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Post by alon on Mar 20, 2021 15:05:44 GMT -8
Leviticus 23:5-6 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
Clearly the Bible says the 14th is Pesach and the 15th starts the week of Unleavened Bread. And indeed, Yeshua HaMoshiach, our “Passover Lamb” both celebrated a Pesach meal with His talmedim (disciples) and was then crucified and buried on the 14th of the month:
- Matthew 26:18-21 And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”‘” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating .
- Mark 14:14 Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”
So the 14th is for us as believers our Passover. Indeed, according to Chabad the 14th used to be called Pesach and the 15th was the start of Unleavened Bread for Jews as well. Contemporary practice is to call the 15th, and even the entire thing Pesach. The 14th is relegated to just a “preparation day.” Confusing, nu? Stay with me; it gets worse.
There is a principle we must understand- the celebration of the 15th is considered to be an extension of the 14th:
-Leviticus 7:15 “And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.”
When given “one day” to eat an offering, it refers to a 24 hr. period of time, not necessarily a biblical day. So the day would consist of the daytime followed by its night. Where sacrifices are concerned, the night after it is made is an extension of the day it was brought. Therefore concerning the Passover sacrifice, the evening of the 15th was considered as the same day as the 14th, but only applicable as the time we have to eat it.
Knowing this it makes the following passage a bit more understandable:
- Deuteronomy 16:1-3 (ESV) “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
The sacrifice made on the 14th and eaten with matzah as we start the feast of Unleavened Bread on the 15th. And note it recalls their deliverance from Egypt.
So what of this “preparation day?”
- Leviticus 23:7b, 8b (ESV) you shall not do any ordinary work.
“No ordinary work” doesn’t mean no work as on a regular Shabbat. This day is set aside for the final cleansing of leaven from the home and after that the preparation of the Pesach meal. When the Temple stood this would have been a lamb roasted on a spit. It takes 5-6 hours to roast an average lamb even in a modern oven, so with prep and cooking we’re talking at least half the day to cook the meal to be ready for the evening.
So we see “Passover” on the 14th is not the Festival of Matzahs which begins that evening (the 15th), which for purposes of eating the sacrifice is the same day as the 14th. It is the Passover offering, sacrificed on the 14th and eaten that night, the 15th, with no leaven.
This too is how Yeshua could celebrate a Pesach meal with His talmedim and still fulfill prophecy by offering Himself for us, all on the 14th. So just what all happened on this most fateful and poignant Pesach? How did the day play out?
First we need some history, and we should probably start with a map of 1st cen Yerushalaim as well (you’ll have to find your own map). Melech Dovid established his kingdom, making Yerushalaim his capitol. After Alexander’s conquest and the breakup of his empire the city became central to the Hasmonean kingdom, and they build a palace there. Later Herod the Great will build a palace on the western hill, these more or less defining the small, upscale, “privilaged” sector of the city. The old city historically expanded and contracted between the Hinom Valley on its western side and he Kidron Valley on the east side. The Mount of Olives is on the eastern side of the Kidron Valley, just SE of the Temple.
Mostly when Yeshua comes into Yerushalaim, He enters on the other side, coming from Yericho, over the Mt of Olives, into the city via the Kidron Valley. He would typically stay in Bethany, just over the crest of the Mt. of Olives.
Jerusalem was a very conservative Jewish city, however the Sadducees and Herodians wanted to Hellenize the city. It was a polis, a capitol city connected to the greater Greco-Roman theater. There was consequently a clash between the ruling class and the common Judean. The reason Israelites are called Jews is after the Babylonian exile of the southern kingdom of Judah, Judeans were the ones returning to reestablish the Hebraic community in ha’Eretz. Those people were called Ἰουδαῖος Ioudaios- Judaeans. This ends up being shortened and now all Hebrews in the Land are called Jews. It gets confusing since we still have only the term Ἰουδαῖος Ioudaios meaning either Judeans, or in a broader sense Jews. We must take care which term we use in translation. Sadly Christian translators are not usually so careful.
The book of John is often thought anti-Semitic because of the way it’s translated. There are many off-hand references to Jews placing them in a bad light:
- John 7:1 (ESV) After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
-- Footnote: Or Judeans; Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time
He went freely around the Galil, Jews everywhere there for over three years and no one tried to kill Him. He traveled through the Decapolis which was chock full of Hellenized Jews to get to Jerusalem from the Galil, and even they did not try to kill Him! He entered the city with throngs of Judeans shouting and singing praises to Him. They didn’t try to kill Him either. And more than that, this was the first of the annual Pilgrimage Festivals- Jerusalem was being swollen daily by Jews from all over the empire, and none of them tried to kill Yeshua! So just maybe it was SOME Judeans, and more specifically SOME Sadducees who wanted Him dead, as He posed a threat to their religious rule as quislings of Rome. You’d think that at least SOME translators would get that right.
