Scripture: Luke 22:14-20, Exod 12:1-11, etc.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).

If you believe in Christ’s death and resurrection, you also died with him and were made alive with him. It is your old self who has died and your new self who is now living: “The old has gone, the new has come.” Your spiritual reality has become new, reflected in how you live your life and your purpose in life. You have been transformed from living for yourself to living for him who died for you and was raised again. So, believing in this reality, you say by faith, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

To accept this truth as our reality, we must pay close attention to the last five days of Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus died for us as the Lamb of God by bearing our sins and uncleanness on him. The way he died was typologically illustrated at the first Passover that happened in Egypt. God commanded the Israelites concerning the lamb they were to sacrifice as follows:

Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. … Watch it carefully until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire (Exod 12:3-8),

Through this lamb, the Israelites were saved from the death that occurred throughout Egypt. The Passover meal is commemorated, and the Exodus story of how they came out of Egypt is recounted during the meal every year. Jesus also ate this meal with his disciples the night before he died on the cross.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God (Luke 22:14-16).”