Tag: Christ our passover

JN Darby on the Passover –  Christ our Passover

When I see the Blood

The Passover by Subject – Christ our Passover

 

The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects

Notes from Darby’s Writings

Reference
Discipline follows; for Christ had been offered up as the Paschal Lamb, and they were to keep the feast without leaven, keeping themselves from the old leaven; in order that they might be in fact, what they were before God an unleavened lump JND Synopsis 1 Corinthians 5

 
God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The blood of Christ is ever before the eye of God.  He never fogets it.   If God does not ever forget the blood of Christ shed once for ever, He does not wish us to forget it.  The Lord Jesus in His boundless grace wishes us to think of Him, to remember Him.  Precious manifestation of love for us, that the Saviour should delight in our remembrance of Him, and that He has left us a touching memorial of Himself and His love.  Jesus wishes us to think of Him, because He loves us!  The Lord said, ‘This is my body … do this in remembrance of me’ (See (Matt 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:24).     In the supper we shew forth His death till He comes.

Lastly, the Lord gives to His disciples of the fruit of the vine to drink; and it is called this after that the Lord had said in verse 24, ‘This is my blood of the new covenant.’ It is quite clear that when he says, ‘I will drink no more of it’ He speaks of wine in its natural sense.

 

 JND Collected Writings Volume 24 (Expository 3) p319 on Mark  14

 
God’s righteousness as Judge is connected with blood, as in Romans 3 and also in the Passover.  No man could ever plead a part in the second dealing of righteousness save Christ Himself, for all are sinners; Christ, even as a Man down here, could be accepted as perfectly agreeable to God.  But then Christianity, and even Judaism in its figures, goes a great deal further — for grace reigns through righteousness, and sinners were to be justified or accounted righteous. Notes & Comments vol. 2 p 68

ATONEMENT
The blood on the lintel and doorposts having met the sin, now full deliverance is wrought by the death and resurrection of Christ. Satan’s power, judgment which shut them in, were gone and secured Israel for ever from them. It was finished, done, and they were delivered and with God. Notes & Comments vol. 2 p 134

THE RED SEA AND JORDAN
There were three great feasts when all Israel had to go up to Jerusalem, the Passover, Pentecost or Feast of Weeks, and the Tabernacles.  The true Passover has been sacrificed, but the great gathering of the Feast of Tabernacles has yet to come; people will then own Christ to be their Passover, who will not have done so hitherto. That however, is still future. Notes & Jottings p 158

LECTURE AT ROCHDALE

 
The Passover was first held when Israel was coming out of Egypt, and for seven days they were to eat unleavened bread.

In the Passover, man is a judged and condemned race.  But the pride of man is such that he refuses this, and seeks to restore himself as he is.  People claim that Christ come into the condition of the children of Adam, as if it were to raise up men as men.  This is all false.  It is a totally new place altogether into which Christ has entered.  It is all over with the world, and God has proved His righteousness in setting Christ at His own right hand.

 

 Notes & Jottings p 160

LECTURE AT ROCHDALE

 

 

JN Darby on the Passover – The Last Supper

The Lord had finished His discourses. He prepares to suffer, and to make His last and touching farewells to His disciples, at the table of His last Passover on earth, at which He instituted, the simple and precious memorial which recalls His sufferings and His love. This part of our Gospel needs to be felt rather than explained.

When I see the Blood

The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects

 

Notes from Darby’s Writings

Reference
The Lord had finished His discourses. He prepares to suffer, and to make His last and touching farewells to His disciples, at the table of His last Passover on earth, at which He instituted, the simple and precious memorial which recalls His sufferings and His love. This part of our Gospel needs to be felt rather than explained.

With what simplicity the Lord announces that which was to happen!  He already arrived at Bethany, six days before the Passover (John 12:1): there He abode, with the exception of the last supper, until He was taken captive in the garden of Gethsemane, although He visited Jerusalem, and partook of His last meal there.

He then points out that it is the slain Saviour slain who is to be remembered. His pathway as the living Messiah was over. It was no longer the remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. Christ, and Christ slain, began an entirely new order of things.  He draws the disciples’ attention to the blood of the new covenant, saying that it was ‘shed for many.’ – i.e. Jew and Gentile.  It was shed for the remission of sins.

