How Jesus Fulfilled the Passover Feast

For 1,500 years the Jewish people had been celebrating the Feast of Passover by killing a lamb and offering it as a sacrifice to God.

They knew about lambs. But the blood of an animal could only cover their sins; it could not take them away. In view of this, God sent prophets to explain to the people that, one day in the future, a human lamb would come who would deal with the problem of sin and death once and for all.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of the suffering this human lamb would experience. He wrote a very clear, graphic description, which is recorded in Isaiah chapter 53. It would be helpful to read that entire chapter as a supplement.

As the time came for this human lamb to be sacrificed, God crossed over time and space and became one of us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. God sent one last prophet to help the people recognize Him. This prophet was John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. John introduced Jesus with these words: “Behold the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36).

John identified Jesus as the human lamb Isaiah spoke of who would give His life for the sins of the world. Jesus was born for this purpose (see Acts 2:22-23). Because of their religious sacrifices, the Jewish people immediately understood the significance of John’s statements concerning Jesus.

You may notice that Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Passover in His crucifixion. Since this was the reason for His birth, Jesus’ entire life was predestined so that He would fulfill this purpose exactly as God had instructed the Jews to practice it for 1,500 years. The picture pointed to the person.

In view of this, as the time approached for Jesus to die, He deliberately arranged His itinerary and personal activities around the events associated with the selection, testing, and death of the Passover Lamb. In this way, the Jewish people would be able to understand who He was and what He was doing. They had acted out the drama of redemption through the Passover picture. Jesus was set aside to be sacrificed, examined, and crucified on the exact month, day, and hour that the Jews had been handling the lambs for 1,500 years in keeping the Feast of Passover.

Let’s now see this for ourselves in the New Testament. When God established the Passover feast in Egypt, He instructed the Jews to set aside their lambs on the tenth day of the month of Nisan. In the New Testament we learn that it was the tenth day of the month of Nisan when Jesus entered Jerusalem to be set aside as the human lamb.

In John 12:1 we read that Jesus came to the town of Bethany six days before the Passover. John writes, “Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany…” (John 12:1). Since Passover was celebrated on the 14th, this would mean that Jesus came to Bethany on the ninth.

John then gives us further information to show us that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the tenth. He says,

“The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (John 12:12-13).

John informs us that it was the next day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was greeted by the cheering crowds. Since Jesus was in Bethany on the ninth, the next day was the tenth.

Jesus entered Jerusalem to be set aside as the human Lamb of God on the exact date that God told the Jews to set aside their lambs back in Egypt. Jesus was fulfilling in Himself the ultimate reality of the Feast of Passover.

As we have mentioned, the purpose of setting the lamb aside was to observe it to make sure it was without spot or blemish. This lamb was to be offered to God. Since God is perfect, you certainly wouldn’t offer Him a lamb that was blemished. So the Jews observed and tested the lamb for five days to make sure that it was faultless.

Likewise, Jesus, the human lamb, was observed and tested for five days by the religious leaders. They questioned His authority (see Matthew 21:23-27). They asked Him trick questions hoping He would somehow give a wrong answer that they could use against Him (see Matthew 23). They did everything they could to point an accusing finger at Him. They wanted to discredit Him so that He would not be an acceptable sacrifice.

But Jesus always responded to them perfectly. They could not find anything wrong with Him. Finally in desperation, they took Jesus to the Roman governor, whose name was Pilate, hoping he could find something wrong with Jesus. But after interrogating and beating Jesus, Pilate said of Him, “I find no fault in Him” (John 19:4). This all happened in the five-day period from the tenth to the 14th when the Jews were checking the lambs for sacrifice. Finally, Jesus was crucified on the 14th. He was not only crucified on the same day the lambs were killed, but also at the same time of day.

With this many lambs, it was necessary for the Jews to prepare them for sacrifice at nine o’clock in the morning on the 14th. They then killed them at three o’clock that afternoon so that the Passover could be completed before six o’clock, which would begin a new day.

At the exact hour when the Jews were preparing their lambs for sacrifice, Jesus was nailed to the cross. Mark wrote, “Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him” (Mark 15:25). The third hour was nine o’clock in the morning Jewish time.

In fulfillment of the Feast of Passover and Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The Lord God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. Jesus was oppressed, and He was afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter (see Isa. 53:4-7).

Then at three o’clock as the people were praising God and slaughtering the lambs, Jesus died. Mark was careful to note the time and wrote that it was the ninth hour (three o’clock Jewish time) when Jesus breathed His last breath (see Mark 15:33-37).

Jesus gave His total self to be roasted and consumed in the judgment fires of God as He died for our sins. The spit shaped like a crossbar on which the lambs were spread open pointed to Jesus hanging on the cross.

All the other details concerning the death of the lambs happened to Jesus—the real Lamb of God. For example, His bones were not broken. Remember, God said not to break any bones in the Passover lamb (see Exod. 12:46; Num. 9:12; Ps. 34:20).

When a person is crucified, his body sags so that he cannot breathe. This causes him to push himself up with his heels just long enough to take a deep breath. To hasten the person’s death, a Roman soldier would break his legs; thus, he would not be able to push himself up to get air.

John records that the soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves who were crucified next to Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that He was already dead, so they did not break His legs (see John 19:30-37). John saw this and wrote, “For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, ‘Not one of His bones shall be broken’” (John 19:36).

God had specifically instructed the Jews to consume the whole lamb. Nothing was to be left over for the next day (see Exod. 12:10). This also was the case with Jesus. The Jewish religious leaders, not realizing they were carrying out God’s plan, hurriedly had Jesus’ body taken down before six o’clock.

John wrote, “Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:31). Jesus, the Sacrificial Lamb, was not left on the cross the next day but gave His all on the 14th as the final Passover sacrifice.

The blood of the Passover lamb was a visual aid and dress rehearsal directing the Jews into the future when Jesus would come and establish the spiritual reality that the lambs could only symbolize. The blood of Jesus saves us from death and gives us the promise of resurrection.

Peter wrote, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ [Messiah], as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:18-21).

The apostle Paul made this connection when he said, “For indeed Christ [Messiah], our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).