Day 185: Luke 22:9–13

So they went and found it just as He had told them, and they prepared the Passover (v. 13).

I don’t believe Christ simply glanced up, saw Peter and John, and decided they’d be as good a choice as anyone to prepare for the Passover. Quite the contrary, this profound work was prepared in advance for them to do (see Eph. 2:10). It’s likely the two men may have wished someone else had been chosen for the tasks, some of which were usually assigned to women. The Passover involved a fairly elaborate meal with a very specific setting. They may have grumbled, as we often do. Why? Because we may have no idea as to the significance of the work God has called us to do.

Give some thought to the preparations Peter and John made. You can read about the original Passover in Exodus 12:1–14. The meal involved three symbolic foods to be eaten during every observance: “meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast” (Exod. 12:8).

While every part of the meal was highly symbolic, it had no meaning at all without the lamb. The most important preparation Peter and John made was the procuring and preparing of the Passover lamb. The detailed preparation involving the lamb would soon be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, of course. They may not have grasped the significance of it at the time, but eventually they “got it.”

Peter and John are the only two of the Twelve who were recorded referring to Jesus as the Lamb. Many years later Peter would write of Jesus that we were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1 Pet. 1:19–20). For John’s part, you can read Revelation 5 for what I think is the most majestic passage in Scripture about the Lamb of God.

Is it coincidence that only these two apostles wrote about Jesus as the Lamb? Not on your life. Christ’s ultimate goal in any work He assigns to us is to reveal Himself, either through us or to us. The Holy Spirit used the tasks He assigned Peter and John that day to reveal to them the Lamb of God, to deeply engrave these images and remembrances in their minds. Beloved, the tasks God gives you are never trivial.