²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take lambs for yourselves according to your family size, and slaughter the Passover lamb. ²² You shall take a bundle of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and paint the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you are to go out of the door of your house until morning. ²³ When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

²⁴ “You shall observe these instructions as a perpetual regulation for you and your descendants. ²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord will give you just as he said he would, you shall observe this ceremony. ²⁶ So when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Passover to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. When he struck the Egyptians, he spared our houses.’”

The people bowed down and worshipped. ²⁸ The Israelites went and did all this. They did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The Exodus

²⁹ At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, even all the firstborn of the livestock. ³⁰ During the night Pharaoh got up—he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians—and there was a loud outcry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not someone dead.

Jesus Celebrates the Passover

¹² On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” ¹³ He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and there a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. ¹⁴ Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house that the Teacher says, ‘Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹⁵ He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

¹⁶ His disciples left and went into the city and found things just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

¹⁷ When it was evening, he arrived with the Twelve.

One Will Betray Jesus

¹⁸ While they were reclining and eating, Jesus said, “Amen I tell you: One of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”

¹⁹ They began to be sorrowful and said to him one by one, “Surely not I?”

²⁰ He said to them, “It is one of the Twelve, one who is dipping bread with me in the dish. ²¹ Indeed, the Son of Man is going to go just as it has been written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

The Lord’s Supper

²² While they were eating, Jesus took bread. When he had blessed it, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “Take it.^[a] This is my body.”

²³ Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them. They all drank from it. ²⁴ He said to them, “This is my blood of the new testament,^[b] which is poured out for many. ²⁵ Amen I tell you: I will certainly not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” ²⁶ After they sang a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

¹⁶ The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion^[a] of the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a communion^[b] of the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Because there is one bread, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.