“The Final Passover”
Matthew 26:1-30
“Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, ‘You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.’” – Matthew 26:1-2
This, the final Passover, would be rendered “after two days.” Jesus, the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world, would become the fulfilment of Passover.
Exodus 12 is the account of the first Passover. The death of the firstborn was the final plague that released the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. Unless the blood of “a lamb without blemish” was applied to the doorposts and lintel of a home, death would come upon that home.
This was a foreshadow of the final Passover described in our Matthew passage this morning. Jesus, the Lamb of God, would go to the Cross on Passover. It is because of Jesus’ blood that death passes over the believer in Christ, and he receives eternal life. It is no coincidence that Jesus died on Passover. In the end God’s will, way, and timing were fulfilled; Christ became the Passover Lamb on that final Passover described in Matt 26.
These last three chapters of this Gospel, Matthew 26-28, records our Lord’s arrest, trial, death, and resurrection. Well over 20 Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in these final days of Jesus’ earthly life. Within the probabilities and statistics discipline, it is a probabilistic impossibility for this to happen. But it did! And one need only commit to a few hours of reading your Bible to confirm.
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” [1 Corinthians 15:6-8]