 

 JND Synopsis Matthew 26

 
The scribes and Pharisees were already consulting how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death. They feared the influence of the people, who admired the works and goodness and meekness of Jesus. Therefore they wished to avoid taking Him at the time of the feast, when the multitude flocked to Jerusalem: but God had other purposes. Jesus was to be our Paschal Lamb, blessed Lord! and He offers Himself as the victim of propitiation.

But the time drew near for the last feast of the Passover that took place during the life of Jesus, the one in which He was Himself to be the Lamb.  The memorial to faith was that of Himself and of His work. He therefore sends His disciples to prepare all that was needed to keep the feast. In the evening He sits with His disciples, to converse with them, and to testify His love for them as their companion, for the last time. But it is to tell them (for He must suffer everything) that one of them should betray Him.

 

It was Himself, His sacrifice, not a temporal deliverance, that they were to remember. All was now absorbed in Him, and in Him dying on the cross. Afterwards, in giving them the cup, He lays the foundation of the new covenant in His blood (in a figure), giving it to them as participation in His death. When they had all drunk of it, He announces to them that it is the seal of the new covenant a thing well known to the Jews, according to Jeremiah; adding that it was shed for many. Death was to come in for the establishment of the new covenant, and for the ransom of many.  Death was necessary, and the bonds of earthly association between Jesus and His disciples were dissolved

 

 JND Synopsis Mark 14

 
The chief priests, fearing the people, seek how they may kill Him. The day of Passover comes, and the Lord shows the character of the gospel.  Thus He desired to eat this last Passover with His disciples, because He would eat of it  no more until the future kingdom s – His death came first.   Now we enjoy the kingdom as it is now, not the millennium.  Observe also what a touching expression of love we have here: His heart needed this last testimony of affection before leaving them.

The new covenant is founded on the blood here drunk in figure. The old was done away. Blood was required to establish the new. At the same time the covenant itself was not established; but everything was done on God’s part. The blood was not shed to give force to a covenant of judgment like the first; it was shed for those who received Jesus, while waiting for the time when the covenant itself should be established with Israel in grace.

 

 JND Synopsis Luke 22

 
They were all at the table together, and the Lord Jesus, full of love, looked upon His disciples.  He felt deeply the fact that one of them who had lived in His holy presence should betray Him.  He proved their hearts – ‘Lord, is it I?’ (Matthew 26:22) – to bring to light that which was within.

Now the Lord institutes the supper, a precious sign and memorial of His love and of His death. Up to that time, the Passover had been the commemoration of the deliverance of the people out of the captivity in Egypt, when the blood of the Lamb was put upon the doors of the houses where the Israelites were. Now the blood of a more excellent Lamb has been sprinkled upon the mercy-seat in heaven, before the eye of God; when Christ, the Lamb of God, accomplished everything for the glory of God and for the salvation of all believers.  Without shedding of blood there is no remission.  The work has been done: in the sacrifice of the cross Jesus drank the cup of malediction and cannot drink it again; He perfectly glorified God about sin.  He bore the sins of many, and can never bear them again; He cannot offer Himself again, He is for ever seated at the right hand of God; Hebrews 9: 24-26. He would have had to suffer often, if His one offering upon the cross had not taken away for ever all the sins of all believers.  The Lord said, ‘This is my body … do this in remembrance of me’ (See Matt 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:24).

 JND Collected Writings Volume 24 (Expository 3) p319 on Mark  14

 
In Luke’s account of the Passover (ch. 22), we have the sign of the passing away of the old system, and the bringing in of the new.  As a token of affection , He eats with His disciples for the last time.  He does not take the Passover cup at all and will not do so until the Kingdom of God comes.  They were to divide this token of fellowship and communion in joy among themselves.   Then He institutes the new thing in His body broken, the remembrance of a new and better deliverance, and the Cross the new covenant in His blood. Notes & Comments vol. 5 p 90

Note on the Sacraments
The Lord distinguishes in Luke 22 between the Paschal Lamb and the wine, and both from the institution of the memorial of His deliverance of His people by death.  He desired to eat the Passover, but He did not partake of the wine. In partaking of the Passover, it was the last and deep testimony of God’s faithful love to Israel as His people delivered from Egypt, and the Saviour’s entering, in the fullest individual way, into all the feelings of a ransomed Jew before God, the feelings and interests of the people as such.  He felt for and with Israel, and that as one of themselves, too, until by His rejection they stood on other ground, and divine favour passed into another scene by the resurrection, and He became the Substitute, Himself the true Paschal Lamb. They rejecting their own mercies, their history, as so received, ended in His death. . . .

