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Jesus, Lamb of God

Gina Pitsenberger

by Lois Tverberg

The most important week of the year for Christians is Holy Week, when we remember Jesus’ death and resurrection as the lamb that was sacrificed for our sins. Throughout the year we remind ourselves of Jesus’ atonement when we hold up the bread and wine from the Last Supper and think about Jesus’ body that was broken, and his blood that was shed for us.

Some may wonder why we speak of Jesus as the “lamb” or why he talks about bread as his “body” or of a “new covenant” in his “blood.” The key to unlocking many of these important themes is to realize that they are all aspects of the ancient feast of Passover, which was being fulfilled in a powerful new way that year in Christ.

Passover

Passover was the first and most important of the seven feasts that God commanded his people to celebrate. It was a time of great joy, a commemoration of the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt that marked the beginning of their nation and defined them as God’s people. Christians may not realize that Jews still consider the exodus God’s greatest act of salvation in the Scriptures. It was at this time of thanking God for his redemption that Jesus completed his much greater act of saving his people for all eternity.

Up until the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the central feast of Passover was a lamb which each family sacrificed and ate as part of a sacred meal. In Exodus, the blood of the lamb was daubed on the doorposts of the houses of Israel, to mark them as protected from judgment on Egypt during the plague against the firstborn sons of Egypt.

Interestingly, Jesus, God’s firstborn, was arrested and condemned the night after the Passover meal, just as the firstborn sons of Egypt long ago. His blood protected us, and he himself took on the condemnation which was upon us as it was on the Egyptians.

The Passover lamb was significant in that it was an offering that was sacrificed and eaten by the worshipers themselves, not the priests. The fact that the people were allowed to eat the sacrifice signified that it was part of a covenantal meal between the nation and God.

All Israelites were required to participate. If a person was unable to, he needed to celebrate one month later (Numbers 9:9-13). Throughout the history of Israel, Passover celebrations often signified Israel’s national recommitment to their covenant with God. Now we can see why Jesus uses this time to speak of a “new covenant” — a fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:31-34, when God said he would make a new covenant to forgive his people’s sins and give them a new heart to love him.

Passover was also the first night of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread. All leavened food had to be removed from homes to commemorate the exit of the Israelites from Egypt before their bread could rise.

Leaven was also understood to be symbolic of sin and was never allowed in sacrifices. Jesus would have been holding a piece of unleavened bread in his hand when he said “This is my body,” signifying his worthiness as a sacrifice.

It is particularly interesting that for thousands of years, Passover has been understood to be both be a remembrance of God’s past salvation, as well as a time to expect God’s future redemption in the Messiah. They saw this as originally coming from a passage in Exodus:

“This same night is a night of watching unto the Lord for all the children of Israel throughout their generations” (Exodus 12:42).

The people of all generations were to watch for God’s final redeemer, the Messiah. Even today a door is opened and a place is set for Elijah, who is expected to announce the coming Messiah (Mal. 4:5). Jesus used this time of great expectancy to proclaim himself as the Messianic King, bringing a new covenant for forgiveness of sins through the atonement by his own blood.

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Further reading:

Our Great Redemption
The Greater Story of Exodus
Who Are You Going to Work For?
Eating at the Lord’s Table
The Imagery of Leaven
The Powerful Imagery of Blood
Longing For Moses

If you would like to keep learning, En-Gedi also recommends the following articles :

Has DaVinci Painted Our Picture of Jesus?
Repainting Da Vinci Again
New Light on Jesus’ Last Week
The Samaritan Passover (from BiblePlaces.com)
Passover in the Time of Jesus, by Daniel B. Wallace
The Lord’s Table as Covenant Meal, by John Mark Hicks
He Who Is Coming: The Hidden Afikoman, by Paul Sumner

Photos: En-Gedi Resource Center, A Seder table setting [Public Domain]

The Jewish Background to the Lord’s Prayer

Lois Tverberg

by Brad H. Young
© 1984, Gospel Research Foundation Inc.
Softcover, 46 pages, $7.99

Concise, powerful, to-the-point—the Prayer that Jesus taught us to pray is better understood in the light of Jewish faith and practice. Jesus was Jewish, after all. Jewish prayers, worship, and practical living breathe fresh meaning into the revered words of the Lord’s Prayer. 

Brad Young invites the reader to explore the Jewish roots of the Lord’s Prayer through the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature, and more. The First-Century perspective of Jesus’ teachings on the Kingdom of God pervade the application of this prayer in daily life. Identity, holiness, forgiveness, and freedom and the request for our daily bread are themes that make this prayer relevant for its own time in history, and for all time.

