Month: April 2024

Yes and no.

Yeshua was a Galilean. It was the custom in the Galilee for firstborn males to have a special celebration to remember that they were saved from the 10th plague in Egypt –– death to the firstborn males who did not have the blood of the lamb painted on their doorposts. This celebration took place on Nisan 13, the day before the official Passover (which began on Nisan 14). The firstborn males fasted on Nisan 14 until they sat down for the official Passover meal on Nisan 15. Since they were going to fast after their celebration, the meal before the fast was called the “Last Supper.” 

In the biblical accounts of the Last Supper, Yeshua broke bread (leavened bread, not matzah) with his disciples. If he was eating a Passover meal, it was required to eat matzah, not leavened bread. The biblical account also does not mention any lamb at his meal –– and having roasted lamb was a requirement for the Passover meal. 

So Yeshua’s last meal was indeed a “last supper” before the “Fast of the Firstborn,” a practice which is still followed today. It was a Passover celebration before the official Passover meal. 

The official date to slaughter the lambs for the Passover meal was Nisan 14. Yeshua was on the cross on Nisan 14 –– HE was the Passover lamb! 

On Nisan 10, Moses instructed the Hebrews to select a lamb, bring it into their homes, and inspect it for blemishes (see Exodus 12). On Nisan 14, they would be slaughtering the lamb, and applying the blood on the doorposts of their homes. The blood would mark their homes, so the Angel of Death would pass over their homes during the 10th plague that was coming upon Egypt (death to the firstborn males). They were going to have to escape Egypt in a hurry, without time for their bread dough to rise. So the next year, when they were commemorating their exodus from Egypt, they were told to eat only unleavened bread (unrisen, without yeast). They also went through their homes to clean all the leaven out of their homes. 

Centuries later, the 10th of Nisan was the day that Yeshua came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. He was the lamb being inspected. He went to the Temple and overturned the tables of the moneychangers. Why? Whenever the Jews came into the Temple, they could not use Roman money for an offering, so they had to exchange their money from Roman coins to Temple shekels –– but the moneychangers charged an excessive exchange rate to do so. Yeshua overturned their tables to ” clean the leaven” (sin) out of the Temple, just in time for the upcoming Passover feast. 

Several Torah scholars, Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes met Yeshua in the Temple that day and began throwing multiple theological questions at him, to see if they could trip him up. However, he answered every question, and they found no fault in his answers. He was the lamb being inspected.

During Yeshua’s trial by night, he was taken to Pilate, then to Herod, and back to Pilate, and they asked him questions. They decided that he was an innocent man. He was the lamb being inspected for blemishes! d 

We are currently in this season between Nisan 10 and Nisan 14 when the lamb was selected and inspected. Let us remember that Yeshua passed every test to be the perfect Lamb of God. 

We have to remember to apply the blood of the Lamb to our lives, and we, too, will be saved from the Angel of Death! 

This is what we will commemorate during our upcoming Passover seder. Chag Sameach!