What is the Passover? (Reflection on Mark 14)
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This Blog Post accompanies my video reading of Mark 14 published on the Circular Grace YouTube channel.
Why understanding the Passover is important!
What springs to mind first for me when considering this chapter is the origin of Passover and how this relates to Christ and our salvation. Over and over in the last few chapters Jesus has emphasised that He must fulfil what has been written. I find it helpful to keep in mind the origin of what has been written. Jesus is talking about Old Testament scripture that testifies the Will of God. God's declaration of His plan for His world. The prophets weren't sharing their own personal thoughts but proclaiming the Word given to them by God, our Father in Heaven.
Jesus is the Lamb of God, prophesied, prescious, innocent and perfect. His innocent blood is about to be sacrificed to save sinners. I'm pondering the origin of Passover. Remembering the blood of the perfect sacrificed lambs that God commanded be put on the doors so that His wrath would pass over the Israelites. That innocent blood saved them and opened the door for their exodus from Egypt. Just as Jesus's innocent blood opens a door for us today. I'm also thinking about the final judgment when Jesus's blood covers us so that the wrath of God will pass over us and we are saved and given safe passage to His new and eternal perfect Kingdom.
To understand Passover, we need to travel back into the Old Testament. The Jews were exiled in Egypt for 430 years and the last, approximate 210 of those in captivity as slaves. The Feast of Passover commemorates the circumstances of God's mighty act of judgement that finally forced Egypt to free the Israelites. The Egyptians knowingly and wilfully defied God and stubbornly refused to free the Israelites. The Egyptians had a misplaced trust in their false pagan gods and rejected the command of the one true God. He sent to them a command to release His people so that they could serve Him. God put ever increasing pressure on the Egyptians in the form of worsening plagues that they were powerless to prevent. Essentially to demonstrate His Almighty and supreme power to them but also to His people. God's final and devastating judgement plague poured out on Egypt takes the life of every firstborn and defeats them. The Egyptians respond in fear and terror at God's power and agree to free the Israelites. You'll get the full story in the book of Exodus but these verses give the specific circumstances that describe the origin of 'pass over'. The blood comes from the lambs God has commanded, be sacrificed. Exodus 12:12-13 (ESV)
12Â For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13Â The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt
At the centre of the Feast of Passover are two key elements, unleavened bread and the sacrificial lamb. I have only focused above on the lamb. This chapter begins just before Passover and Jesus and His disciples along with all other adult male Jews in the region must gather in Jerusalem to celebrate. God has commanded this.
To understand the reason unleavened bread and a sacrificial lamb are central to the celebration, we can jump back into the book of Exodus. God gives a specific commandment that yeast is forbidden and unleavened bread eaten for a specific number of days and then gives instruction on the precise preparation of a sacrificial Passover Lamb that all must eat. Exodus 12:14(ESV)
14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.
I wanted to paint this picture of Passover in the hope that it may help bring light to the verses in this chapter. There is a lot more depth, particularly regarding 'yeast' that I've skipped over, study the Book of Exodus for a fuller understanding than my little summary provides.
This chapter begins just before Passover and the commentaries provide a lot of context. Let's jump in and take a look.
Enduring Word Commentary
This verse by verse commentary begins with the Passover and gives us context on the mood of those attending. The Jews are awaiting the prophesied Messiah who will usher in the ultimate promised salvation event. Like Exodus the Messiah will open the door to freedom.
a. After two days it was the Passover: The time is significant, because there was at Passover not only a great expectation of the Messiah, but Jerusalem was also crowded with these Messiah-expecting multitudes. Since Passover remembered the time when God raised up a great deliverer and freed Israel from foreign oppression, it was a time of great patriotic and messianic anticipation. The Romans were on guard and ready for any hint of revolt.
The commentator provides details regarding the geographic location of Jewish people who would gather in Jerusalem.
ii. Every male Jew who lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem had to come to Jerusalem for Passover. Many more came from great distances – including Galilee. Many people who heard and saw Jesus in the region of Galilee were here, with great respect and great expectation regarding Jesus.
