Eat the Lamb

Introduction

For the past two weeks, we have been following the story of the Passover. We have seen God sheltering His people in the midst of judgment. The blood marking out a people He claims as His own. The spotless lamb pointing us to Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb.

But let us to consider a detail that is often overlooked. What happened to the lamb after it was sacrificed? Most Christians instinctively think about the blood. And rightly so. The blood marked the doorposts. It distinguished Israel from Egypt. It sheltered God’s people as judgment passed through.

Yet if we read Exodus 12 carefully, we discover that God spends a surprising amount of time speaking about something else. Not the death of the lamb. Not the blood of the lamb. But the eating of the lamb. Again and again, God gives instructions about the meal—how the lamb is to be eaten, who may eat it, who may not, and what must be done with what remains.

Why?

If all God intended was that a lamb had to die, much of Exodus 12 would be unnecessary. We will see that the Passover sacrifice did not end with the death of the lamb. It continued at the table. The lamb was not only slain. The lamb was shared. We will also be looking at how that partaking of the lamb opens up one of the most beautiful themes in all of Scripture, how again and again, redemption leads to fellowship. Sacrifice culminates in communion. God gathers a people around a meal.

The story begins at the Passover table. It runs through the covenant meals of the Old Testament. It reaches its fulfillment in Christ, who declares:

“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” John 6:56

And it is proclaimed every time the church gathers around the Lord’s Table. The redeemed do not merely look upon the Lamb. They partake of the Lamb by faith. They find their life in Him. Through Him they are brought into fellowship with the living God.

The Lamb Must Be Eaten

Listen again to the Lord’s instructions.

Too long, please open your Bible Exodus 12:8–11, 43–49.

Notice how much attention God gives to the meal. The blood shelters Israel in judgment—but the Lord does not stop there.

“They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs… Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the LORD’s Passover.” Exodus 12:8, 11

The meal is not optional. It belongs to Passover itself.

Loins girded. Sandals on feet. Staff in hand. The bitter herbs recall slavery. The unleavened bread signals haste. Everything about this meal announces that God is about to act.

This is not a leisurely banquet. This is a pilgrim meal. Israel is still in Egypt. The Exodus has not happened. The chains have not fallen. They eat dressed for departure because God is about to bring them out. And the same lamb whose blood marked the doorposts became the food that strengthened the people for the journey ahead.

The blood sheltered them. The lamb nourished them.

God is also concerned with who may eat.

“No outsider is to eat of it.” Exodus 12:43

Yet He also says:

“If a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land.” Exodus 12:48

The question is not merely whether a lamb has been slain. It is who belongs at the table. Who shares the meal. Who participates in the covenant.

The passover sacrifice culminates in the shared lamb nourishing people, but not only that, it gathers a covenant people.

Passover is not an isolated example. It reveals a pattern that runs throughout the entire story of redemption.

Sacrifice and Fellowship

We see this at Sinai. After bringing Israel into covenant with Himself, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders ascend the mountain. And we read these astonishing words:

“They saw the God of Israel… Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.” Exodus 24:10–11

The holy God who descended on Sinai in thunder and fire. The God before whom Israel trembled. And yet these men see God and eat in His presence. They fellowshipped with Him.

God’s is not merely about bringing Israel out of Egypt. His goal is to bring Israel to Himself.

The same pattern appears in Israel’s sacrificial system. Again, there’s tendency to think of sacrifice in terms of death—an animal brought, slain, blood shed. But often the story does not end there.

In the peace offerings, sacrifice culminates in a shared meal before the Lord.

Now as for the flesh of the sacrifice of his thanksgiving peace offerings, it shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall not leave any of it over until morning. Leviticus 7:15

This is why the Lord can speak of the altar through Malachi in such striking terms:

“You are presenting defiled food upon My altar… the table of the LORD.” Malachi 1:7

The altar is called a table. Not by accident. God is not interested in sacrificial death as an end in itself. The sacrifice was always moving toward fellowship. The shedding of blood was unto communion. The altar could be spoken of as a table because throughout Israel’s worship, sacrifice and fellowship were inseparable companions. God’s people were meant to draw near, to eat in His presence, to live in communion with Him. Once we see this pattern, we should not be surprised when we come to Jesus and find that He places Himself at the center of it all.

