Day 2: Preparing The Way For Redemption.
Ken Fitzsimmons - (Matthew 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:1-3)
Read Exodus 12:3–8. It records God’s instructions to Moses for the first Passover. These instructions were followed strictly by the Israelites, in the wilderness and in the Promised Land, for as long as there was a tabernacle or temple to go to. So, the disciples knew what to do.
The disciples prepare.
It’s not the first time they’ve celebrated the Passover with Jesus. Since he called them, the disciples have gone with him to all the major festivals. But this feels different.
“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,” he told them as they were eating. “…before I suffer?” (Luke 22:15). They still struggled with all his talk of the cross.
This year there was the triumphal procession into the city as King, to a rapturous welcome; there was the cleansing of the Temple and the extreme hostility of the Jewish leaders. So how important it was now to get everything right for the Passover meal.
Jesus has already arranged for a room, furnished and ready. A man carrying a water jar is highly unusual. Once they find him, they’ll find the room.
They work as a team. In preparation, they have acquired a lamb and taken it to the Temple, where three shifts of priests worked through the day, overseeing the slaughter of thousands of lambs for thousands of Passover meals. Then they roasted it in one of the clay ovens available throughout the city. The aroma of roast lamb fills the streets. Wine, herbs, and vegetables are made ready, and every crumb of old leavened bread is removed from the room. For this meal, loaves of unleavened bread (matzah) are prepared, and a stack of three of them, separated from each other by a linen cloth, is placed at the head of the table — a long-standing tradition of Passover representing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus will bring a whole new meaning to this.
Jesus prepares.
It is the tenth of the month. After riding into Jerusalem as King, Jesus, the Lamb of God, proceeds to the Temple. He will later be publicly examined to prove he is without blemish, but first he must inspect the Temple, his Father’s House. What he finds fills him with righteous anger, and in the morning, he violently drives out the corruption.
Then the examination begins: “By whose authority…?”, “To whom should we pay taxes…?” Enemies unite to try to fault Jesus. And then there’s the nonsense about the resurrection of the dead with the Sadducees. Jesus answers every challenge until they dare not ask anymore. The Lamb is without fault or blemish. (Mark 11:27–33; 12:13–34)
There is much to do. Yet Jesus is not hurried. He knows who he is and what is to come. He has longed to celebrate this Passover with his disciples. He knows it will be the last, and after his final teaching about the future (Mark 13), he goes with them to the room and the meal, already prepared. It is while they are eating that he reaches to the stack of three loaves and takes out the middle matzah and breaks it. “This is my body….” Then, “This is my blood...”.
The New Covenant is announced.
Response
It is the week of Passover. Jerusalem is teeming with pilgrims here for the festival.
Try to imagine yourself as one of the disciples, trying to keep up with what is happening.
Has Jesus not come to Jerusalem to set up his kingdom? Why isn’t he making his move?
How can we take in everything he’s teaching?
Do you feel uncertain — nervous, even?
Isn’t this how we feel when God starts shifting the ground beneath our feet, when all our expectations are challenged and we’re not sure what’s happening next or how to respond? Are we not in such a season now, in 2026?
How easy is it to believe that God is in control? What rules within your heart — chaos or his peace? Whose agenda, yours or the Lord’s? What do you want to say to him?