 

 Notes & Comments vol. 5 p 309

Note on  Luke 22
The time was not yet come for the Lord to enjoy the position as Head of the earthly people. He humbly, and full of grace, ate the Passover with them before He suffered, and passed from recognising the Jewish goodness of the Lord, into the suffering which became Him who should glorify God.  He could not take the joy of the kingdom. They were to take what would have been the sign of it now as the symbol and memorial of His death — that was the basis of all true joy, the need which the state of things, of men, of God’s people occasioned — then suffer with Him, but afterwards they would find again their place with Messiah as Head of God’s people, the twelve tribes of Israel. Notes & Comments vol. 5 p 319

Note on  Luke 22

JN Darby on the Passover – The Firstborn Shall be Mine

The connection of unleavened bread and consecration of first-born on common ground here; both as a memorial in the land — the double character of the moral result looked for (produced by grace) in those delivered.

The Passover by Subject – The Firstborn Shall be Mine

 

The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects

 

Notes from Darby’s Writings

Reference
We have the unleavened bread, and the first-born consecrated, as the consequence and result of deliverance from Egypt, i.e., separation (consecration) to God in the double sense of purity, unfeigned hearts, and complete devotedness.  These are the fruit of having to say to God in the way of divine power in deliverance.

Note too, the connection of unleavened bread and consecration of first-born on common ground here; both as a memorial in the land — the double character of the moral result looked for (produced by grace) in those delivered.

 

 Notes & Comments vol. 1 p 210

EXODUS CHAPTER 13

 

JN Darby on the Passover – The Feast of Unleavened Bread

In the Passover, the unleavened bread, type of holiness and the absence of sin, is the bread of affliction (the spirit of repentance); and they were to turn to Him in the morning and go to their tents,  though the feast lasted seven days.

The Passover by Subject

The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects

Notes from Darby’s Writings

Reference
It was clearly established, in commemoration of God’s sparing the people when judging Egypt and Pharaoh at the time of their deliverance from the bondage they were in.   In the Passover, the unleavened bread, type of holiness and the absence of sin, is the bread of affliction (the spirit of repentance); and they were to turn to Him in the morning and go to their tents,  though the feast lasted seven days.   But the great idea of security from God’s judgment was there in the blood of the Paschal Lamb.  We now have, of course, only a memorial of it.

 

  

JND Collected Writings Volume 29 (Doctrinal 8) p107 on ‘Have we a Revelation from God?’

 
We have the unleavened bread, and the first-born consecrated, as the consequence and result of deliverance from Egypt, i.e., separation (consecration) to God in the double sense of purity, unfeigned hearts, and complete devotedness.  These are the fruit of having to say to God in the way of divine power in deliverance.

 

Note too, the connection of unleavened bread and consecration of first-born on common ground here; both as a memorial in the land — the double character of the moral result looked for (produced by grace) in those delivered.

 

 Notes & Comments vol. 1 p 210

EXODUS CHAPTER 13

 
Another thing connected with the Passover is in Deuteronomy 16:7: “And thou shalt cook and eat it at the place which Jehovah thy God will choose; and in the morning shalt thou turn and go unto thy tents“. No communion, no joy, no fellowship — not a bit.  Unleavened bread is the bread of affliction.  They were saved, but that is all: they were still a people in bondage and slavery.  Now God was going by as Judge; but because the Passover-blood the blood was on the doorposts, God would pass over them.  How can I escape judgment, for God must have holiness, and I have none?  Well, there is the blood.  God is passing over – here we can say He is cut out of those dwellings (as a Judge) As He does not come near me, I have to eat the unleavened bread – the bread of affliction. Notes & Jottings p 161

LECTURE AT ROCHDALE

 

JN Darby on the Passover – The Historical Keeping of the Passover

The Passover by Subject

– The Historical Keeping of the Passover

 

The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects

Notes from Darby’s Writings

Reference
The Passover, the memorial of redemption of the people of God, as an assembly redeemed by Him, was obligatory during the journey through the wilderness.   But according the record, it was celebrated only once.  Those born in the wilderness were not circumcised till they came to Gilgal across the Jordan, so not in a condition to keep it.  None born there were circumcised.   God makes a provision, in grace and forbearance, for those who were not able to keep it. JND Synopsis Numbers 9

However faithful Josiah had been, this had not changed the heart of the people – ‘The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? …, yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord’ (Jeremiah 3: 6, 10). Josiah’s faith was in action, and blessing depended on the conduct of the king.  Despite this, the undercurrent was always tending to the ruin and rejection of the people.