We know from the text that the religious leaders did not want to kill Jesus during the Passover but God's plan is supreme.
c. Not during the feast: The; religious leaders did not want to kill Jesus during the Passover feast, but they ended up doing it during that time anyway. This clearly shows that Jesus was in command and though the leaders acted according to the evil inclination of their hearts, their actions fulfilled prophecy and the plan of Jesus.
I learnt something new from this commentary. I had incorrectly assumed that this was a different telling of the same story about a lady anointing Jesus.
i. This isn’t the same event as when a sinful woman brought the alabaster box with ointment, broke it and anointed Jesus’ feet. That occasion was precious, but it was different in that the woman was overwhelmed with her own sense of sinfulness and adoration to her pardoning Lord. Mary seems focused on Jesus alone, not even on her own forgiven sin. It is a great thing to love Jesus for all He has done for us; it can be greater still to love Him simply for who He is in all His wonder and majesty.
As always, there is much to learn from this commentary but I'll leave it there and jump into another to look at some more verses.
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/mark-14/
Blue Letter Commentary
The previous commentary explained that the religious leaders didn't want to kill Jesus during Passover but this commentary highlights another motive. That despite this they wanted an opportunity to display his fabricated guilt and suffering to a crowd.
(1.) That his death and suffering might be the more public, and that all Israel, even those of the dispersion, who came from all parts to the feast, might be witnesses of it, and of the wonders that attended it.
I'm pondering this and remember that they went to a lot of trouble to make sure their part in the betray and murder was kept quiet. They took Him under the cover of darkness and conducted a clandestine mock trial. The public would witness Jesus's death by Roman commanded crucifixion.
I found Henry's commentary a little hard going for this chapter as he makes complex reference to other commentators I am unfamiliar with. One snippet I did find useful however, was his description of the temptation Satan used on Judas
Covetousness was Judas's master-lust, his own iniquity, and that betrayed him to the sin of betraying his Master; the devil suited his temptation to that, and so conquered him. It is not said, They promised him preferment (he was not ambitious of that), but, they promised him money.
I'll leave it there for this commentary. Have a look if you have time to ponder and want to really study this chapter. I'm confident there is a lot to digest.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Mar/Mar_014.cfm
Bible Ref Commentary
You may have used Got Questions and if so this commentary is part of that collection of resources. I've chosen this snippet because it helps clarify my thoughts in the opening and joins up the dots. In the Old Testament, Old Covenant we have the Passover. Today living under the New Covenant created through Christ's sacrifice, we have the Last Supper which we now commemorate during communion.
Here the commentary helps us to understand by harmonising the Gospels. It's very clear that we need to read all of the Gospels to get the clearest understanding possible.
Mark describes the Passover meal with the disciples (Mark 14:12–21) while John goes into greater detail about what Jesus taught them (John 13—17). In Egypt, the blood of lambs protected the Israelites from death (Exodus 12). As Jesus prepares to shed His own blood to bring life to the world, He dismisses Judas to set the stage (John 13:21–30) and transforms that Passover meal into the Lord's Supper (Mark 14:22–25).
As always there is much more that could be said and I hope one day to finish sharing the Bible and start all over again. I look forward to sharing more when and if I am blessed to do so. In the meantime, I'll leave this chapter and look forward to sharing Mark Chapter 15.
If you have any thoughts or comments, please share them below.
Time, once again was against me this week. I'm trying really hard to upload a new chapter reading and accompanying Blog post every Friday. There was so much more to say about this chapter. I am so deeply moved by Christ's prayer to the Father in the garden and His reaction to the sleeping apostles. The difference between His reaction to the questions from Pilate compared to the Jewish leaders is intriguing and I think could fill a blog post. Then also, poor Peter as he weeps at the end of the chapter. Satan sifted him like wheat and he succumbed to temptation. The Lord knew he would but He also knew that through the agony of suffering failure and repenting, Peters faith would grow.