In Luke chapter 22 we have the powerful story of our Lord instituting the “Lord’s Supper”.  As the hour quickly approaches, Jesus knows that this will be the last time He will celebrate the Passover with His disciples.   Jesus does something very amazing here; linking “The Day of Atonement” with “Passover”.  The celebration of Passover and the Day of Atonement would be celebrated less than 24 hours apart.  On Thursday night we see the Passover, by Friday afternoon, Christ will die on the cross as the sacrificial lamb.    The Passover, appointed by God through Moses to remember Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, had been celebrated almost 1,500 times.  Jesus had done this every year of His life since His birth; first with His family and then with His disciples.   It is on this evening with His disciples in the upper room that Jesus will change these celebrations forever.  Jesus will now introduce a new covenant.   Matt. 26:28 “ For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”  On this night Jesus and the disciples are eating and drinking the ultimate Passover.   Jesus now sets in motion what will very soon become the New Testament Church.   His very blood will make valid and authorize this change, this new Covenant to His chosen people.

A few hours later this New Covenant that Jesus instituted in the upper room will be ratified on the only,  and real Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur.  Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.   Back in Leviticus 23 we see Aaron the high priest, with fear and trembling, taking the blood of a lamb into the very HOLY OF HOLIES to make atonement for the sins of the people.  He would then walk outside the gate, place his hand on the scapegoat, symbolically transferring the sins of the people on to the goat, and then send it out into the barren desert, away from the people.  The sins of the people would be symbolically carried away out into the place of judgement and death.  Jesus was our scapegoat.  The stunning reality is that the cross of Christ would be the first and only real “Day of Atonement.”   Up until the cross, the Passover Lamb and the Day of Atonement were only symbolic ceremonies of the real event to come.  Jesus our Passover, Jesus our Atonement.