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Proof the Lord’s Supper was not the Passover

The common belief among most Christians is that the supper Jesus ate with his disciples on the night of his betrayal and arrest in 30 A.D. was the Passover meal. A cursory reading of the scriptures can give this impression.

It is often argued from this belief that Jesus ended the Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper and the bread and wine ceremony in its place.

However, a deeper study of all the scriptures relating to the Passover and putting all of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ final week together shows this is not true.

It is important to understand that by the time of Jesus, the word “Passover” had come to be used for virtually everything having to do with the period of time between Nisan 10 and Nisan 21 in the Jewish calendar. The lamb itself was called the Passover, the meal that was eaten at the end of Nisan 14 was called the Passover, and the seven Days of Unleavened Bread also became known as the Passover. That is why today the modern Jewish calendar marks out a period of time, seven days in duration, but it is all called the Passover.

Even the “time of preparation,” from Nisan 10 to Nisan 14, was known as the Passover. In Luke 22:8, Jesus instructs Peter and John to “go and prepare the Passover.”

Preparing for the Passover was not something that could be done in one afternoon. There were procedures and necessary things that had to be done. God instructed the Hebrew people in Exodus 12:3 to begin their preparations on the tenth day of the month (in the Jewish calendar) by selecting a lamb. The whole of the twelfth chapter of Exodus defines Passover and all that the people were to do before and during this spring festival time.

The days between Nisan 10 and Nisan 14 were a very busy time and still are today. The people had to search their homes for all forms of leaven and thoroughly clean every room of their houses to make sure that no leaven remained. They had to acquire and prepare food, not only for the Passover meal, but also for the seven days that followed. Preparing food with no leavening requires attention. Unleavened bread was made during the days of preparation.

At the time of Jesus, thousands traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They not only had to prepare for their own observance of the Passover meal, but they had to find a place to hold it. The residents in Jerusalem were prepared for this influx of people every year and they opened their homes to provide rooms for complete families and large groups to gather together.

Many pitched tents in the hills surrounding Jerusalem and most of the small communities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were also overflowing with visitors.

The people had to come to the Temple in Jerusalem to sacrifice their lambs. It was the only place that God allowed the sacrifice to take place (Deut. 16:5-7). Those who did not travel to Jerusalem did not sacrifice a lamb. They held a Passover celebration much as the Jews do today, but without the actual sacrifice of a lamb.

On Nisan 14, when God commanded that the lambs were to be slain, every Levitical Priest in the land was on duty. Thousands of lambs had to be slain at the Temple and the blood poured out on the base of the altar. The people then had to take their lambs back to where they were residing and roast the lamb in preparation for the meal to be eaten that night after the sun had set.

Knowing all that went into preparing for the Passover, Jesus would never have waited until the actual day to tell his disciples to “go and prepare the Passover.” At the time he gave those instructions they had not even acquired a place to hold it yet. The first step in their preparation was following Jesus’ instructions in making arrangements for the room that later became known as the "upper room" (Luke 22:9-13). Once they had the place, there was still much to do in preparing for the Passover.

Yet, that very night Jesus sat down to a meal with his disciples. Every gospel record shows that Jesus and the twelve gathered together on that first evening after making arrangements to use the room, but none of the accounts states clearly that they met in that room. The last supper could have been anywhere, even in Bethany where they had all been staying all week. We really do not know for a certainty where the last supper was held.

If it wasn’t the Passover meal, then what was it? Some will answer that it was just a meal like any other night when they all sat down to eat together. And this is true. They had been traveling together for three years and they must have had many meals together. And, for the disciples, it probably began like any other meal.

However, Jesus knew what was to come—he knew that he was to be the Passover lamb that year and that he must be offered up as the expiation of the sins of all mankind on this Passover. He knew that this would be the last time he would sit down to a meal with his disciples. And he still had a few things to teach them.

It was not the Passover meal because the Passover had not yet come. There are many elements of the Last Supper that make it abundantly obvious that it was not the Passover meal. At that time in history, there were certain elements of the Passover that had to be present—elements that were absent from the Last Supper.

Jesus and the disciples knew what was required of the Passover. Jesus always kept all of God’s commandments throughout his entire life. He would not have changed the day of the Passover nor would he have changed the elements of the Passover. He said in Matt. 5:17-18 that he did not come to destroy the law. He always kept everything according to the customs of his people.

The elements that make it clear this was not the Passover begins with the day. Passover was to be held after sunset on Nisan 14 (actually at the beginning of Nisan 15, as the Jews started and ended their days at sunset). This last supper with the disciples was held on Nisan 12 after sunset (the beginning of Nisan 13), two days earlier. This is proved in a study of the events of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion. John clearly defines the day that Jesus died in John 19:31.

Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

John says that it was the Preparation Day and the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, and this Sabbath was a high day. That means it was one of God’s Holy Days—it was the Passover. A regular weekly Sabbath would never be called a high day.

So we know that the last supper, two days before, could not have been the Passover. Further, Jesus was to BE the Passover. He could not eat the Passover and be the Passover at the same time. That is physically impossible.

Jesus died on the cross at exactly the same time that thousands of lambs were being slain at the Temple on Nisan 14. He was our Passover lamb.

At that time, the eating of the Passover lamb was an important element of the Passover. There is no mention of the lamb at the Last Supper. Instead of a roasted lamb, there is mention of a sop-like dish, probably a stew of meat and vegetables—an every day type supper, not the food of a Passover celebration. Instead, Jesus offered the bread to be eaten in memory of him. If it really was the Passover, why not the lamb? The lamb represents the Messiah and scripture refers to him as the lamb in several places. The bread he offered to his disciples that night was leavened bread. The original word is artos, which means regular bread with leavening. At the Passover, God instructed that only unleavened bread, azumos artos, was to be eaten. Jesus would never have made this mistake by offering leavened bread with wine if it had actually been the Passover.

God also instructed the Israelites to eat bitter herbs. There is no mention of bitter herbs at the Last Supper.

The Passover was always a joyous and rejoicing celebration that involved the entire family—wives and children included. A reciting of the history and meaning of Passover were part of the experience. The children participated in the celebration by asking the necessary questions that brought out the reciting of the Passover story.

There were no wives and children at the Last Supper. It was just Jesus with his disciples. Some of those men had wives and children. They were all Jewish and the traditions of their religion were major aspects of their lives. They would have been unlikely to have left their families alone on the Passover and Jesus would never have expected them to do so. Scripture proves that Jesus loved children and was surrounded by them on many occasions. If it were really the Passover, it seems from tradition that the families would have been there. Luke tells us that Jesus followed the customs of the people.

The Last Supper was not the Passover. It was not a joyous and rejoicing celebration. It was an occasion of sadness and instruction. It was the last time Jesus would sit down to a meal with his disciples. It was the last time he had to give them some final instructions. He knew his time had come.

So, how do we handle Luke 22:15?

Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;"

In plain English is sounds like Jesus and the twelve are sitting down to the Passover meal. However, in Greek, the language in which Luke wrote, the statement takes on a whole different meaning.

The word for “desire” in this verse is an unusual Greek word—epithumia. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, #1939, it means “a longing, especially for that which is forbidden.” Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon states its meaning as “desire, craving, longing,” “specifically for what is forbidden” and Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Critical-Experimental Commentary says this is the “strongest expression of intense desire.”

Why would Luke use this word if Jesus and the twelve were actually partaking of the event Jesus expresses such desire for? What is more likely is that Jesus is expressing his longing and desire to partake of the Passover that year, but he knows it is not possible—it is forbidden to him. In order for him to fulfill God’s plan he must be dead and in the grave on the evening of the Passover meal, therefore he was longing for what he could not have.

Jesus longed to have the cup passed from him, as he later prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Luke 22:41-44—And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jesus so fervently desired not to have to be reviled and killed by his enemies that he was in agony. His sweat became like great drops of blood.

But it was the will of the Father in heaven and Jesus always submitted to the will of the Father, regardless of his own feelings about anything.

When we stop to consider what Jesus actually did for us, it should make us stop and want fervently to follow him. His suffering on our behalf is the only way that any of us can become part of God’s kingdom. Without his role as our Passover lamb we would have no hope for a world tomorrow.

It ought to be enough to honor him in every way. But what we find is today’s church using him, and his sacrifice, as license to disobey God. Jesus never disobeyed God one moment of his life, even in his deepest agony. He did not change one word of God’s law. He did not institute new practices and observances in place of God’s practices and observances. He did not change the days of God’s Holy Days.

Men did that! All the changes that were made to God’s laws and statutes following Jesus’ death were made by men. And we are clearly instructed to follow God—not men.

Before you say “what difference does it make?”, ask yourself what would have happened if Jesus had followed his own will or the will of men in the Garden of Gethsemane? What if he had said, “What difference does it make? No, I’m not going to do this. It doesn’t really matter whether I obey God or not.” What if he had fled and gone back to Galilee?

Where would we be today? Looked at from that perspective, obviously it all makes a difference to God. Since he created the world and mankind, perhaps we ought to do things his way.