In Matthew 26:14-25 we come across the account of Judas betraying Jesus and the Passover meal. It starts with Judas doing the sinister deal with the Chief Priests in order to deliver Jesus to them for 30 pieces of silver (vs 14-16). It finishes with Jesus making it known that one of the twelve disciples would betray him, and it’s obvious it’s Judas (vs. 21-25). Sandwiched in the middle of these two sections is a picture that makes the treachery of Judas even more appalling. The setting for Jesus’ announcement was an intimate Passover meal with his family, a family that redefines the normal Jewish understanding of family in an infinitely more intimate way.
17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?" 18 He said, "Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'" 19 And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. 20 When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve.
The Passover feast and the entire festival of Unleavened Bread was a huge family deal. In the original Passover, family units were gathered in their dwellings after sacrificing a lamb and smearing its blood on their doorposts. As they ate safely inside, God passed over their homes, and they were safe from the judgement that was wrought on the Egyptians. Through this, God delivered them out of Egypt. Through the wilderness, God gave Israel safe passage and provision as they camped and moved in family units. As Israel then dwelled in the promised land, they were attributed land according to family and tribe, and as they remembered Passover, they came together in intimate family gatherings to recall what God had done. The Passover meal was about as intimate a gathering for families as could possibly be. Fathers would explain the elements of Passover and sons and fathers would recite scriptures in response to each other. The Passover was a great feast of family units convergent upon Jerusalem.
Why weren’t the disciples gathering with their own individual families at this time? Because in Jesus the disciples found something new. Jesus makes Passover all about him. He gives us what we now know as the Lord’s supper. Jesus is not with a group of disciples all disconnected from their families at Passover. Jesus is with his true family at Passover, and he defines it in the explanation of a New Covenant. The New Covenant is not a covenant made to those who have connection to a physical descendancy and tribal connection to the sons of Jacob. The New Covenant is the covenant in Christ’s blood. His family is not identified in the bloodlines of Israel. His family is identified in the blood shed by Christ himself.
This intimate setting is indeed the most intimate family setting we could possibly explain. This is even more intimate than a family connected by physical heritage. It’s a family connected by an eternal Savior. Jesus shares the most intimate meal with the most intimate family. They share the bowl and dip their hands into it. They pass the Passover lamb and they contemplate together how God is a deliverer. Then Jesus basically says, “This is me. I am this Passover Lamb for you.”
It is in this family setting that Judas sits as a betrayer and would soon prefer that he had never been born. It is in this family setting that we now gather all over the world to remember Christ’s body broken and his blood shed for us. With the New Covenant fulfillment of Passover is a New Covenant definition of what a covenantal family of God truly is. The New Covenantal family is in Christ’s blood alone. The New Covenant is a participation in one Lamb for all who will believe. What a glorious covenant and what a gloriously beautiful family of the Lamb.