Dr. Brad H. Young (PhD Hebrew University, under David Flusser) is the founder and president of the Gospel Research Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is emeritus professor of Biblical Literature in Judaic-Christian Studies in the Graduate School of Theology at Oral Roberts University. Young has taught advanced language and translation courses as well as the Jewish foundations of early Christianity to graduate students for over thirty years.

“The Gospels give abundant evidence of the centrality of prayer in Jesus’ own life, from his baptism to his crucifixion. Today, a new generation of disciples is learning, as did the disciples of old, the necessity and the
power of prayer. We struggle with prayer, as did they. We, too, ask, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’

Can the time-worn and perhaps overly-familiar words of the “Lord’s prayer” be more than a kind of spiritual pacifier for us today? Are there hidden in these simple words concepts that can stimulate and challenge us? Happily, the answer to both questions is yes, as the reader of this booklet by Brad Young will discover.”

— Dwight A. Pryor, founder and former president of the Center for Judaic-Christian Studies

 

Order The Jewish Background to the Lord’s Prayer ($7.99)

A Surprising Idea in Isaiah 53

Lois Tverberg

During the season of Lent, Christians everywhere meditate on the death and resurrection of Christ. There’s no more fitting text than Isaiah 53, which prophesies God’s shocking plan to send his Servant to die for the sins of his people. You likely recognize these lines:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53: 6-7)

Here we find the painful imagery of the Lamb of God who willingly suffers for the sins of the sheep who have gone astray. Just a few lines later, though, Isaiah joyously predicts Christ’s victory over death and ultimate redemption of sinners: Continue reading →

For Everything a Blessing

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

In Psalm 24:1 it says that “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” and the rabbis of Jesus’ day and earlier decided that everything that we enjoy in life should cause us to bless God. In the Mishnah, the record of rabbinic thought from before Jesus’ time until about 200 AD, the first book is devoted entirely to blessings.

In the most ordinary things they found ways of praising God, and these blessings have God at their center. They contain no personal pronouns — focusing utterly on him, and not on the person praying. They are simply statements that praise God for his goodness.

A person was supposed to devote his first thoughts upon waking to praising God once again for each part of his body that was functioning. The very first thing that would have woken them up was probably a rooster’s crow. So in the first century they would have said, “Blessed is he who has given to the cock understanding to distinguish between day and night!”

When they opened their eyes they said, “Blessed is he who opens the eyes of the blind!” When they dressed they said, “Blessed is he who clothes the naked!” They also said this when they put on a new piece of clothing.

In their experience of nature they also blessed God. When the first flowers were seen on the trees in the spring, they said, “Blessed is he who did not omit anything from the world, and created within it good creations and good trees for people to enjoy!” After a long, cold winter, who isn’t happy to see these little signs of new life?

When they heard thunder or an earthquake that inspired fear, they also blessed God by saying, “Blessed is he whose strength and power fill the world!” Next time there is a windstorm, step outside and remind yourself of God’s amazing power.

When it rained, they said, “Blessed is he who is good, and gives good things!“I thought this was very odd at first, since rainy days are bad days to us. But in Israel where water is greatly needed, rain is source of joy. When you think about it, our abundant food here also is dependent on the rain that we always complain about.

I have since realized that every time I complain about the weather, it’s a way of convincing myself that yet another day has come when God wasn’t faithful and that he decided not to care about me. It’s a minor habit to change, but my outlook on life improved when I stopped finding something to grumble at God for every time I stepped outside.

Blessings for Life’s Seasons

They had blessings for the highs and lows in life as well. When they went through a long, difficult time and finally had relief, or celebrated some happy event for which they waited, they said, “Blessed is he who has allowed us to live, and sustained us and enabled us to reach this day.” When a son returned home from war, or when a baby was born, or some other wonderful thing, they uttered this prayer to praise God for bringing them to that point in their lives.

Even in times of grief, when someone died or they heard tragic news, they blessed God. They said, “Blessed is he who is the true judge.” It was a reminder that God was still good, even when they heard about tragic events, and that he will ultimately bring justice even where justice can’t seem to be found.

Remembering God’s Kindness

It’s easy to start worrying that God is not in control, and not remember his continual faithfulness that sustains every minute of the day. In Psalm 103, David shares the secret for how to keep God’s loving care on your mind:

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live
so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
(Psalm 103:1-5, RSV)

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For more about this rich practice of prayer, see the chapter “For Everything a Blessing” in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus.

(Images courtesy of lovestruck and martin labar at flickr.com.)