Jesus' First Bloodless Passover in Bethany 

Jesus and his life-long friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus celebrate the first bloodless Passover in Lazarus’ home. A bloodless celebration was unheard of because the law of Moses dictated that Jews eat a slaughtered lamb at Passover. Jesus was not really a rebel, but he did recognize when something did not correspond to his inner understanding of the Father in heaven. The traditional methods of celebrating Passover with a slaughtered animal was one of those things that did not sit well in his mind and heart. And so he set about to amend the situation when he was able to do so. In private, he and his friends joined in this first-ever bloodless interpretation of Passover. In later years, Jesus celebrated the bloodless Passover with his apostles at the Last Supper.

When Jesus was in his thirteenth year (just shy of being 13 years-old), he went with his parents to Jerusalem for Passover - his first trip to Jerusalem. On their way, on the slopes of Olivet, the travelers happened to stop in the village of Bethany. A man called Simon lived there with his three children: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Lazarus and Jesus were the same age; Martha was about one year older; and Mary was two years younger. Simon invited the Nazareth family to his home for some refreshments. The four teenagers and their families became life-long friends. Jesus and the three Bethany siblings visited each other often during Jesus’ life.

After meeting the Bethany family, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus resumed their trip to Jerusalem. Jesus was very excited to see the great city and take part in the celebrations now that he was old enough. But the temple rituals of animal sacrifice to Yahweh were so bloody and gory, he was nauseated by the sight of so many helpless animals being killed and asked his father to take him away from the scene. That night, he had nightmares of slaughter and suffering.

This slaughter of animals was traditional and a matter of Jewish law; every devout Jew partook in a slaughtered lamb for their Passover celebration. Jesus asked Joseph, his father, why God required this terrible carnage. But none of his father’s explanations were satisfying to his heart. Even at his young age, Jesus instinctively felt that his Father in heaven was not pleased with such spectacles. And he then and there determined to one day establish a very different celebration of Passover - one that did not include violence and bloodshed.

Seven years later he got his chance.

When he was 19 years-old, Jesus had a difficult experience with Rebecca, daughter of Ezra, in which he refused her offer of marriage. And it was in the following year, after this event, that he had a strange desire to go up to Jerusalem again for Passover. His mother encouraged him to go, knowing that the experience with Rececca had been trying for him. People in town were still whispering about it.

Jesus traveled alone to Jerusalem. But he spent very little time in Jerusalem, only looking from afar at the festivities remembering his first visit when he was a lad, and feeling a growing disgust at the rituals of the priesthood. He finally realized that what he most wanted to do was to visit his friends. And so he went to Bethany to see Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.

The three were surprised to see Jesus. Lazarus had already arranged for him and his sisters to go to a friend’s home in a nearby village for the Passover celebration. But Jesus proposed that they stay at home and celebrate Passover right there. Lazarus said “But, we don’t have the paschal lamb.” It was unthinkable to celebrate Passover without a slaughtered lamb.

But these three loved Jesus and trusted him. And when he explained to them that the Father in heaven did not look with favor on such sacrifices, he opened a new way of looking at the situation for them. He did not condemn anyone for partaking in the bloody rituals. But he encouraged the three to think of themselves as rising above the dark tradition of death and into a more enlightened view whereby they could be sure of the Father’s love without such sacrifices. He said: “Let the childlike and darkened minds of my people serve their God as Moses directed; it is better that they do, but let us who have seen the light of life no longer approach our Father by the darkness of death. Let us be free in the knowledge of the truth of our Father’s eternal love.”

And so the four of them partook of the first bloodless Passover celebrated by devoted Jews. Jesus renamed the unleavened bread and the wine as the “bread of life” and “the water of life.” They all prayed about it and they agreed to Jesus’ teachings. After this momentous occasion, whenever the four of them visited together at Lazarus’ home they celebrated with this secret and sacramental ritual of remembering God’s love.

When Jesus returned home he shared his experience of the bloodless Passover with his mother. As a devout Jew, she was shocked at this departure from the law, but after given time to think about it, she came to understand and even agree that what he did was a good thing. Nevertheless, she was relieved when Jesus assured her that he did not expect her or the children to conform to this new ritual. They went on in the Nazareth household, conforming to the law of Moses concerning Passover. Jesus was, after all, a Jew by birth and he had a responsibility to rear his brothers and sisters according to their father Joseph’s religion.