For this special Passover, everything is set in order according to the ordinances of Moses and David, in a remarkable manner. It appears that even the ark had been removed from its place (2 Chronicles 35:3); but now, the ark being restored to its rest, the Levites occupy themselves diligently with their service, and even make ready for the priests, that they might keep the feast. They were all in their places according to the blessing of Israel in the rest they enjoyed under Solomon. Those who taught all Israel no longer bore the ark, but they ministered to God and to His people. The singers were there also, according to their order, so that there had not been such a Passover since the days of Samuel. It was like the last glimmering of the lamp which God had lighted among His people in the house of David. It was soon extinguished in the darkness of the nation which did not know God, and those who had been His people came under the judgment expressed by the word Lo-ammi (Not-my-people).   God was yet to show His infinite grace.

 

 JND Synopsis 2 Chronicles 35

 
The Passover has an unquestionably historical character.  It was ‘a night much to be observed,’ (Ex 12:42) when, protected by the blood from judgment, they ate their unleavened bread in haste, preparing to depart out of Egypt.  There is no evidence that they kept it after Sinai (Numbers 9) till they were in Canaan. Those born in the wilderness were not fitted to do so, being uncircumcised until across Jordan; when, under Joshua they were, they did so  in Gilgal .  Hezekiah kept it, and Josiah kept it, as it had not been kept for long years.  What neglect!

 

 JND Collected Writings Volume 29 (Doctrinal 8) p106 on ‘Have we a Revelation from God?’

 

JN Darby on the Passover – The Original Passover –  God’s Commandments

Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.  So at last God executes His judgment, taking the firstborn as representatives of all the people. We have thus two parts in the deliverance of the people; in one,

1.     God appears as Judge

2.     God manifests Himself as Deliverer, satisfied through the redeeming blood.

The Passover by Subject – The Original Passover –  God’s Commandments

The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects

Notes from Darby’s Writings

Reference
Despite the plagues, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.  So at last God executes His judgment, taking the firstborn as representatives of all the people. We have thus two parts in the deliverance of the people; in one,

1.     God appears as Judge

2.     God manifests Himself as Deliverer, satisfied through the redeeming blood.

God says, ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over’ (v. 13).  It is not said, ‘When you see it’, but ‘When I see it”.  The soul of an awakened person rests, not on its own righteousness, or even his value of the blood, but on God’s valuation it.  Peace is founded on God’s valuation.  Our faith is in that.

 JND Synopsis – Exodus 12

 
There is further a difference between the passover and the great day of atonement. Here the blood met the eye of God passing through the land in judgment. On the great day of atonement it purified His habitation from our defilements, and, we can say, opened up the way to God’s throne and presence; gave us boldness to enter into the holiest by a new and living way. In the passover was added, as it had the character of first deliverance and forgiveness, the bitter herbs of judgment of sin in ourselves, and feeding on the slain Lamb, with loins girded and shoes on our feet, to leave the place of sin and judgment from which as the consequence of sin we had been fully sheltered. JND Synopsis – Exodus 13

 
We can take the sabbath, the Passover, and the feast of unleavened bread as making a whole. Of the two latter, the unleavened bread was the feast, properly speaking; the Passover was the sacrifice on which the feast was grounded. As the apostle says, ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with leaven,’ (1 Cor 5:7).  What was indeed necessary for the sabbath, for the rest of God, was the sacrifice of Christ, and purity; and though all these feasts lead on to the rest of God, yet these two, the Passover and unleavened bread, are the basis of all, and of the rest itself for us. Christ’s sacrifice and the absence of all principle of sin, form the basis of the part we have in the rest of God. God is glorified in respect of sin; sin is put away for us, out of His sight, and out of our hearts. The perfect absence of leaven marked Christ’s path and nature down here, and is accomplished in us, so far as we realise Christ as our life, and recognise ourselves, though the flesh be still in us, as dead and risen with Him. To be without leaven was the perfection of the Person of Christ living upon earth, and becomes in principle of the walk upon earth of him who is partaker of His life. JND Synopsis Leviticus 23
The Passover recalled deliverance, deliverance from bondage in Egypt  – for us this means  deliverance from sin and Satan.  It was eaten with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction.  That would signify repentance – ‘truth in the inward parts’ (Psalm 51:6).  They were happy, having escaped bondage, through the power of God alone.  They would have had the sense that it was a deliverance from the evil under which they had been, by their own fault and to their own ruin.  If unrepentant (leaven in the house) the soul was cut off.

