Prepared

Luke 22:7-13 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” 9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked. 10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.” 13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. 
 
JESUS instructs his disciples to “Make preparations there (for the Passover).” The Son of God was about to sit down at the Feast the Father had been preparing for centuries. In God’s sovereign plan to redeem mankind, the LORD God began to prepare for this feast at the dawn of time in the Garden of Eden.
      God spoke the first invitation to the meal when he said to Satan. Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” 
      God began to record his guest list when he called Abraham into a blood-sealed covenant. Genesis 17:10 “This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.”  God then set the table at the first Passover. Exodus 12:12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn – both men and animals – and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. 14 This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance.”   
      Now the meal is prepared. The Guest of Honor – Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Man – steps through the threshold of an upper room in a middle-class Jerusalem neighborhood. The Promise presides at the head of the table. The Feast will fulfill the covenants in Eden, with Abraham and to the Jews. Satan will wound the Passover Lamb. But the Lamb of God will destroy Satan’s headship – his authority. Jesus’ body will soon be the Unleavened Bread broken. His blood will mark the wooden cross. From that dark day into eternity, sin will pass over those who eat the Feast of Salvation: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54)
      Yes, the meal is ready. Centuries of preparations are about to be fulfilled. God has come to the earth. John 1:29 “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  The Son of God is about to speak a new testament of grace. 
 
Prayer: Thank you, God, for your eternal preparations to draw me into your eternal home. In Jesus’ name I express my joy! Amen.