Matthew 26:2

2. Ye know Our Lord begins with telling them what they knew; but he finished by telling them what they do not know until he tells them. The true teacher leads his pupils from the known to the unknown. The disciples knew that the passover was coming; Jesus knew that the crucifixion was coming. Though his mission as prophet was discharged, his foreknowledge as a prophet was not diminished. He is prophet, that is, master, by clear, calm foresight, of the whole train of transactions.

After two days This was uttered probably at sunset on Tuesday; just twice twenty-four hours before the time of his paschal supper with his disciples, which took place on the Thursday evening preceding the Friday of the crucifixion.

Passover This was the great feast of the Jews in commemoration of their departure from Egypt, when the destroying angel who cut off the first-born of the Egyptians was made to pass over the residences of the Jews harmless. A victim was upon that occasion slain by divine command, and his blood stricken on the two door-posts and upon the lintel, or top cross-piece, as a sign that the house was the abode of an Israelite. See Exodus 12:1-30. In annual commemoration of this the following passover rites were appointed: On the tenth day of the month Nisan, (corresponding nearly to our April,) a male lamb without blemish, of either sheep or goats, was selected. It was to be kept until the fourteenth day of Nisan, when it was to be slain by the priest between the two evenings of three and six o’clock, and the blood was to be poured at the foot of the great altar. At evening each family, including not less than ten persons, was to eat the lamb. They were originally commanded to do this with all the tokens of rapid departure. Their feet were to be shod, their loins girt, their staff in hand, and they were to eat not reclining, but standing, and their bread was to be unleavened, and the whole was to be done “with haste.” “Bitter herbs” were to be eaten, as a symbol of their bitter sufferings in Egypt. Seven days were set apart (Exodus 12:15) as a feast of unleavened bread. The first and last were to be days of holy convocation. The first day commenced with the eve on which the paschal lamb was eaten. In the Passion Week it was Friday. See note on Matthew 26:5.

We here remark that the victim was a true vicarious sacrifice. Egypt for his sins was punished by the selection of a human representative, namely, his first-born. Israel too was a sinner; but he suffered by substitution of the “lamb without spot.” The paschal lamb was slain, and was to be, not boiled like other sacrifices, but roasted, to indicate by fire the terrible agonies of the atoning victim; and being roasted upon the cross-spit, he was literally crucified. The blood of the first victim sprinkled upon Israel’s lintel is a most remarkable symbol of that blood sprinkled upon our souls, whereby God knows us for his own and spares us when he makes inquisition for blood.

The passover lamb is indeed a wondrous type of “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world;” by whose sprinkled blood we are saved from death and redeemed from spiritual bondage. It was on the passover night that our Lord instituted the sacrament as a bloodless continuation of the same commemoration, divested of its special Jewish significance. And our Lord himself was slain at this very feast, which was appointed by Moses to predict beforehand his death. On this occasion the Jews slew, not only the typical victim, but the real victim typified by their feasts and sacrifices.