On this Palm Sunday, we are looking back to the Passover that brought the crowds to Jerusalem in the first place. We can also think back to our Advent series, looking at the three prophecies about the coming of Christ, a key fulfillment of which we celebrate today.
We think specifically back to Ezekiel’s vision of God’s presence leaving the temple, a vision of God on a throne in glory – because now he returns, incarnate upon a donkey. Love returns.
We’re going to look at the Jewish perspective on the events of Palm Sunday and the Triumphal Entry, and the rest of Holy Week in the context of the events in the time leading up to Passover.
The Passover Lamb is a picture of Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians: “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Even before His death, John the Baptist called him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus also entered at the time when the Jewish people would have been seeking the Passover Lamb.
This calls to mind a story even older than Passover, the story of Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, but miraculously given a sacrifice in his place. This happened on Mount Moriah – the same location, per 2 Chronicles 3:1, as the Temple, where Christ approaches on Palm Sunday.
In addition, the time described in Exodus – twilight, or “between two evenings” – is the same time of day we know Jesus himself was killed.
In terms of the specific day, Jesus was killed on the Day of Preparation – in fact, his execution was rushed because the Jewish leaders wanted it all done before the time of Passover began.
The Passover lamb needed to be “without blemish” – as Christ was. It could not be either younger or older than a year, in the prime of its life, just as Christ was. The lamb was to be killed by the Jewish people themselves, and done publicly. Like the lamb, Jesus was killed publicly by God’s people.
In Exodus 12:7, we also see that the blood of the sacrifice was not to be spilled out but captured and applied for deliverance from God’s wrath. Romans 5:9 says, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” We see the wrath of God’s also in the fire where the lamb was to be “thoroughly” roasted – fire in scripture is a picture of God’s holiness and wrath, and Jesus took the full brunt of that.
The bones of the lamb were not to be broken, which we know was the case with Christ, despite all expectations.
All these connections were not just coincidence, but there to show that Christ is our Passover lamb. Christ was slain publicly, in the time and place, publicly, so that the wrath of God will pass over us.
Just as the Jews would take all of the leaven out of the house, representing sin, Christ’s sacrifice removes our sin. And as during Passover, we must apply the blood to our lives.
Have you “applied the blood,” accepting and requesting the salvation that Jesus offers through His death and resurrection?
– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, March 28, 2021