Mary Of Bethany - Her Life And Times

Mary of Bethany - Her Life And Times

THE PASSOVER

All able-bodied and ceremonially clean Jewish men, usually accompanied by their families, were required to attend Passover in Jerusalem as well as two other major religious feasts, Pentecost and Tabernacles (Exodus 23:17), throughout the year. By New Testament times, with Jews living all around the known world, most devout men attended these feasts when possible, but that was only occasionally.

The Feast of Passover took place in Nisan, the first month of the ancient Jewish year, our April. The most significant feast celebrated by the Jews, Passover commemorated their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. At that time, Moses had commanded each family to kill an unblemished one-year-old male lamb. He had instructed them to take the blood from the lamb and, using a brush made of hyssop branches, spread the blood on the sides and top of the door frame of each household. When the tenth and last plague came to Egypt, the angel of death entered only those houses without blood on the doorpost and killed the firstborn son in each family. Any home with blood on the doorway was “passed over.”

Jewish families ate the meat of the lamb for their Passover supper, sharing with neighbors if the family was too small to finish the lamb alone. The meal also included a salad of bitter herbs as well as unleavened bread (bread made without yeast and hence unrisen). Before Passover, the house was thoroughly searched and cleaned to be sure no yeast was in the house to spoil the unleavened bread. This bread reminded the Jews of the haste with which they had to eat their last meal in Egypt before leaving slavery there. Psalms 113 – 118, known as the “Egyptian Hallel” (or Praise) psalms, were sung before and after the meal.

Often during their history, the Jews neglected to celebrate the Passover, as well as many of the other religious feasts God had instituted. The times when the Passover was reinstated are mentioned specifically in the Old Testament, and the ignorance of the people regarding the sacred nature of the feast is apparent. Most often, the restoration of the feast came about because of a religious revival (2 Kings 23:21 – 23; 2 Chronicles 30:1; 35:1 – 19; Ezra 6:19 – 22).

The Last Supper Jesus ate with his disciples, on the night that he was betrayed, was the annual Passover meal. Jesus gave specific instructions to several of his disciples for preparing this important meal. While he and his disciples reclined at the table, Jesus revealed that one of his twelve disciples would betray him and that he would be crucified. With the words, “This is my body” and “This is my blood,” he gave new meaning and significance to the Passover lamb. When he was crucified the next day, he himself became the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God who died in the place of sinners condemned to death.