Do you believe Jesus observed the Passover with His disciples?
YES! Concerning the day of Passover, the Lord says in Exodus 12: 14; “You must celebrate
‘THIS DAY’*as a religious festival to remind you of what I, the Lord have done, Celebrate it
(One day)*for all time to come.
Numbers 28: 16; The Passover Festival in honour of the Lord, is to be held on the 14th day of the first month. On the fifteenth day a religious festival begins which lasts seven days, during which, only unleavened bread is to be eaten. On the first day of the seven day festival of unleavened bread, (The 15th day of Abib) you are to gather for worship and no work is to be done………………. On the last day (The 21st of Abib) you must meet for worship and do no work.
Numbers 33: 3; the people of Israel left Egypt on the 15th day of the first month of the year, the DAY
'AFTER' the first Passover.
The Jews may have abandoned God’s one day festival of Passover, and incorporated it into their first day of Unleavened Bread, but not Jesus. He kept it on the day commanded by the Lord, the evening of the 14 day of Abib.
There was no slaughtered lamb that night, because Jesus was the reality of the sacrificial Lamb, and he offered his symbolic body to his disciples, Luke 22:19-20; 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
The fact that it was the Passover meal that he ate with his disciples, is verified in Luke 22: 15; where Jesus said to his disciples; “I have wanted so much to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer.
Because the Jews had abandoned the one day festival of Passover and incorporated the Passover meal into the evening of the 15th, the first of their seven day festival of unleavened bread, the 14th day of the month became their day of preparation to their Passover.
Their day consisted of a period of 12 hours of darkness followed by a 12 hour period of light.
The 6th hour of the day of preparation to the Jewish Passover meal, when Pilate sentenced Jesus to death, was Midnight. He was nailed to the cross on the 3rd hour 9AM of the 12 hour period of light on the dayof preparation to the Jewish Passover, Darkness covered the land at the 6th hour, midday, of the day of preparation, and he died at the 9th hour, 3PM, between the two evenings when the Pascal lambs were to be killed.
He was buried as the sun was setting on the 14th day of the month, Just as the Jews were preparing to eat their Pascal lamb which had been killed between the two evenings of the day of preparation.
To the Jews, the first evening began at midday when the sun begins its descent and the 12th hour, 6PM when the sun began to dip below the horizon.