Passion Week Through Jewish Eyes: Setting Aside Of The Lamb Of God

This particular Passover was different from any other Passover. Maybe we should add a fifth question to our Haggadahs: Why is this Passover different from all other Passovers? This Passover is the climax of what Luke chronicles for us beginning in chapter 9:51-19:27 – that “He set His face toward Jerusalem” (v. 51).

Luke’s gospel account at this point represents a dramatic turning point in Yeshua’s ministry. After this, Galilee was no longer His base of operation.

And Luke makes the point more dramatically than the others that Yeshua is determined as He is moving toward Jerusalem to complete His mission as the final atonement for sin (Lk. 22:14-20).

And so, by the time He gets to Jerusalem and the event of the Triumphal Entry, it was the tenth of the Jewish month Nisan. And according to Exodus 12:3-6, it was on the tenth day of Nisan that the lamb was to be set aside for the Passover sacrifice.

Between the 10th and the 14th of Nisan, the lamb was to be inspected, scrutinized, and tested to be sure it was without spot or blemish (Ex. 12:5).

So the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem was the day of the setting aside of the Lamb of God. And over the next few days, there was a testing to prove that THIS LAMB was without spot or blemish. “…knowing that you were redeemed…with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Messiah” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Once again, the purpose of the Triumphal Entry was not to offer Himself as King or to re-offer the Kingdom. The Kingdom will be re-offered at the end of the Tribulation.

What happened on this day is that the true Lamb of God was set aside for a period of testing to prove He was without spot or blemish.

SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT…

He sends His disciples to find “a colt…on which no one has ever sat. Untie him and bring him to me” (Mk. 11:2).

This is a miracle: An unbroken colt. Demonstrating His authority over the natural world (animal kingdom). [cp. Daniel and the lions]

So as He rides into Jerusalem He is fulfilling the messianic prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 and Matthew records it (21:4-5) as he is showing Him to be the Jewish Messiah fulfilling prophecy.

RESPONSE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE AS HE RIDES IN…

They cut palm branches and lay them in front of the colt He is riding

They cry out Hosanna (Hashanah)

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord

[This comes from Psalm 118:26 and is a messianic greeting. When they said this, the people were proclaiming Him to be the Messiah of Israel.]

Usually, these things are reserved for Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), not Passover.

They were doing this with the expectation that Sukkot was going to be fulfilled According to Zechariah 14:16-21, the Feast of Tabernacles will be fulfilled by the Messianic Kingdom.

They believed they had the Messiah, so they expected the Kingdom.

Tabernacles = God dwelling with us = Kingdom.

However, to think of these things as fulfilling Sukkot betrays their lack of understanding of what comes first – Passover – the meaning of Passover / Atonement. They blew right past that to the Kingdom which was their WANT not their NEED.

While the people are proclaiming Him to be the Messiah, the Pharisees are objecting:

“…the whole world is gone after Him” (John 12:19)

“…rebuke your disciples…I tell you that if these hold their peace, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:39-40)

IOW, there must be a testimony that the Messiah has come.

And what follows in the next few verses in Luke (19:41-44), makes it very clear that He is not riding into Jerusalem to offer Himself as King or bring the Kingdom…

The people proclaimed His Messiahship

But His words were words of judgment:

When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

No matter how many Baruch Haba’s or Hashanahs they said, the Kingdom was not coming. They could not change what happened 1½ years earlier – “unpardonable sin” by that generation.

The leadership rejected Yeshua on the grounds of demon possession.

Rejection + Unpardonable Sin meant Judgment.

In spite of all the miracles, signs, wonders, teaching, preaching, and proclaiming…

They still “did not recognize the time of their visitation.”

They should have known Zechariah. They should have known Daniel.

On that day, the tenth of Nisan, the Lamb of God was set aside. From the tenth until the fourteenth, the Lamb would be tested to show that He was without spot or blemish.