God gathered the people around His dwelling-place, and linked them with His name and with Himself.  They worshipped Jehovah

 JND Synopsis Deuteronomy 16
The Passover relates to Christ’s dying for us.  In the Passover there was one simple truth, God was passing through as a judge, and passed over. JND Collected Writings Volume 33 (Miscellaneous 2) p404  Note on the Application of the Types of the Red Sea and Jordan

 
The character of the Passover sacrifice — for it is called ze-vakh (sacrifice) — is pretty plain. There was nothing burnt to the Lord; the holy character of the lamb was preserved by anything remaining over to be burnt, no bone to be broken, nor any part carried out of the house; but there was no sweet savour to the Lord, it had not that character of sacrifice — no altar or place of approach, neither hik-riv (brought near) nor hik-tir (burnt in sweet savour). It was not in character nor effect, coming to God; it was keeping God, as a righteous Judge, out, so that they escaped.

— 8, 10. The fact that the Passover was to be eaten at night, and nothing left till the morning or burned seems think, to show that it was entirely apart from the whole course and scene in which nature and sense are conversant.  It was an abstract matter between God and the soul, in the full undistracted claim and holiness of the divine nature.  It had nothing to do with their miserable circumstances.  It looked forward to where sin and the holy judgment of God met, when all was darkness for three hours with Christ on the cross.   Then all was to be burnt — there was no mixing it with any thing common; Israel was sanctified by it, like the priests, so that they ate it, but it could not be mixed with other food.

 Notes & Comments vol. 1 p 210

EXODUS CHAPTER 12

 
Feasts of the Lord, mo-ed (a set time), feast of unleavened bread, Khag (a holy feast).

Note the Sabbath, Passover and unleavened bread were not dependent on their coming into the land.

The Passover is the basis of all, founded on which we have the feast of unleavened bread, the general result also in the sinless character of our association with God.  verse 4, therefore begins afresh as the grand basis of all, unleavened bread being connected with it. The rest are special and actual dealings of God, and states and terms of relationship with Him; hence verse 9 starts with a new “the Lord spake”, and that begins the ways of the Lord in the resurrection of Christ, first fruits from the dead presented to Him. Sabbath — Passover — and Unleaven are the general great truth of our being assembled to God, verses 1 – 8.

 

 Notes & Comments vol. 2 p 62
Jehovah says, “I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am Jehovah. And the blood shall be unto you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12,-13). This was not the deliverance of Israel, like the passage of the Red Sea, but it was the ground of it; and of the two, the Passover was really the more solemn morally, though the Red Sea displayed God’s saving power more gloriously on behalf of His people and against their foes. But on the paschal night it was a question how God could pass over the guilty, even if His people; and the blood of the lamb sprinkled on Israel’s doorposts declared that God, though expressly judging, could not touch those screened thereby His truth and justice were stayed and satisfied before that blood. The destroyer was kept from entering.Not an Israelite perished within the blood-sprinkled lintels. It was a question of arresting God’s judgment here, of destroying Satan’s power in the type of the Red Sea; but the blood of Christ laid the foundation for the victory displayed in His resurrection.

 

  

JND Collected Writings Volume 21 (Evangelical 2) p9

THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

J N Darby on the Passover  – The Passover in the New Testament – ‘Christ our Passover’

He desired to eat this last Passover with His disciples, because He would eat of it no more until the future kingdom s – His death came first. Now we enjoy the kingdom as it is now, not the millennium. Observe also what a touching expression of love we have here: His heart needed this last testimony of affection before leaving them.

The Passover

The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects

Notes

  1. Scripture quotations here are from the Darby Translation
  2. The notes are a combination of those from the 1890 and 1961 editions of the Darby Bible. Where notes refer to another scripture, the notes from that scripture are used. In many notes in the 1890 edition there is a list of which manuscripts (MSS) use which terms.  These MSS have not been listed.
  3. The Synopsis has been slightly edited to simplify the English.

 

Matthew 26

Mark 14

Luke 22
1And it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, 2Ye know that after two days the passover takes place, and the Son of man is delivered up to be crucified.

 

17Now on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? 18And he said, Go into the city unto such a one, and say to him, The Teacher says, My time is near, I will keep the passover in thy house with my disciples. 19And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the passover.