Moreover, thanks again to the translators SOME people use John’s gospel to say this meal was before Passover and therefore not a real Pesach meal:
- John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end
Looking at the Greek we see it says before the Passover Jesus knew His hour had come, and that He loved His disciples. It does not say that He ate before the Passover. The word “supper” is used in the next verse, “2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.” The Greek word used is “deipnon:”
deipnon (dipe’-non)…dinner, i.e. the chief meal (usually in the evening) (Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
A dinner meal was normally in late afternoon/evening, at, twilight. And Yeshuas’ actions immediately following the meal definitely occurred on the evening of the 14th. They were NOT on the 13th as SOME suggest. This is confirmed by 1 Corinthians 11:23 “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.” Thus, John 13 is clearly supportive of a 14th Passover.
At any rate, He and His disciples cross the Jordan River Valley at Jericho and come up to the city for one last Pesach:
- Zechariah 9:9 (ESV) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
- Luke 19:29-35 (ESV) When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
Jesus is coming from the wilderness side. Bethpage and Bethany are on the eastern crest-line of the Mount of Olives. Now most of us would picture kings riding in on a horse; an animal of war. However a donkey colt is an animal of peace. Kings often rode in on a colt to demonstrate they were already in control. So this was a not-too subtle claim Jesus is making over the city of Jerusalem. Pesach recalls the Hebrews deliverance from another mighty power, Egypt. And here the Crown Prince of Israel rides in like He owns the place! And it gets worse if you are of the privileged class:
- Luke 19:37-38 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
They are calling Him king! And the crowds are joining in:
- Matthew 21:9 (ESV) And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
But let’s fast-forward to the end of the week. Yeshua has been entering the city each day, then leaving to go to Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus live to spend the night; except for the Pesach meal. He needed to be inside the city to celebrate the feast of Passover, as this is how Judaism of the time understood it needed to be done. So He tells His disciples to go into the city to prepare a place for them to celebrate this final Passover supper, which He celebrates with them. Then afterward He leaves with them, but they don’t go all the way to Bethany:
- Luke 22:39-46 (ESV) And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
John has a different, more theological perspective:
- John 1:1-5 (ESV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life [Or was not any thing made. That which has been made was life in him] and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
“In the beginning” immediately puts us in mind of Genesis 1. God creates a perfect garden, placing it in the custody of man. Man was to care for the garden and eat of its’ abundance, except for one tree. But man chose to disobey, breaking the relationship between himself and God. John saying “In the beginning” is telling us he’s giving us another creation story. Yeshua was there “in the beginning.” We often hear that Yeshua is the second Adam; that through the first sin entered the world, and through the second sinful man will be reconciled to a righteous God. This is John’s message. John too records after the meal Jesus left with His talmedim:
- John 18:1 (ESV) When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
Now we find this new Adam is facing the decision to choose God’s will or His own. In Genesis humans choose their own will. Yeshua choses the will of the Father. Knowing Judas was bringing the Temple guards from just a short distance away, He lingered in the garden. Where Adam and Chava had hidden in nakedness and shame, He stood clothed in righteousness, ready to pay the price for their sin.
The events that transpired next occurred in that small, privilaged area of the city. Caiaphus, Pilate, and Herod Antipas were all in an area about twice the size of the Temple grounds. There is a common misconception that the crowd that cheered Jesus’ entry into the city at the beginning of the week is the same crowd that called for His execution so few days later. This is wrong. His trial was carried out at night in what amounted to a gated community for the cities elite. So the “crowd” knew nothing of what was happening. Only the friends and family of the religious rulers would have known, and the courtyard where Yeshua was brought before Pilate was itself small, so relatively few of them would have been there. Probably the most rabid and hateful of even the Sadducee’s.
The city woke the next morning to see their Messiah on a Roman cross. We can easily imagine the palpable evil that hung over the city that fateful Pesach, the 14th day of the 1st month. But jump to the beginning of the next week:
- John 20:1,14-16 (ESV) Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. … Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
Yeshua, who took Adam’s (the original gardener’s) place on the tree is thought to be the gardener, then recognized for Himself. But it would be seven weeks later at Shavuot before the full impact of this new creation story would be known to Yerushalaim and the world. That event is of course "Pentecost."
I think it important to remember the 14th not only as a preparation day, but as the true Pesach. I think it important to remember the 15th as an extension of the 14th for purposes of eating the Korban Pesach, the Pesach sacrifice, as this represents the biblical era we are in now. As often as we celebrate Pesach, as we eat of the meal we do so in remembrance of the One who gave His life that we might live. And we need to remember He came then as Moshiach ben’Yoseph, the Suffering Servant. His return as Moshiach ben’Dovid, the All Conquering King is imminent; possibly very much so.
Chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach. Happy and kosher Passover.
