31It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down.32So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus.33But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs.34One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.35(This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also can believe.)36These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones will be broken,”37and “They will look on the one they pierced.
This was not just any sabbath, this was the Passover. This was the great feast held in memory of night when God killed all the first-born sons in Egypt. That night in Egypt, in the Israelite houses, a lamb was killed instead of an Israelite. The lambs blood was placed on the doorposts of the house, on the top and each side with some dripping down to the dirt below. And when the angel of the Lord saw the blood, he passed-over that house. The ceremony would be repeated over and over and over for centuries.
But this Passover the Son of God died instead of you and me. He places is blood on the cross, the doorway to heaven. With the crown of thorns and the nails in his hands and feet, the blood was placed on the top, the sides, and the foot of the doorway. But this wasn’t the symbolic blood of a lamb, this was the purest blood, the life, of the lamb of God, innocently slain for my sins and your sins. This was THE Passover.
Lord, help me to grasp the truest meaning of your death on my cross. Help me to pass through that doorway, be free from the slavery of sin, and live for all eternity in your love and freedom. thank-you Lord, thank you. *obbs*
