Please the Lord of 02/10/2016: The Passover and the Last Supper

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"When the hour came, [Jesus] sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. He told them: I have strongly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer "Luke 22. 14, 15.

The Lord chose the time of Passover meal to institute the Eucharist.

Passover is an expensive party to any Jew because it reminds the special protection of God towards his slave people, he spared including the final plague on Pharaoh and Egypt.

For the destroying angel, what distinguishes the house of a Jew, the blood of a lamb put on the two doorposts and the lintel of the door; this blood protects the firstborn of every family.

No particular merit is taken into account.

What is asked of the people is simply to believe the sign indicated by God to Moses and apply it (Exodus 12).

Jesus gathered his disciples in a room to eat the Passover; by participating in this meal each should relive history as if he himself had been spared.

And yet, what are their thoughts? One of them, Judas, calculates that he can withdraw his betrayal.

The others, who lived a troubled week made of hopes and disappointments, seem to live an important moment, but in their own way: soon after the meal, they compete for the first places in the kingdom come!

What Christ is preparing to do goes far beyond what we learn from this Jewish holiday.

As the Apostle Paul, he himself is "our Passover ... [which] has been sacrificed" (1 Cor. 5. 7) to permanently deliver us from the judgment of God through faith.

The apostle Peter was in the meal; Later he wrote in his epistle: "You were bought from your vain ... with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1. 18, 19.).

How to ensure the memory of such an issue in Christian generations to come?

It is the Lord himself who established a memorial.

It breaks the bread reminds his body given for us, cutting it tends recalls his blood shed for us.

The world tries to make us forget this issue, but the Lord invites us, through these concrete signs, to remember his work on the cross, his death and resurrection.