Clearly the Bible says the 14th is Pesach and the 15th starts the week of Unleavened Bread. And indeed, Yeshua HaMoshiach, our “Passover Lamb” both celebrated a Pesach meal with His talmedim (disciples) and was then crucified and buried on the 14th of the month:
- Matthew 26:18-21 And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”‘” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating .
- Mark 14:14 Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”
So the 14th is for us as believers our Passover. Indeed, according to Chabad the 14th used to be called Pesach and the 15th was the start of Unleavened Bread for Jews as well. Contemporary practice is to call the 15th, and even the entire thing Pesach. The 14th is relegated to just a “preparation day.” Confusing, nu? Stay with me; it gets worse.
There is a principle we must understand- the celebration of the 15th is considered to be an extension of the 14th:
-Leviticus 7:15 “And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.”
When given “one day” to eat an offering, it refers to a 24 hr. period of time, not necessarily a biblical day. So the day would consist of the daytime followed by its night. Where sacrifices are concerned, the night after it is made is an extension of the day it was brought. Therefore concerning the Passover sacrifice, the evening of the 15th was considered as the same day as the 14th, but only applicable as the time we have to eat it.
Knowing this it makes the following passage a bit more understandable:
- Deuteronomy 16:1-3 (ESV) “Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.
The sacrifice made on the 14th and eaten with matzah as we start the feast of Unleavened Bread on the 15th. And note it recalls their deliverance from Egypt.
So what of this “preparation day?”
- Leviticus 23:7b, 8b (ESV) you shall not do any ordinary work.
“No ordinary work” doesn’t mean no work as on a regular Shabbat. This day is set aside for the final cleansing of leaven from the home and after that the preparation of the Pesach meal. When the Temple stood this would have been a lamb roasted on a spit. It takes 5-6 hours to roast an average lamb even in a modern oven, so with prep and cooking we’re talking at least half the day to cook the meal to be ready for the evening.
So we see “Passover” on the 14th is not the Festival of Matzahs which begins that evening (the 15th), which for purposes of eating the sacrifice is the same day as the 14th. It is the Passover offering, sacrificed on the 14th and eaten that night, the 15th, with no leaven.
This too is how Yeshua could celebrate a Pesach meal with His talmedim and still fulfill prophecy by offering Himself for us, all on the 14th. So just what all happened on this most fateful and poignant Pesach? How did the day play out?
First we need some history, and we should probably start with a map of 1st cen Yerushalaim as well (you’ll have to find your own map). Melech Dovid established his kingdom, making Yerushalaim his capitol. After Alexander’s conquest and the breakup of his empire the city became central to the Hasmonean kingdom, and they build a palace there. Later Herod the Great will build a palace on the western hill, these more or less defining the small, upscale, “privilaged” sector of the city. The old city historically expanded and contracted between the Hinom Valley on its western side and he Kidron Valley on the east side. The Mount of Olives is on the eastern side of the Kidron Valley, just SE of the Temple.
Mostly when Yeshua comes into Yerushalaim, He enters on the other side, coming from Yericho, over the Mt of Olives, into the city via the Kidron Valley. He would typically stay in Bethany, just over the crest of the Mt. of Olives.
Jerusalem was a very conservative Jewish city, however the Sadducees and Herodians wanted to Hellenize the city. It was a polis, a capitol city connected to the greater Greco-Roman theater. There was consequently a clash between the ruling class and the common Judean. The reason Israelites are called Jews is after the Babylonian exile of the southern kingdom of Judah, Judeans were the ones returning to reestablish the Hebraic community in ha’Eretz. Those people were called Ἰουδαῖος Ioudaios- Judaeans. This ends up being shortened and now all Hebrews in the Land are called Jews. It gets confusing since we still have only the term Ἰουδαῖος Ioudaios meaning either Judeans, or in a broader sense Jews. We must take care which term we use in translation. Sadly Christian translators are not usually so careful.
The book of John is often thought anti-Semitic because of the way it’s translated. There are many off-hand references to Jews placing them in a bad light:
- John 7:1 (ESV) After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
-- Footnote: Or Judeans; Greek Ioudaioi probably refers here to Jewish religious leaders, and others under their influence, in that time
He went freely around the Galil, Jews everywhere there for over three years and no one tried to kill Him. He traveled through the Decapolis which was chock full of Hellenized Jews to get to Jerusalem from the Galil, and even they did not try to kill Him! He entered the city with throngs of Judeans shouting and singing praises to Him. They didn’t try to kill Him either. And more than that, this was the first of the annual Pilgrimage Festivals- Jerusalem was being swollen daily by Jews from all over the empire, and none of them tried to kill Yeshua! So just maybe it was SOME Judeans, and more specifically SOME Sadducees who wanted Him dead, as He posed a threat to their religious rule as quislings of Rome. You’d think that at least SOME translators would get that right.
