Each year as we approach the passion week of Jesus and the Feast of Passover, lots of posts and teachings discuss the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples in the upper room. All four of the Gospels tell this story: Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 13. I wanted to take a second and clarify one thing that typically is taught incorrectly. Many teach that this meal that Jesus shared with His disciples just prior to His arrest and crucifixion was a Passover Seder meal. It was not. It was an ordinary evening meal, but one that the Lord used to institute what is known now as the "Lord's Supper." The Lord's Supper commemorates His sacrificial death, symbolized by the bread which represents the body of Christ, and the wine which represents the blood of Christ.
Here briefly are three major reasons why this meal was NOT the Passover Seder:
1. Firstly, the meal was on the wrong day. Passover is on the 14th of Nisan. The spotless male lamb, which was selected on the 10th, was killed around 3 pm on the 14th, just before sundown (Exodus 12). In 1 Corinthians 5:7, Paul refers to Jesus as our Passover Lamb. As such, Jesus died on the cross at 3 pm on Passover day, the 14th of Nisan. The meal that was eaten by Jesus and His disciples called the Lord's Supper was the previous evening after 6 pm. It was at the start of the Passover Feast, but on the wrong day as none of the lambs had yet been sacrificed for the meal.
2. Since, as I mentioned, the meal was eaten at the start of Passover, prior to the Passover Lambs being slain, the meal was missing the main dish served at the Passover Seder...the lamb. There is no mention of lamb being eaten at the meal in any of the gospel accounts anywhere. Such an important component of the Passover Seder would have been included, and as mentioned previously, none of the Passover lambs had yet been slain for the Passover. Therefore, no lamb was yet available to be prepared and served at the meal Jesus had with His disciples.
3. The Seder meal is also known as the "Feast of Unleavened Bread." This Feast is the day following Passover day on the 14th, and begins on the 15th (at sundown on the 14th as Jews observed days from sundown to sundown the next day) and is observed for 7 days. The second most important part of a Passover Seder meal is the unleavened bread. It is specified in every direction that God gave Moses for how the Feast was to be observed. Even the name of the Feast is "Unleavened Bread"...it's a pretty important part of the meal. Jesus would have been very aware of this requirement. Every time bread is mentioned in the four gospel accounts of the meal, the Greek word "artos" is used which is the word for normal, everyday, leavened bread. The correct Greek word for unleavened bread is "azymos". This word is never used in the four gospel accounts to describe the type of bread that was eaten at the Lord's Supper meal. So, it could not have been the Passover Seder, which is also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
This is not a major theological issue, but it is something that is continually brought up during this time of year and I just wanted to bring attention to what the Bible actually says. It is a "tradition of men" that the meal was a Passover Seder. I try to always point out things that are scripturally incorrect, and merely "traditions of men" when I encounter them. We must be true to God's Word at all times I believe. This meal was not a Passover Seder, but was important because Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper during it.
Regardless, God Bless!
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