Life of Christ 163
It is Tuesday evening.
Jesus will die tomorrow afternoon. The morning had already seen the unveiling
of the dead fig tree and the verbal confrontations with Israel's religious
leadership in the Temple. The afternoon had seen the Olivet discourse with its
solemn pronouncements of a second coming and Judas Iscariot's secret
arrangements to betray Christ. We come now at sundown to the evening of
Tuesday. To the Jews this would be the beginning of Wednesday. This was the day
of preparation in which the Jewish households made their arrangements to
observe Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
There is some
disagreement over whether the Last Supper was a seder or not. Whether one holds
the Wednesday or Friday view of the crucifixion does not change the fact that
Scripture repeatedly says that Jesus died on the day of preparation. In other
words, since Jesus died a day before Passover began then the Last Supper took
place 24 hours prior to the accepted observance of the seder.
Those against the Lord's
Supper being considered a seder point out that Jesus as an observing Jew would
not have celebrated Passover an entire day early. They point out that it would
have been impossible to get the lamb properly sacrificed since these were not
sacrificed until the afternoon immediately prior to the evening seder. How do
you get a proper Passover lamb on Tuesday night when all the lambs were not
sacrificed prior to Wednesday afternoon? At the same time, we must accept that
Scripture repeatedly calls the Last Supper a Passover (Matthew 26.18-19; Mark
14.14, 16; Luke 22.8, 11, and 15).
How do we reconcile
these two contradictory positions? I choose to believe simply that Jesus
celebrated Passover a day early with His disciples. If He claimed emphatically
to be Lord even of the Sabbath day
(Matthew 12.8) why could He not choose when and how to celebrate Passover?
And if He could feed thousands with a simple lunch could He not furnish the
necessary sacrificial lamb? Of course He could.
Sometime earlier in the afternoon Jesus had
sent Peter and John back into Jerusalem to ensure that everything necessary for
the seder had been arranged. This was no small task. Cunningham Geike, a
nineteenth century Scottish Presbyterian sets the scene for us in his 1893 book
The Life and Words of Christ:
The head of each family, as evening closed, began the household
purification with the prayer - "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of
the universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy commandments, and requirest us to
remove the leaven," and then proceeded, in rigorous silence, to search
every room, gathering every crumb that could be found, and finally tying all up
till the following morning. A further search, which must end before noon, was
then made for any liquid or solid product of fermented grain, and for all
dishes or vessels that had held it. All were taken out of the house, and the
crumbs and dough carefully burned, with a repetition of prescribed prayers. The
house itself was then cleansed in every part, and no one could enter the
unpurified house of a heathen, henceforth, during the feast, without being
defiled. Nothing leavened could be eaten or permitted in the house during the
next seven days, - for defilement, bringing with it unfitness to eat the
Passover, would follow in either case.
This purification of the house, however, was by no means all. Vessels
of any kind, to be used at the feast, were cleansed with prescribed rites, in a
settled mode. Metal dishes &c., after being scoured, must be first dipped
in boiling water - in a pot used for no other purpose - and then into cold.
Iron vessels must be made red-hot; then washed in the same way. Iron mortars,
for crushing grain for baking, were filled with red coals, till a thread, tied
outside, was burned through. Wooden vessels, after being wetted, were rubbed
with a red-hot stone. No clay dish would be used at all if not quite new, and
it had to be first dipped thrice in running water, and consecrated by a special
prayer. Personal purity was as strictly enforced. Every one had to cut his hair
and nails, and to take a bath.
Somehow, on the day
prior to the day of preparation, most of these accommodations were already provided
for and thus in the evening of that day Jesus and His Apostles came to the
Upper Room.
Mark 14:13–17
13 And he sendeth forth two of his
disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a
man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.
14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say
ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber,
where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
15 And he will shew you a large upper
room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.
16 And his disciples went forth, and
came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the
passover.
17 And in the evening he cometh with the
twelve.
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