Moreover, thanks again to the translators SOME people use John’s gospel to say this meal was before Passover and therefore not a real Pesach meal:
- John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end
Looking at the Greek we see it says before the Passover Jesus knew His hour had come, and that He loved His disciples. It does not say that He ate before the Passover. The word “supper” is used in the next verse, “2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.” The Greek word used is “deipnon:”
deipnon (dipe’-non)…dinner, i.e. the chief meal (usually in the evening) (Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
A dinner meal was normally in late afternoon/evening, at, twilight. And Yeshuas’ actions immediately following the meal definitely occurred on the evening of the 14th. They were NOT on the 13th as SOME suggest. This is confirmed by 1 Corinthians 11:23 “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.” Thus, John 13 is clearly supportive of a 14th Passover.
At any rate, He and His disciples cross the Jordan River Valley at Jericho and come up to the city for one last Pesach:
- Zechariah 9:9 (ESV) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
- Luke 19:29-35 (ESV) When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
Jesus is coming from the wilderness side. Bethpage and Bethany are on the eastern crest-line of the Mount of Olives. Now most of us would picture kings riding in on a horse; an animal of war. However a donkey colt is an animal of peace. Kings often rode in on a colt to demonstrate they were already in control. So this was a not-too subtle claim Jesus is making over the city of Jerusalem. Pesach recalls the Hebrews deliverance from another mighty power, Egypt. And here the Crown Prince of Israel rides in like He owns the place! And it gets worse if you are of the privileged class:
- Luke 19:37-38 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
They are calling Him king! And the crowds are joining in:
- Matthew 21:9 (ESV) And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
But let’s fast-forward to the end of the week. Yeshua has been entering the city each day, then leaving to go to Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus live to spend the night; except for the Pesach meal. He needed to be inside the city to celebrate the feast of Passover, as this is how Judaism of the time understood it needed to be done. So He tells His disciples to go into the city to prepare a place for them to celebrate this final Passover supper, which He celebrates with them. Then afterward He leaves with them, but they don’t go all the way to Bethany:
- Luke 22:39-46 (ESV) And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
John has a different, more theological perspective:
- John 1:1-5 (ESV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life [Or was not any thing made. That which has been made was life in him] and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
“In the beginning” immediately puts us in mind of Genesis 1. God creates a perfect garden, placing it in the custody of man. Man was to care for the garden and eat of its’ abundance, except for one tree. But man chose to disobey, breaking the relationship between himself and God. John saying “In the beginning” is telling us he’s giving us another creation story. Yeshua was there “in the beginning.” We often hear that Yeshua is the second Adam; that through the first sin entered the world, and through the second sinful man will be reconciled to a righteous God. This is John’s message. John too records after the meal Jesus left with His talmedim:
- John 18:1 (ESV) When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
Now we find this new Adam is facing the decision to choose God’s will or His own. In Genesis humans choose their own will. Yeshua choses the will of the Father. Knowing Judas was bringing the Temple guards from just a short distance away, He lingered in the garden. Where Adam and Chava had hidden in nakedness and shame, He stood clothed in righteousness, ready to pay the price for their sin.
The events that transpired next occurred in that small, privilaged area of the city. Caiaphus, Pilate, and Herod Antipas were all in an area about twice the size of the Temple grounds. There is a common misconception that the crowd that cheered Jesus’ entry into the city at the beginning of the week is the same crowd that called for His execution so few days later. This is wrong. His trial was carried out at night in what amounted to a gated community for the cities elite. So the “crowd” knew nothing of what was happening. Only the friends and family of the religious rulers would have known, and the courtyard where Yeshua was brought before Pilate was itself small, so relatively few of them would have been there. Probably the most rabid and hateful of even the Sadducee’s.
The city woke the next morning to see their Messiah on a Roman cross. We can easily imagine the palpable evil that hung over the city that fateful Pesach, the 14th day of the 1st month. But jump to the beginning of the next week:
- John 20:1,14-16 (ESV) Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. … Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
Yeshua, who took Adam’s (the original gardener’s) place on the tree is thought to be the gardener, then recognized for Himself. But it would be seven weeks later at Shavuot before the full impact of this new creation story would be known to Yerushalaim and the world. That event is of course "Pentecost."
I think it important to remember the 14th not only as a preparation day, but as the true Pesach. I think it important to remember the 15th as an extension of the 14th for purposes of eating the Korban Pesach, the Pesach sacrifice, as this represents the biblical era we are in now. As often as we celebrate Pesach, as we eat of the meal we do so in remembrance of the One who gave His life that we might live. And we need to remember He came then as Moshiach ben’Yoseph, the Suffering Servant. His return as Moshiach ben’Dovid, the All Conquering King is imminent; possibly very much so.
Chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach. Happy and kosher Passover.
