Our Lord’s Memorial

Many who believe in Jesus as the Savior of the world celebrate what is commonly called the Lord’s Supper. Jesus’ death, and the events leading up to it, including “the Last Supper”, are prominent in the minds of many Christian people at this time of year (around Good Friday). As many already know, there is a close relationship between Jesus’ sacrifice of himself as the “lamb of God”, and the Jewish Passover. Both of these events took place at the same time of the year – Nisan 14 on the Jewish calendar. This coincides with dates in March or April. We think it reasonable that a memorial of such momentous events should take place on their anniversary.

Most are aware of the account in the Bible of Jesus eating the Passover with his disciples in the upper room and the words he spoke to them at that time. It tells how Jesus took bread and gave it to the disciples. He told them it represented his own flesh, which he would give for the life of the world. Then Jesus took the cup of wine and gave it to the disciples. This he said represented his own blood that he would shed for the remission of the world’s sins.

We read in this account how Jesus requested that his followers should use these emblems of bread and wine to remember the significance of what he was about to accomplish in the sacrifice of himself. (Luke 22: 19, 20)

The Significance of Jesus’ Sacrifice of His Life

We need to understand what Jesus was actually about to accomplish and how it related to the Jewish Passover if we are to understand the full significance of what He was saying to the disciples in the upper room on the night of the Passover.

The concept that runs through the Bible, like a scarlet ribbon is woven through a fabric, is the idea of the need for atonement between God and man.

The Law Covenant was instituted through Moses. The very first collective experience in Israel’s relationship with God was based on the sacrifice of a lamb for each household. Through the application of the lamb’s blood this sacrifice would provide the basis for their acceptance and for the subsequent Passover deliverance. Also, after this deliverance, Israel’s relationship with God was based on Atonement Day sacrifices. It was the proper performance of these sacrifices which kept them in good standing with God, as a nation, from year to year.

The main point to understand is that Jesus’ sacrifice, which he spoke of and represented with bread and wine to his disciples in the upper room on that Passover night, was the sacrifice that ultimately mattered. All the Passover lambs that had been sacrificed each year for all the years of Israel’s national history actually pointed to what Jesus was about to fully accomplish in the sacrifice of himself, and the deliverance it would ultimately secure.

Why is Sacrifice Necessary for Human Salvation?

However clear our understanding of the person and experiences of Adam in the Garden of Eden, the Bible presents the matter as one in which the first man was originally in harmony, or at one, with God. Afterward, through an act of transgression, Adam lost that harmonious relationship. (Genesis Chapter 3)

The Bible is the book of all books that concerns itself with the loss of man’s proper relationship with God and the means by which that relationship shall be restored. Adam is the father, and therefore the primary representative, of the human race. The human race lost its life through Adam’s sin. Therefore, the weight of guilt and its penalty rests with him. All who have come through Adam (including Eve) share the consequences of his actions.

Atoning for Adam’s Sin is the Key

In the Bible animal sacrifices relate to the requirement and effort to restore harmony between God and man, or we might properly say, between God and Adam. If Adam’s sin could be atoned for then all who have come through Adam (all mankind) would receive the benefit of the opportunity for restored harmony with God.

The various stages and details in God’s dealings with both individuals as well as with the nation of Israel can sometimes seem to obscure the simplicity of this one basic fact. A suitable and legal means was required in order for man to be actually and completely released from the death sentence that rested upon him.

This is the basic story of the Bible. All the blood of animals that was shed in Israel’s sacrifices is ultimately without meaning if they do not point to an actual sacrifice that would provide a corresponding ransom price equal to the value of Adam’s life lost through sin.

Adam was a righteous human being but lost his unimpaired life through transgression (sin). Jesus was a righteous human being, and through sacrificing his unimpaired life, paid the debt that Adam owed for his transgression. Because of God’s acceptance of thisas a legal transaction, a future resurrection opportunity has been secured by Jesus for Adam and his race. (Romans 5:18, 19)

Our Lord’s Memorial and the Fulfillment of the Passover Type

When the Hebrews were in bondage to Egypt Pharaoh would not let Moses’ people have their freedom. God communicated to Moses and the Hebrews that the angel of death was to come upon all of Egypt to kill their firstborn. But this angel of death would “pass over” their houses if they killed a lamb and smeared its blood on the door posts and lintels of their houses. If they were not “under the blood” of this sacrificed lamb, as it were, their firstborn children, too, would be subject to death. It was by virtue of this blood, and their faith in it, that the firstborn of the Hebrews were saved and that the people as a whole were delivered from bondage.

This entire set of facts pictured how mankind is in bondage to sin and death, and that freedom can only be secured by the sacrifice of the “lamb of God,” and that by “coming under the blood” the “church of the firstborn” are saved. By virtue of this salvation they will be instrumental in leading all mankind to freedom. (Hebrews 12:23; Romans 8:21)

Almost two thousand years ago, as Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples in that upper room, he was actually about to fulfill all that the Jewish Passover pointed to. In the Bible a “type” is something that persists until it is fulfilled, as was the case with the Passover. Jesus’ death was the fulfillment of the killing of the Passover lamb (the type). It was no longer necessary for anyone who accepted the value of Jesus’ death to observe the typical Passover from year to year.

It was in harmony with this type, or picture, of the killing of the Passover lamb on the 14th day of the first month that Jesus died as the anti typical Passover lamb. He was "the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." At no other time was it possible for Jesus to have finished the sacrifice which he began when he was thirty years of age, in his baptism unto death. This was why, although the Jews many times sought to take him, no man laid hands on him, because "his hour was not yet fully come." (John 7:8, 30)

The Upper Room

It was at the close of Jesus’ ministry, on the 14th day of the first month, that he celebrated with his disciples the typical Passover of the Jews. They ate the typical lamb which represented himself, his own sacrifice for the sins of the world.

As Jews "born under the Law" it was obligatory for Jesus and his apostles to celebrate this type, and at its proper time. It was after they had observed the Jewish Supper, eating the lamb with unleavened bread and herbs, and probably also, as was customary, with the "fruit of the vine," that Jesus, taking the unleavened bread and wine remaining over from the Jewish supper (which was the type), instituted amongst his disciples, and for his entire Church whom they represented (John 17:20), the memorial of what was about to become the sacrifice of the real and ultimately intended “Passover lamb” that would take away the sin of the world.

For Jesus’ disciples, this memorial would from now on take the place of the Jewish Passover Supper. Jews believing in Jesus, having come to the point of the fulfillment of the type, each year at this season would no longer need to celebrate the Jewish Passover. They would now celebrate the Memorial of Jesus’ sacrifice of himself as “the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

It was never incumbent upon Gentiles to celebrate the Jewish Passover, but such as accept Jesus’ sacrifice, and all that it implies, are just as vitally interested in observing this Memorial upon its anniversary.

Observing the Memorial on its Anniversary

The Apostle Paul said:

“For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me.’ In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread, and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he come.” ( 1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

We appreciate the privilege of using the symbols of bread and wine to remember our Lord Jesus’ great sacrifice for sin. The Christian’s participation in this yearly memorial not only demonstrates his or her faith in the meaning of Jesus’ great sacrifice, but also demonstrates a desire to participate in the invitation Jesus held forth to walk with him in a life of sacrificial love.

This year the 14 th of Nisan, which is the date of the Jewish Passover, falls on March 28. Therefore, this is the appropriate date for the Memorial of Jesus’ death as “the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”.

To learn more about the meaning of this Memorial and all that it implies for you and for the world of mankind contact us.

The Blood of the Atonement

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