“With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Luke 22:151,6 (NASV)
It was the celebration of the Passover when Jesus met with His disciples in an upper room, just prior to Him being taken, judged, and crucified. One cannot even begin to imagine what was going through His mind. When sitting with His disciples at what has been called, “the last supper,” He speaks to them of His great desire. In one translation of the Scriptures, it is written that He told them: “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.” Why would the Lord Jesus have such a fervent desire to do this on the eve of His crucifixion? Is it not perhaps that He was looking back to the Passover in Egypt so long ago, when God delivered an entire nation from slavery and death, to give them a radical new beginning, a new life and hope? Was it not because He remembered how that even then, there was the unveiling of His present ministry and work whereby He would accomplish for all mankind a way to be reconciled with a Holy God, to know Him, and be in a position to glorify Him? Was it not that He saw, even though the shadow of the cross was already crossing the path He had to walk, that He was obtaining for those around Him, and so many more, an acceptable, and blessed WAY into the presence of the Father, before His throne, there to present to God the Father the redeeemed of all ages? Was it not that He was looking down that dark road of suffering, for the joy that He would be bringing to His Father, being willing to offer Himself in love to be the sacrifice for all men? And was it not for the joy that was set before Him of the Father’s fullest expression of love in heaven, and that love communicated to His brethren for eternity? We do not know all that had gone through His mind leading up to this moment, nor during this moment. But that which we do know, and that which He proved that night and, in the day, to come, was that, “…when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved HIs own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (Jn. 13:1) The Passover that the Lord Jesus shared with His disciples, though the disciples did not recognize all that He was declaring to them, was the great testament, and declaration first of His love for the Father, but also, the love that He had, and would ever have for those He came to save, and in particular, those seated with Him that evening.
It would be fifty days after Passover, after the crucifixion and resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus into heaven, that the celebration of Pentecost would come to pass in Jerusalem. Pentecost was a Jewish, though Biblical, feast, concluding what was called in Judaism, “the feast of weeks.” This feast would begin on the third day after Passover and would conclude on the day of Pentecost. For the Jews, Pentecost was a great pilgrimage feast, when a great many devout Jews from all over the Roman empire would meet in Jerusalem for worship. However, this Pentecost would be significant for a far greater, and monumental reason, one that would change the world, for all time. Jesus had revealed it to His disciples before His ascension by commanding them to wait for the Promise of the Father, “…which, He said, you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4,5) This promise of the Father would be the pouring out of His Spirit on all flesh in power, the testimony of Christ’s saving strength.
Dear Father, Manifest Thy power today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.