Nisan 14 — Good Thursday

Thursday, Nisan 14

Preparation Day for Passover

The day the Passover lambs are sacrificed

Jewish women are up very early preparing the house, the table, and all the food for the Passover Seder that will be eaten after sundown. Except for the Passover lamb — that lamb the family selected on Sunday, Nisan 10, kept and tended by hand until today. Today that lamb will be sacrificed at 3pm. It will arrive to a Jewish home sometime after 3pm and will be roasted with fire until just before sundown, placed on the table as the most important element there, along with lighted candles, awaiting the setting of the sun and a new day (Nisan 15) when it will be completely consumed by all who are within the home.

You can read the full account of the laws surrounding Passover and what is lawful and unlawful to do on Passover in the Book of Exodus.

When Jesus and His followers left the upper room to go to The Mount of Olives it was nightfall, meaning that it was already Nisan 14.

Jesus praying in Gethsemane, Judas’ kiss, Jesus arrest, and his interrogation before the Sanhedrin took place during the night. Jesus’ words have been twisted, but witnesses can’t agree; He has been blindfolded, spit on, beaten, punched in the face, and His beard has been ripped out (by human hands).

It is now the very early morning hours, and Jesus is in chains, being lead away from the Sanhedrin council to Pilot, the Roman governor of Israel. They did not enter the headquarters building because they didn’t want to become ritually defiled and thus unable to eat the Pesach meal. (Wow)

The priests brought all sorts of lies against Jesus. During all this the priests mentioned that He was from Galilee. So, Pilot sent Jesus and the entire group over to Herod for questioning and punishment. There He was asked to perform miracles, and when He wouldn’t, nor even answer him, He was beaten, ridiculed, dressed in an elegant robe and sent back to Pilot.

You will find all this and so much more in the 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

By now, Jesus has been whipped with a cat-of-nine-tails, a crown of thorns has been crammed down into His head, the elegant robe has been thrown back over His bleeding body. Strips of raw skin are torn away from the bones and He can barely stand. He didn’t look like a man anymore (you can read about that in Isaiah 52. And Pilot is asking the crowd who he should release, the murderer Barabbas or the Messiah, Jesus. The priests stirred up the crowd to scream for Jesus’ death.

And so, Jesus, along with 2 other prisoners, is led out to The Place of the Skull carrying His own cross. He is too weak to carry it all the way, so a man named Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry it for Him.

At 9am, Jesus was nailed to a cross and lifted up — suspended — the bridge between God and mankind.

From noon until 3pm, darkness covered the whole Land. (Remember that 3pm is when the lambs are sacrificed unless Nisan 14 falls on a Friday. If it had been a Friday the lambs would have been sacrificed at 2pm.)

At 3pm, Jesus cried out asking His Father why He had forsaken Him. He then uttered these words,

“It is finished.”

And with His death all the work He came to do, the atoning sacrifice made once for all, was completed. Our Passover Lamb was sacrificed and bled out exactly at the time the Passover lambs were being sacrificed for the Passover Seder that would be eaten in just a few short hours.

His body had to be removed from the cross and He had to be temporarily placed in a tomb before sunset, because when the sun set, it was a new day — a holy day for the Jews – and laws that governed that Day were strictly enforced.

I hope that you will read all the Gospel accounts for yourselves. I pray that you will research the books of Exodus and Isaiah so that you will have a working understanding of the Jewish laws, traditions and customs surrounding every aspect of Jesus’ life, but especially of His death.

You see, if it had not happened according to the laws/commandments handed down to Moses from God Himself, Jesus could not be our Passover Lamb.

Do you remember what when Jesus said when He came to John to be baptized and John said that Jesus needed to baptize him?

However, Yeshua answered him, “Let it be this way now, because we should do everything righteousness requires.”

All righteousness must be fulfilled, or Jesus isn’t who He says He is.

Thank You, Lord our God, King of the universe Who makes a way of reconciliation for mankind through the sacrificial work and act of selfless love of Jesus, Your precious Son, Who made Himself our Passover Lamb. All honor and glory, power and might, rule and domination rightfully belong to You, Creator of all things. Amen.