Passover Puzzle

The Passover versus the Lord's Supper

Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified (Matthew 26:2 Italics provided).

Jesus referred to the fourteenth and the Seder. Here is the context: On Passover Day, family and friends killed a sacrifice. Then, they ate the sacrifice and broke bread together that night⁵³. Judas and the disciples were the Lord’s family, so it was a cruel irony that on Friends and Family Night, Judas broke bread with the Lord and then betrayed Him. Early Adventists studied Christ’s ministry in great depth. Mrs. White used Christ’s own words to show the Passover timing. From The Great Controversy, we read:

These types were fulfilled, not only as to the event, but as to the time. On the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month, the very day and month on which for fifteen long centuries the Passover lamb had been slain, Christ, having eaten the Passover with His disciples, instituted that feast which was to commemorate His own death as ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ That same night He was taken by wicked hands to be crucified and slain (GC page 399 italics given).

Mrs. White said the supper fulfilled both the Passover time and the event by Hebrew reckoning. Others say the supper fulfilled the event but not the time. She is correct: The sacrifice belonged to the fourteenth, even though its assimilation carried into the fifteenth calendar day. The disciples kept the Passover on the fourteenth, just as Israel had done for fifteen centuries. Then, having eaten the Passover with His disciples, a transition occurred. Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper, which removed the animal token. From that point onward, only bread and wine would honor the Lord’s offering for “the sins of the world.” That same night, Judas kissed Him as a friend. “…Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took Him” (Matthew 26:30). The cruel mob led Him away to be crucified, just as Jesus predicted. Later, on that selfsame day, the fifteenth, the Savior was crucified. From The Desire of Ages, we find that Ellen White is consistent:

Passover Transition

Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages (DA 652 italics).

After Christ ate the roasted Passover with His disciples, He instituted the Lord’s supper in its place. If that meal was the transition point from the old Seder to the Lord’s Supper, would the next afternoon have required a Paschal sacrifice again? When they ate the sacrifice together, the old type ceased forever. When Jesus reached for the bread, a transition to the eternal new memorial occurred. The Great antitype instituted the new feast only after the law and type were fulfilled.

Nowhere in all her writings does Ellen White say Christ and the Pasha died on the same day. She said the opposite. In the text below from The Desire of Ages, she references the paschal lamb directly. She wrote that Jesus “was to be sacrificed” on the same day and after “the Passover was eaten.” That day began at sundown on Thursday night that year. Jesus was to be sacrificed later that same Hebrew day as a sin offering. Her usage of feast refers to the Seder, which lasted for "a few quiet hours.” Only if we force an ulterior meaning onto plain text can we misinterpret her view:

In the upper chamber of a dwelling at Jerusalem, Christ was sitting at table with His disciples. They had gathered to celebrate the Passover. The Saviour desired to keep this feast alone with the twelve. He knew that His hour was come; He Himself was the true paschal lamb, and on the day the Passover was eaten He was to be sacrificed. He was about to drink the cup of wrath; He must soon receive the final baptism of suffering. But a few quiet hours yet remained to Him, and these were to be spent for the benefit of His beloved disciples (DA 642.1 Italics given).