“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

Words are funny things sometimes.  At least two things come to mind when we think of someone being passionate.  The first idea for most people in contemporary society is very strong emotion.  Lovers are passionate about their companions. Athletes are passionate about their game, or at least should be.  Serious artists are passionate about their work.  Political candidates can have their campaigns fail for no other reason than being as passionate as cardboard.  Generally speaking, we respect passionate people, as long as their emotions don’t get out of control and lead them down the wrong road.

The second idea we think of when we hear passion is what Mel Gibson’s film displayed: overwhelming suffering, pain and anguish.  Many of those around the world unfamiliar with New Testament Christianity were shocked to see such passion.  Besides adding to their understanding of the word, The Passion of the Christ created major interest in Jesus’ life and death.

We find this second kind of passion in Luke 22:15, “And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’.”  This last word, suffer, comes from the Greek pascho, meaning suffer.  Jesus knew that when he broke the bread and passed the cup, that these elements prefigured what would happen to his body in the coming hours.  The depths of such suffering mankind will never fully understand.  But accounts in both testaments — Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, the gospel records — provide as full a glimpse as we can possibly get so that we may have a fuller appreciation of the tremendous cost our sins required to be removed from us and completely paid for.

However, we also find the other kind of passion in the first part of the verse: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover…”  Actually, Jesus used the word epithumeo twice, as a noun and verb, to highlight his passion, as the NKJV records: “With fervent desire I have desired…”  In other words, he had been longing, yearning, eagerly waiting for this moment, this Passover meal with his disciples.  And how long had he waited and longed for it?  Since the beginning of creation!  It was his passion.

How do we know this?  Let’s look at this moment from Christ’s perspective.  In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve broke their relationship with God by disobedience and rejection.  Hostility and conflict are now the norm on planet Earth, and humanity remains alienated from the Godhead, certainly not the purpose God had in creating us in the first place.  He made us in his image (Gen. 1:26-27) for the express purpose of enjoying fellowship with our Maker.  Yet, they made a complete mess of his “very good” creation (Gen. 1:31).  Before moving them out of the garden, God himself took on the initiative and the responsibility (Gen. 3:15) to breach the gap and fill the void in our lives by sending Jesus.  After the flood in Noah’s day and the creation of multiple languages at Babel, the world was finally ready for God’s first step in world redemption: choosing Abraham and from him the Hebrew nation.  Jesus even visited Abraham and Sarah to confirm the time of Isaac’s birth (Gen. 18, taking the appearance of a traveler).  Over time, the Jews emerged, and God gave them his laws, commands and festivals, including Passover.  In all, the Jews had 7 special feast days, each one pointing to some aspect of the Messiah.  Even with all 7, the nation of Israel rejected him outright and condemned him to death.

So after thousands of years, Jesus arrived on the earth.  With a less than 100 followers and 12 disciples, not all of whom were a sure thing, he ministered and testified for 3 years.  Now it’s crunch time, D-Day, the day he had waited for so long.  Luke 22:14 says, “When the hour came…”  What an hour it was!  Finally, after all this waiting, he conducted his final Passover, where he minimized its link with Egypt and connected it to the deliverance he would provide on the cross, now less than 12 hours away!  Remember, too, that he said twice (vs. 15, 18) that he would no longer eat/drink until the Kingdom.  Why?  Because he would not celebrate another meal until the nations join him (Rev. 5:9-10).  That is no heavenly diet plan; that’s passion!  This is the only feast where he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

How is your passion for the Savior?  Does it begin to approximate his passion for you?