A dozen people were busy clearing dishes, scraping plates, washing and drying, stacking chairs and folding tables.

Over two hundred people had gathered that night to celebrate Pesach and discover the revelation of Jesus the Redeemer in the Pesach Seder, the Passover meal.

The full meal had been served, the four cups were drank, matzo broken, the Afikoman hidden and discovered. The crowd was dispersed, now it was time to clean up.

The grape stains and bread crumbs on the table cloths revealed the events of the evening.

Was it the same that night, almost two thousand years ago? Thirteen men had gathered for the dinner and twelve completed it.

Was it during the cleanup that Jesus began saying, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe it God. Believe also in me” (John 14:1). “I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am you maybe also” (John 14:2-3).

Jesus revealed His heart and passion that night, as the meal began.

“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will never eat it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God” (Luke 22:15).

He lifted one of the loaves of matzo and prayed the traditional blessing over the bread.

He broke the loaf and handed it to the men gathered before Him and said, “This is My body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” Then He lifted one of the glasses of wine saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you” (Luke 22:19-20).

Any grape stains and bread crumbs on the table cloths in the upper room revealed a whole lot more than just a group of clumsy men having Passover dinner that evening.

A covenant had been established around that table.

Almost fifteen hundred years before that night, Jewish men all over the Goshen region of Egypt had butchered one year old lambs without a blemish.

The blood of the lamb had been painted on the door frames of their homes.

The wives had been busy baking unleavened bread and preparing a dinner meal with that roasted lamb.

While the Jewish families were eating their dinner, the angel of death passed through the land of Egypt killing all of the first born sons and the first born of each flock.

The Jewish homes with door frames painted with the blood of the lamb were delivered from the death angel.

That night, Pharaoh released the Jewish families from slavery and they departed from Egypt headed for the Land of Promise.

God instructed Israel to celebrate the Pesach Seder, every year on the fourteenth of Abib, in remembrance of God’s deliverance from slavery by the blood of the lamb.

Jesus and the Passover

Jesus revealed an even greater mystery the night He ate the Pesach Seder with His disciples.

The matzo, unleavened bread, Jewish families ate year after year on the fourteenth of Abib represented the unblemished body of an even greater Lamb.

It represented the sinless body of the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.

The writer of Hebrews declared, quoting from Psalm 40:6-8, “Sacrifices and offerings You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure… He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:5-10 MEV).<