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Jesus Keeps His First Passover, January 17
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.
And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the
custom of the feast.
Luke 2:41, 42
.
Joseph and Mary went up to Jerusalem every year to the feast of the Passover,
according to the requirements of the Jewish law. Christ’s childhood days were
ended. He had entered upon the period of youth. Joseph and Mary, as was their
custom, prepared to take their long journey to Jerusalem. They took Jesus with
them. They went in company with many others who were on their way to Jerusalem
to observe this solemn festival.
It is impossible for human minds to understand the meditations of the Son
of God as He looked with interest upon the Temple for the first time. As He
walked its courts, and His eye discerned the work of the ministering priest, the
altar with its bleeding victim, the holy incense arising to God, and the mysteries
of the Holy of Holies behind the veil, and comprehended the reality which these
ceremonies prefigured, what thoughts were awakened within His breast we cannot
conjecture. Christ Himself was the key to unlock all these sacred mysteries which
were indefinitely understood by Joseph and Mary. These were all instituted to
represent Christ, and were fulfilled in His death.
The Passover was a name given to this ceremony in commemoration of the
wonderful event of the Hebrews’ leaving Egypt. The night they left Egypt, the
destroying angel entered every house and slew from the firstborn of the king upon
his throne down to the firstborn of the lowest slave....
The Lord gave special directions to the Hebrews, for each family to slay a lamb
and sprinkle the blood upon their door posts, that when the destroying angel should
go forth upon his errand of death, the blood upon the post of the door should be to
them a sign that those who were within the house were the worshipers of the true
God. The angel of death passed over the houses thus designated. Upon that eventful
night the Hebrews were directed to be prepared for their journey....
According to the directions given them of God, they were all prepared for their
journey, ready for the word of command to go forth from Egypt....
While the institution of the Passover was pointing backward to the miraculous
deliverance of the Hebrews, it likewise pointed forward, showing the death of the
Son of God before it transpired. In the last Passover our Lord observed with His
disciples, He instituted the Lord’s Supper in place of the Passover, to be observed in
memory of His death. No longer had they need of the Passover, for He, the great
antitypical Lamb, was ready to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Type met
antitype in the death of Christ (
Youth’s Instructor, May 1, 1873
).
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