. Beginning on the 10th
of Nissan, the Passover lamb was to be selected and publicly declared. (Exodus 12:3) Then for four days that lamb was
kept in the house with the family, cared for and nurtured. It was God’s intent that there was a bond
between them and the one who died on their behalf, so they would truly understand
the cost of their deliverance.
On this final week of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the 10th
of Nissan fell on what we traditionally refer to as “Palm Sunday.” (Mark 11:8-10) Though they did not know it at
the time, God was publicly presenting the true Passover Lamb. Jesus, the Lamb of God spent Monday through
Wednesday teaching in the House of God, bonding with the people He would die
for. (Luke 21:37-38)
The 13th of Nissan was when everything
kicked into high gear. On that day,
Jesus sent his disciples to secure the place He had prearranged for the Passover
holidays. (Luke 22:8-13) This annual celebration included more than the actual
Passover meal celebrated after sundown on the 14th, but also a
special meal on the 13th, seven days of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread (15th through the 21st), and the Feast of First
Fruits (16th). Both Wednesday
the 13th and Thursday the 14th were days of intense
preparation.
First they had to prepare meals for several days. God designated the Passover menu. The lamb would
be roasted later, but the bitter herb dish and the unleavened bread could be
made ahead. They also had to prepare for the first day of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread (15th). By
God’s decree the first and last day of this feast were to be special or High Sabbath
days. (Leviticus 23:4-8) A Sabbath was a
special day set aside for God. No work at all could be done. It was a
time for worship and family, renewal and celebration. It did not matter what day of the week the 15th
fell. If it was not a Saturday, the weekly Sabbath, then there were two Sabbath
days that week. Since this Passover (the night of the 14th) fell on
a Thursday, they had to prepare for Friday the 15th and Saturday
the 16th.
There was also a thorough cleaning required. All the leaven or yeast had to be removed
from the house. God had been pretty
specific that ALL leaven was to be removed. (Exodus 12:19) Leaven was often
compared to sin because it only takes a small amount to cause an out
of-proportion response. A small amount of yeast causes a large amount of dough
to expand and rise. Likewise, a small
amount of sin results in a myriad of results.
Thus, the house was thoroughly cleaned to make sure there wasn’t as much
as a leavened breadcrumb under the rug. It
wasn’t just the house that had needed cleaning. Especially after all the
cooking and cleaning, they too needed a good washing.
Food was not something to be wasted. All remaining
yeast was baked up. Anything and everything made with bread products
(breadcrumbs, etc.) was eaten the night of the 13th. The meal on
Thursday night (the 14th) would be the actual Passover feast, which
centered on the lamb, but this meal was all about the bread.
Tradition has Jesus eating His last supper with His
disciples as the Passover Feast. However, because of Sabbath
restrictions, if it was the Passover feast, He could not have been tried in a
Jewish court and subsequently put to death until Sunday the 17th. He would not have been the Passover lamb that
once and for all took away our sins. (John 1:29) The Last Supper was actually this
pre-Passover meal. As they gathered, He
too did some final cleaning. He washed
their feet and taught them a clean heart comes with a right relationship with
Him. (John 13:5-15) He also removed the “leaven” from among them. He gave Judas every opportunity to forsake
his evil plan to force Jesus to declare He was Israel’s military and political
Messiah. But as Judas’ heart hardened,
Satan took a tighter grip. The “leaven”
was removed when He told Judas to go do what he had made up his heart to do.
(John 13:21-30) Finally, Jesus focused
on the bread. How like Him to take what contained sin (or its representation)
and make it something holy. Using the
bread and the wine, Jesus gave them a new and wonderful significance – His body
and blood broken and poured out for our sake. (Matthew 26:26-28)
After completing His final meal with the disciples and
imparting to them His final personal message and prayer, He went to the Garden
of Gethsemane to pray and wait for His betrayer. Beginning at approximately 1 a.m. on Thursday
morning, Jesus was arrested and railroaded through three religious and three
political trials. The speed in which all
these trials were carried out gives the appearance that the momentum of evil carried
the day. However, it was God Himself
moving the proceedings at such a brisk pace.
When God fulfills a prophecy, He does it to the minutest detail. It was at the exact time of the evening
sacrifice, the sixth hour or 3 p.m., that Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice
of His life. (Luke 23:44-46)
Because the next day was to
be a special Sabbath (John 19:31), the Jewish leaders wanted the three men
being crucified off the cross before sundown.
In the terms of surrender, the Jews had a special agreement with Rome
that no one would remain on a cross on any day set aside as holy
(Sabbath). Crucifixion was designed to
prolong the agony. To avoid this Sabbath clause executions were usually carried
out at the beginning of the week. Rushing this particular death sentence and
doing so the day before a Sabbath underscores the uniqueness of this
crucifixion. In order to hasten the
suffocation that is the actual cause of death on a cross, legs are broken. However, when the soldiers came to break
Jesus’ legs, they discovered He was already dead. They confirmed it with a thrust of a spear
before allowing Him to be removed from the cross and buried in a donated tomb
before sundown on Thursday. (John 19:32-37)
The Jewish leaders went home
to celebrate their Passover meal that night. The next day they enjoyed the
special first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, followed by what they
usually did (or didn’t do) on the weekly Sabbath. The disciples also observed the High Sabbath
followed by the weekly Sabbath – no work, no travel, no visiting the tomb. They
hid in the upper room where they had celebrated their final meal with Jesus,
grieved deeply and were terrified that they were next to be arrested and
crucified. One group foolishly
celebrated; the other grieved needlessly. Jesus rested quietly. Sunday was coming!
With sunrise on most Sundays,
it was back to business as usual.
However, before that could happen on the 17th of Nissan, there
was another special offering that had to be given. On the first Sunday following Passover,
regardless the number of days in between, they were to present to God the
offering of First Fruits. They were to go out to the fields
that were green with Spring’s new grain, gather a sheaf’s worth and offer them to
the Lord. This was a declaration of
faith that this was just the beginning and there was more to come. Harvest was
a long way off, but they were expressing a willingness to trust in the Lord to
provide everything they needed then and until then.
Back at the tomb, Jesus was
also presenting His offering of First Fruits.
He too was declared that there was more to come – more life to those who
willingly exchanged their dead life for His eternal one and more who will
conquer sin and death through resurrection because they belong to Him. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23)
That Sunday morning,
following three days and nights in the tomb, fulfilling every prophecy, Jesus
rose from the dead. (Matthew 28:1-8) He has risen indeed. Jesus
is alive!
Making It Personal
How does it impact you to
know that it all perfectly fits in a divine timeline?
What does it mean to you that
God is truly in the details in carrying out His prophesies and promises? (Romans 4:20,21)
Easter Sunday is a
celebration of the resurrection. It is
also a time to present the Lord with your own offering of First Fruit. What
does that mean to you? How can you symbolically make this offering to Him this
year?