. . .26And as they were eating, Jesus, having taken the bread and blesseda, broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. 27And having taken the cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. 28For this is my blood, that of the newb covenant, that shed for many for remission of sins. 29But I say to you, that I will not at allc drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father. 30And having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives.

 1Now the passover and the feast of unleavened bread was after two days. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might seize him by subtlety and kill him. 2For they said, Not in the feast, lest perhapsa there be a tumult of the people.

. . . 12And the first day of unleavened bread, when they slew the passover, his disciples say to him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the passover? 13And he sends two of his disciples, and says to them, Go into the city, and a man shall meet you carrying a pitcherb  of water; follow him. 14And wheresoever he enters, say to the master of the house, The Teacher says, Where is myc guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples? 15and he d will shew you a large upper room furnished ready. There make ready for us. 16And his disciples went away and came into the city, and found as he had said to them; and they made ready the passover.

. . .  22And as they were eating, Jesus, having taken bread, when he had blessed, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, Take this e: this is my body. 23And having taken the cupf, when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank out of it. 24And he said to them, This is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many. 25Verily I say to you, I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it newg in the kingdom of God. 26And having sung a hymnh, they went out to the mount of Olives

 1Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the passover, drew nigh, 2and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.

. . . 7And the day of unleavened bread came, in which the passover was to be killed. 8And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the passover for us, that we may eat it. 9But they said to him, Where wilt thou that we prepare it? 10And he said to them, Behold, as ye enter into the city a man will meet you, carrying an earthen pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he goes in; 11and ye shall say to the master of the house, The Teacher says to thee, Where is the guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples? 12And he will shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. 13And having gone they found it as he had said to them; and they prepared the passover.

14And when the hour was come, he placed himself at table, and the [twelve a] apostles with him. 15And he said to them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. 16For I say unto you, that I will not eat any more at all of it until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. 17And having received a cup, when he had given thanks he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. 18For I say unto you, that I will not drink at all b of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God come. 19And having taken a loafc, when he had given thanks, he broke [it], and gave [it] to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup [is] the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Notes

Notes

Notes
aOr ‘given thanks’

b Not in all MSS

c Strengthened negative

 a or ‘lest it may be, suggesting something uncertain which might happen at any time. –‘for’ refers to ‘subtlety’

b or earthen pitcher

cαὐτός/autos/Strong846 intensive pronoun ‘the same’

 dSome MSS read ‘the’

esome MSS read ‘take eat’

for ‘a cup’

gκαινός/ kainos/Strong2537 ew’‘in a new way’, not ‘an

hὑμνέω/humneó/Strong5214 -to sing a hymn or song

 a Not all MSS, some omit ‘apostles’

b Some add ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ‘from now’

c Or ‘bread’ as I Cor 11:23

Synopsis

Synopsis

Synopsis
The Lord had finished His discourses. He prepares to suffer, and to make His last and touching farewells to His disciples, at the table of His last passover on earth, at which He instituted, the simple and precious memorial which recalls His sufferings and His love. This part of our Gospel needs to be felt rather than explained.

With what simplicity the Lord announces that which was to happen!  He already arrived at Bethany, six days before the passover (John 12:1): there He abode, with the exception of the last supper, until He was taken captive in the garden of Gethsemane, although He visited Jerusalem, and partook of His last meal there.

 

He then points out that it is the slain Saviour slain who is to be remembered. His pathway as the living Messiah was over. It was no longer the remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. Christ, and Christ slain, began an entirely new order of things.  He draws the deciples’ attention to the blood of the new covenant, saying that it was ‘shed for many.’ – i.e. Jew and Gentile.  It was shed for the remission of sins.

 

 The scribes and Pharisees were already consulting how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death. They feared the influence of the people, who admired the works and goodness and meekness of Jesus. Therefore they wished to avoid taking Him at the time of the feast, when the multitude flocked to Jerusalem: but God had other purposes. Jesus was to be our Paschal Lamb, blessed Lord! and He offers Himself as the victim of propitiation.

But the time drew near for the last feast of the Passover that took place during the life of Jesus, the one in which He was Himself to be the Lamb.  The memorial to faith was that of Himself and of His work. He therefore sends His disciples to prepare all that was needed to keep the feast. In the evening He sits with His disciples, to converse with them, and to testify His love for them as their companion, for the last time. But it is to tell them (for He must suffer everything) that one of them should betray Him.

