Here in Jerusalem, the city is nearly at a standstill. No public transportation, very little traffic. Most Jewish families are walking to and from the synagogues to celebrate one of the holiest days of the year, Passover. Last night, most of the nation spent their evening observing the Seder meal. This meal marks the deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt as told in the book of Exodus.
This week, thousands of Christians are also in Jerusalem to mark Easter. It's one of those years when Passover and Easter fall on the same week of the year. Tonight on Maudy Thursday, they'll remember the Last Supper, the Passover meal that Jesus celebrated with his disciples the night before He was crucified. For Christians; it's become the most important meal of all time, a celebration that changed the course of history.
The New Testament tells us that the night before His crucifixion Jesus found an upper room and celebrated the Jewish Passover meal with his disciples. It's a meal filled with meaning, power and Old Testament roots. As host, He would have blessed the meal and told the story of the Exodus of the Jewish people from the bondage of Egypt. He might have recited the scriptures like:
"Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them: "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down." Exodus 12: 22, 23
Christians celebrate the fact that Jesus Himself became that Passover lamb; not to deliver out of the bondage of Egypt but out of the bondage of sin. Two thousand years later, millions of believers in Jesus throughout the nations know the power of that Passover meal is still transforming the world.
Tomorrow on Good Friday, they will mark the day when Jesus was crucified and buried. Then on Sunday, Christians here in Jerusalem - and around the world - will celebrate Easter Sunday, the day when His disciples found an empty tomb and met a risen Savior. As the early Christians used to say, He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!