The Paschal significance

In my Old Testament class tonight we talked about the meaning of Passover. If you will journey back with me to Sunday School to you likely recall being taught that Jesus was "our Passover Lamb." In our liturgy we talk about Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. However, it seems that these understandings are not native to the biblical text.

The Synoptic Gospels record the Last Supper as a Passover meal (see Matt 26:17-19, Mk 14:12-16, Lk22:7-15), John, however, does not. John takes care to remind the reader that Jesus' trial and crucifixion take place on the Day of Preparation. This is the day when everyone in the town would have been killing the lamb that they were to use for the Passover meal. So, we have clearly gotten our concept of Jesus as the Paschal Lamb from the book of John.

If we look at what the Passover feast was meant for, it wasn't atonement. In the Jewish tradition atonement has its own festival. The question this leaves me with is, "If 'Jesus as the Paschal atonement' is a later meaning overlaid upon the text, then what other meanings could we be missing?" I may have some more thoughts on this later, but for now I bid you peace. (I'm even starting to write like a pastor -- strange!)