 

It was Himself, His sacrifice, not a temporal deliverance, that they were to remember. All was now absorbed in Him, and in Him dying on the cross. Afterwards, in giving them the cup, He lays the foundation of the new covenant in His blood (in a figure), giving it to them as participation in His death. When they had all drunk of it, He announces to them that it is the seal of the new covenant a thing well known to the Jews, according to Jeremiah; adding that it was shed for many. Death was to come in for the establishment of the new covenant, and for the ransom of many.  Death was necessary, and the bonds of earthly association between Jesus and His disciples were dissolved

 The chief priests, fearing the people, seek how they may kill Him. The day of Passover comes, and the Lord shows the character of the gospel.  Thus He desired to eat this last Passover with His disciples, because He would eat of it  no more until the future kingdom s – His death came first.   Now we enjoy the kingdom as it is now, not the millennium.  Observe also what a touching expression of love we have here: His heart needed this last testimony of affection before leaving them.

The new covenant is founded on the blood here drunk in figure. The old was done away. Blood was required to establish the new. At the same time the covenant itself was not established; but everything was done on God’s part. The blood was not shed to give force to a covenant of judgment like the first; it was shed for those who received Jesus, while waiting for the time when the covenant itself should be established with Israel in grace.

 

 

John 2

23And when he was in Jerusalem, at the passover, at the feast, many believed on a his name, beholding his signs which he wrought. 24But Jesus himself did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men, 25and that he had not need that any should testify of man, for himself knew b what was in man.

 

Notes

a εἰς/ eis/Strong1519 Strong says ‘indicating the point reached or entered, of place, time,  purpose, result’ JND on 2 Tim 1:12 ‘εἰς τίνα/eis tina/ – followed by εἰς/eis and the accusative (frequently in John) is to believe on a person as an object of faith

bἐγίνωσκω/eginōsó/

Strong1097 – a strong word, meaning ‘to know well’ or ‘recognise’

 

 

Synopsis

 

None

John 6

1After these things Jesus went away beyond the sea of Galilee, or of Tiberias, 2and a great crowd followed him, because they saw the signs which he wrought upon the sick. 3And Jesus went up into the mountain a, and there sat with his disciples: 4but the passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. 5Jesus then, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a great crowd is coming to him, says to Philip, Whence shall we buy loaves that these may eat? 6But this he said trying him, for he knew what he was going to do.

 

Notes

 

aThe mountain country – note to Matt 5:1 – not a particular mountain, but mountain in contrast with the plain.

Synopsis

 

It was on the occasion of the Passover, a type which the Lord was to fulfil by the death of which He spoke. Observe, here, that all these chapters present the Lord, and the truth that reveals Him, in contrast with Judaism, which He forsook and set aside

 

John 11

45Many therefore of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he a had done, believed on him; 46but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many signs. 48If we let him thus alone, all will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. 49But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, Ye know nothing 50nor consider that it is profitable for you b that one man die for the people, and not that the whole nation perish.

. . . 55But the passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, that they might purify themselves. 56They sought therefore Jesus, and said among themselves, standing in the temple, What do ye think? that he will not come to the feast? 57Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given commandment that if any one knew where he was c, he should make it known, that they might take him.

Notes

 

a Some MSS read ‘Jesus’

b Some MSS read ‘for us’ or omit these two words completely

c Lit ‘is’

Synopsis

 

None

John 12

1Jesus therefore, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where was the dead man Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from among the dead.

. . . 20And there were certain Greeks among those who came up that they might worship a in the feast; 21these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and they asked him saying, Sir, we desire to see Jesus. 22Philip comes and tells Andrew, and again Andrew comes and Philip, and they tell Jesus.

Notes

aπροσκυνέω/proskuneó/Strong4352 Strong- to do reverence to – (prós, “towards” and kyneo, “to kiss”) – properly, to kiss the ground when prostrating before a superior; to worship, ready “to fall down/prostrate oneself to adore on one’s knees”.  JND (Matt 4:9 ‘an act of personal reverence and homage – not ‘worship’ as ‘service’ in modern language.

 

Synopsis

 

None

John 13

1Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the enda.

 

Notes

a ‘To the end’ does not give the full force, for it makes it refer to time, whereas going through with everything is impled.

