He sat with the other men at the table. Some were chatting, some were arguing but He was staring at the piece of meat on His plate. This portion, which He would eat, was from the Passover lamb, the lamb which was the last of its kind, the last of the substitutes. Something old was ending. Something shockingly new was beginning. For a little while the conversation around Him was just a background buzzing. The other men were eating this special meal as they and their ancestors had done for centuries.
They knew the history, they knew the traditions, they knew the significance of the paschal lamb. BUT THEY DID NOT REALIZE the stunning significance of this meal, this lamb, this last of the temporary lambs. As they tried to outdo one another in pushing their claim to top positions, did it not dawn on them, even ever so slightly, that the spotless, sinless, unblemished Lamb of God sat right there with them at the table and that His Blood would be not splashed on a doorpost but poured out on a cross?
No longer would each family take a lamb for Passover celebration. No longer would an animal scapegoat be driven into the wilderness. No longer would the priest confess the sins of the people over a slain lamb. So, on this evening like no other, Jesus, knowing the tremendous ordeal which was just ahead, took His first bite of the lamb. The hour had come. The time to end the sacrifice of animals whose blood could never atone for the sin of mankind. The hour had come for richer, nobler Blood to be poured out in a full and final sacrifice to satisfy the just wrath of Holiness and bear away the sin of the world, bear it away beyond the beholding of the Purer Eyes (Habakkuk 1:13).
Jesus partook of the final lamb, He ate the final meal, in full acceptance of what it meant for Him and for us. Just as He took that lamb, that broken bread, that poured-out wine, into Himself ... so now we must imbibe all that He is to us, all that He's done for us and all that He wants to do through us.
BECAUSE ... He is the Lamb, the broken Bread,
the poured-out Wine.
Except you eat My flesh and drink My Blood ... Oh, Lamb of God, I come...