Flesh and Blood

John tells us at the opening of chapter 6 that the Passover was near. That detail is a signal—John doesn’t drop feast references casually. He wants us reading what follows with Passover in the background.

A crowd has just witnessed the feeding of the five thousand and is pressing Jesus for more. But He moves them somewhere deeper. Starting in verse 51, the language shifts from bread to flesh and blood:

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.” John 6:53–54

He moved from provision language to “Flesh and blood”, which when used together signals sacrificial language. The language of the altar. The language of the lamb.

The Passover taught that sacrifice leads to eating, and eating means union and dependence. The lamb was not merely slain—it was consumed. Taken in. Depended upon for the journey ahead. Jesus takes that same logic and applies it to Himself.

“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” John 6:56

This is union. This is participation. Not merely forgiveness received at a distance, but life shared—Christ in you, and you in Christ. The Christian life is not a transaction completed at conversion. It is ongoing dependence. Ongoing feeding upon Christ by faith.

We never graduate beyond our need for Him. He is and remains our life. And if that is the reality Jesus is describing, how does He give His disciples a way to remember and proclaim it? The answer takes us to the night before the cross.

The New Passover Meal

All of these threads come together on the night before the crucifixion. Jesus gathers His disciples to celebrate the Passover. For centuries Israel had eaten this meal looking back to the night God sheltered His people and brought them out of slavery. But that redemption, as glorious as it was, was never intended to be the final redemption.

“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Luke 22:15

Why? Because everything Passover anticipated is about to find its fulfillment in Him.

“This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” Luke 22:19-20

For centuries the Passover directed Israel’s attention toward Egypt and Moses. Now Jesus places Himself at the center. The focus shifts from the first Exodus to the greater Exodus He is about to accomplish.

From the lamb in Egypt to the Lamb seated at the table.

From deliverance through Moses to deliverance through Christ.

The old meal remembered Egypt. The new meal proclaims Christ.

The old meal anticipated the Lamb. The new meal proclaims the Lamb revealed.

This is why Paul can write:

“For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians 5:7

Paul does not merely say Christ died. He says Christ is our Passover. The entire story finds its fulfillment in Him.

“Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” 1 Corinthians 10:16

The word Paul uses speaks of participation, fellowship, communion. Every time we gather around the Table, we declare that Christ remains our life. Not merely that He once saved us. Not merely that He once nourished us. Every Lord’s Supper is a confession: we have no life apart from Him.

The blood shelters. The Lamb nourishes. The sacrifice leads to fellowship. Christ is the fulfillment of it all.

Conclusion

We can now answer the question with which we began. Why does God spend so much time speaking about eating the lamb? Because Passover was never merely about surviving a night of judgment. It was about what God was creating through redemption.

The blood sheltered His people.

The lamb nourished His people.

Through both, God was forming a people who belonged to Him.

The same pattern runs through all of Scripture. At Passover, the lamb is eaten. At Sinai, the elders eat and drink before God. In the peace offerings, fellowship follows sacrifice. In John 6, Christ makes the union language explicit. At the Lord’s Table, Christ stands at the center of the meal. Again and again, redemption leads to fellowship.

Perhaps this is where many Christians misunderstand salvation. We think primarily about what we have been saved from—sin, judgment, death. And praise God, all of that is true. But redemption is not only about what we have been brought out of. It is also about what we have been brought into.

We have been brought into fellowship with God.

Into communion with Christ.

Into the family of God’s people. The church exists because there is a Lamb. And around that Lamb gathers a redeemed people. Israel ate with staff in hand, standing at the threshold of deliverance—journeying out of one world and into another. We too are a pilgrim people. Not because our redemption is uncertain—Christ has accomplished it fully and finally. But because what He accomplished has not yet been fully revealed. We live between the cross and the glory. Still journeying. Still trusting. Still depending. Still feeding upon Christ by faith.

From the beginning, God was concerned not only that the lamb be eaten, but who would eat it. The meal marked out a covenant people. And so it remains today. Around the true Lamb, God is gathering a people for Himself. We know the One to whom the lamb pointed. The true Passover Lamb. The One who loved us and gave Himself for us. And because He is enough, we can continue the journey with confidence. The redeemed do not merely look upon the Lamb. They live from the Lamb. And He is enough for the journey.