Synopsis

 

None

John 18

38Pilate says to him, What is truth? And having said this he went out again to the Jews, and says to them, I find no fault whatever in him. 39But ye have a custom that I release some one to you at the passover; will ye therefore that I release unto you the king of the Jews? 40They cried therefore again all, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

 

Notes

 

None

Synopsis

 

When brought before Pilate (although because of truth, confessing that He was king), the Lord acts with the same calmness and the same submission; but He questions Pilate and instructs him in such a manner that Pilate can find no fault in Him. Morally incapable, however, of standing at the height of that which was before him, and embarrassed in presence of the divine prisoner, Pilate would have delivered Him by availing himself of a custom, then practised by the government, of releasing a culprit to the Jews at the passover. But the uneasy indifference of a conscience which, hardened as it was, bowed before the presence of One who (even while thus humbled) could not but reach it, did not thus escape the active malice of those who were doing the enemy’s work. The Jews exclaim against the proposal which the governor’s disquietude suggested, and chose a robber instead of Jesus.

 

1 Corinthians 5

6Your boasting [is] not good. Do ye not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Purge out a the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened. For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed; 8so that let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.

 

Notes

a As in 2 Tim 2:21 – ἐκκαθαίρω/ ekkathairó/Strong1571 – Strong ‘cleanse out, clean thoroughly’

JND The word translated purified in 2 Tim 2:21 with his addition [in separating himself from them] is found only in 2 Tim 2:21 and 1 Cor 5:7 translated ‘purge out’.  There it was to get rid of the old leaven out of the lump; in 2 Tim it is for the one who names the name of the Lord to purge himself from among the vessels. Hence we have the additional preposition ἀπό /apo/Strong575 ‘away from’, which is rendered ‘separating from’.  Lit ‘purified himself away from these’

Synopsis

 

Discipline follows; for Christ had been offered up as the Paschal Lamb, and they were to keep the feast without leaven, keeping themselves from the old leaven; in order that they might be in fact, what they were before God an unleavened lump.

 

Hebrews 11

27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing a the wrath of the king; for he persevered, as seeing him who is invisible. 28By faith he celebrated b the passover and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

 

Notes

a These are aorists, but in English the present participle is joined to the present tense as characterising the action. ‘He refused…choosing’.  ‘He refused…having chosen’ would make a different time of it, not the same.  In Greek all is referred to the time of speaking.

bHere, as in verse 17, the offering up of Isaaac, the verbs are in the perfect.  This is remarkable.  The other facts are generally passing facts, part of the whole history; these are of standing significance, either figurateively standing the believer on a new ground, or viewed as continuing till the time of the epistle: ‘By faith Abraham has offered’, ‘By faith he has celebrated’, but this is not possible in English.  It was not external continuence, for the blood sprinkling was only once.

Synopsis

 

Faith recognised the testimony of God by trusting to the efficacy of the blood sprinkled on the door.  God would come in judgment, and seeing the blood, would pass over His believing people.  By faith Moses kept the passover.  Observe here that, by the act of putting the blood on the door, the people acknowledged that they were as much the objects of the just judgment of God as the Egyptians. God had given them that which preserved them from it; but it was because they were guilty and deserved it. No one can stand before God.

 

J N Darby – French Letter No. 127 – Having begun in Spirit, to be perfect in the Flesh

J N Darby
John Nelson Darby

no date

To Mr X

… As for the unleavened bread about which you spoke to me, I confess that I am surprised that Christians can be concerned about it, as though what entered the body could defile or cleanse us. It is a proof that the soul has completely lost the leading of the Holy Spirit. There is not any direction in the Word to make us imitate Judaism in this respect, or to plunge us into sterile Judaism – and having begun in Spirit, to make us go on to be perfect in the flesh, for it is not so. But in this particular case, this idea is the more unhappy, because the Spirit of God has given an application expressly, the spiritual application of this figure: Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, this is why we celebrate the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth[21]. That is to say, in Christianity, this figure signifies sincerity and truth. As to the letter of the law, the unleavened bread is an ordinance of the law. The letter kills but the Spirit quickens[22]. Those who seek to make themselves important will seek it in useless comparisons. For one who is led by the Spirit, this is impossible: to subject the whole meeting to the letter which kills to satisfy the mind of the one who is led astray is an intolerable thing. For every spiritual man, these words: “the letter kills” are enough to deliver him from such thoughts.

 

[21] 1 Cor 5: 7, 8

[22] 2 Cor 3: 6

 
Letter originally written in French, translated by Sosthenes, 2013
Click here for original – If you have any comments on the translation, feel free to let me know.