Explain how Luke describes Jesus as the sacrificial lamb in his gospel.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Sam Archman 10C 18th March 2003

Explain how Luke describes Jesus as the sacrificial lamb in his gospel

In order to see how Jesus is presented as the sacrificial lamb in Luke’s story of The Last Supper in chapter 22 of his gospel, we need to remember the story of the first Passover.

Moses was told by God to take his people out of slavery. The Passover was The Last Supper before Jesus was going to get crucified.

Gods’ people were slaves of the Pharaoh, he wanted them to be let free, but every time Moses and Aaron asked he refused, so God sent down 10 plagues.

The first plague was when God changed the waters into blood, and all the fish died. They asked again seven days later but he still refused, so he covered the land with frogs. The Pharaoh still wouldn’t listen so God sent down another plague, and he carried on doing this until the Pharaoh gave in.

The last plague was the worst plague.

God wanted everyone to take a lamb for his family, but they had to be perfect in every way also they had to be 1 year old males.

They had to take care of it until the 14th day of the month, and then on that day they had to slaughter it, and put its blood on the sides and tops of the door frames.

That same night they had to eat the meat roasted along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.

On that night the Angel of Death passed through Egypt and struck ...

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The last plague was the worst plague.

God wanted everyone to take a lamb for his family, but they had to be perfect in every way also they had to be 1 year old males.

They had to take care of it until the 14th day of the month, and then on that day they had to slaughter it, and put its blood on the sides and tops of the door frames.

That same night they had to eat the meat roasted along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.

On that night the Angel of Death passed through Egypt and struck down every first born male also the male animals, but when the Angel saw the blood on the door he just passed by and left them.

When all this happened the Pharaoh felt upset and angry as his eldest son had died so he decided to let Gods’ people go.

Moses and Aaron took them to Promised Land.

For us Jesus’ blood is put on the cross allowing us to escape tour Promised Land in heaven.

Verses 1-4

When we read verse 3 when Judas discusses how he is going to betray Jesus, he decides how he is going to do it with the chief priest and teachers. In the end they decide to give Judas some money to kill Jesus.

Jesus could sense this was coming, so that was why he had the feast of the unleavened bread (The Passover).

In these verses Luke is trying to show us that Jesus was going to be the new Passover lamb/The new sacrifice.

Verses 5-9

When the day of the Passover came Jesus was delighted.

I think the disciples were happy about this but also sad because after the meal they knew Jesus was going to die.

Jesus is going to offer himself as a final sacrifice, he knew he was going to die and he knew that he had no choice as he had to deliver people from their sins/set them free.

Verses 10-14

When we read Vs 14, Jesus tells his disciples how eagerly desired he was to eat the Passover with them before he was going to suffer, he was not going to eat again until it found fulfilment in the kingdom of God.

Jesus was happy that he knew he was going to die because then he could say goodbye to his friends/disciples to his friends properly and explain to them why.

Verses 15-20

On the night of the Passover Jesus took the wine and gave thanks and said “Take this and divide it among you” That was Jesus’ last drink as he was not allowed to have another one until the Kingdom of God came.

Jesus took the bread, broke it and gave thanks, he said “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me”.

Luke was trying to show us that Jesus didn’t want people to forget him as he was going to get crucified to save our souls.