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Scripture tells us that the Passover day is a memorial for all generations.

Exo 12:14 And the day shall be a memorial for you. And you shall celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh, for your generations. You shall celebrate it as a law forever.

Notice it is the day and not the killing of a lamb that is a memorial and to be remembered for all generations. Although the day stays the same, Yahweh as the Creator has the right to change the symbols of this ceremony, which He did on the last Passover Yahshua celebrated.

As they were eating the Passover supper “Yahshua took (unleavened) bread and blessed it…… and gave it to the disciples and said, Take eat, this is (represents) My body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is (represents) My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sin” (Mat 26:26-28).

To understand the true significance of this scripture, we need to review several Old Testament scriptures and some of Yahshua’s own statements made during His ministry prior to this Passover night. Notice first that the prophet Isaiah understood that the Passover lamb was a type of Messiah. He wrote, regarding the death of the Messiah: “…He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isa 53:7).

John the Baptist understood that Lamb had come. “The next day John sees Yahshua coming unto him, and says, Behold the Lamb of Yah, which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) A little later John again spoke of Yahshua specifically to two of His disciples, Andrew the brother of Peter and the Apostle John: “Behold the Lamb of Yah!” (verse 36). These two disciples immediately began following Yahshua.

Later, but before He died as our Passover lamb, Yahshua publicly alluded to the New Testament Passover and the new symbols of bread and wine He would institute. He said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the live of the world…..Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no live in you” (John 6:51, 53).

Eating this “flesh”, unlike eating merely the physical lamb, would identify the eater with the eternal life of the Lamb of Yahweh. And along with it was the blood, not in the “flesh”, but separate from it, for it had been all poured out from His body, which cleared the way for all mankind to receive eternal life by making possible the remission of sins.

Although many turned back from this saying (vs66), Peter and John and the rest of the twelve, except for Judas Iscariot, were willing to accept it (even though they didn’t’ fully understand it until the Holy Spirit revealed it to them – John 14: 26) and were thus better prepared to accept His statement at the close of His last Passover supper, “This is my body.”

The Levitical system with all of its sacrifices that could never take away sin (Heb 10:1-4), but merely remind the people that they were sinners, was added because of Israel’s sin (Gal 3:19) and was merely a substitute system until Yahshua, the Eternal Son of Yahweh would come (Gal 3:20-22).

Heb 10:4 for it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Isa 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His wounds we ourselves are healed.

Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have each one turned to his own way; and Yahweh made meet in Him the iniquity of all of us.

Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

Isa 53:8 He was taken from prison and from justice; and who shall consider His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people, the stroke was to Him.

Yahshua did not enter a manmade sanctuary but actually entered heaven itself to prove that the Levitical priesthood was only a shadow, but His priesthood (Melchezidec) was an Eternal order.

Psa 110:4 Yahweh has sworn and will not repent: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Truly, Yahshua was the lamb of Yah, who takes away the sins of the world, and since His sacrifice is in perpetuity and ongoing there is no reason to have a physical lamb as a second sacrifice any longer, since the true sacrifice has come.

Heb 10:8 Above, saying, “You did not desire nor were pleased with sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and sacrifices concerning sins,” (which are offered according to the (levitical) Law),

Heb 10:9 then He said, “Lo, I come to do Your will, O Elohim.” He takes away the first in order that He may set up the second;

Heb 10:12 But He, offering but one sacrifice for sins, “sat down” in perpetuity “at the right hand” of YHWH,

Heb 10:13 from then on expecting “until His enemies are placed as a footstool” of His feet.

Heb 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected in perpetuity the ones being sanctified.

1st Cor 5:7 Then purge out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For also Messiah our Passover was sacrificed for us.

The new emblems were a substitution for – not an addition to – the physical lamb. In 1st Cor 11: 20 the Apostle Paul further elaborates: “When ye come together therefore in one place, this is not to eat Yahshua’s supper.”

1st Cor 11:21a  For each one takes his own supper first in the eating;

1st Cor 11:22a For do you not have houses in which to eat and to drink?

The supper – a full Passover meal – was no longer the manner of observing the Passover, as each person would eat his own supper first, in his own house, before gathering together with the brethren to take the emblems. Paul then went on to clearly state that the simple emblems of bread and wine, and not a full meal with a sacrificed lamb were taken on the Passover every year (verses 23 – 25).

We keep the Passover today because it is commanded by Elohim forever (Exo 12: 17, 24). But no longer do we kill a lamb and eat it, since the “Lamb of Yahweh” – (Yahshua) – has been sacrificed once for all: “Yahshua (who was foreshadowed by the literal Passover lamb) was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that look for Him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb 9:28).

Instead, we take the unleavened bread, symbolizing Yahshua’s broken body, and the wine, symbolizing His shed blood, as a memorial, looking back to our Saviour’s suffering and death for our sins. Since then Yahshua’s sacrifice is ongoing (Heb 10:14), then also it is clear that Yahshua (not a lamb) is our Passover (1st Cor 5:7) in Yahweh’s congregations today.

Heb 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer an offering concerning sin.