LET'S CELEBRATE PASSOVER
MARCH 2013
Lisa Maki
Christians have celebrated Easter Sunday year after year without even understanding the essence of this day. They partake in the festivities of the Easter bunny and eggs without realizing that these traditions are not even Biblical but pagan in its origin. Some churches have replaced Easter Sunday with Resurrection Sunday, which sounds more Biblical. Though we know that this day marks the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, how many of us truly understand its deeper roots?
The First Passover
Since Easter is linked with the Jewish Passover, then Passover is the very essence of what Christians call Easter Sunday. That being the case, it is good for us, Christians, to understand Passover and its relevance to Easter Sunday. However, before we do this, let me refresh you first on the first Passover.
The first Passover occurred almost 3500 years ago down in Egypt, when a lamb was sacrificed and the blood was applied to each doorpost and lintel. This was God’s instruction to His people to spare all their firstborn from the angel of death who “passed over”.
To further refresh you, God chose Moses to deliver the Jewish people, after having lived in Egypt for 400 years. God told Moses that this deliverance was not going to be easy because He was going to harden Pharaoh’s heart. It took one plague after the other and Pharaoh remained stubborn.
The First Passover
Since Easter is linked with the Jewish Passover, then Passover is the very essence of what Christians call Easter Sunday. That being the case, it is good for us, Christians, to understand Passover and its relevance to Easter Sunday. However, before we do this, let me refresh you first on the first Passover.
The first Passover occurred almost 3500 years ago down in Egypt, when a lamb was sacrificed and the blood was applied to each doorpost and lintel. This was God’s instruction to His people to spare all their firstborn from the angel of death who “passed over”.
To further refresh you, God chose Moses to deliver the Jewish people, after having lived in Egypt for 400 years. God told Moses that this deliverance was not going to be easy because He was going to harden Pharaoh’s heart. It took one plague after the other and Pharaoh remained stubborn.
In Exodus 11, God detailed the tenth and final judgment plague which would befall the Egyptians and their so-called “gods”. At midnight, the Lord would pass through the land of Egypt and kill the firstborn of each home where a lamb was not slain and where blood was not applied to the doorpost and lintel. The Pharaoh’s palace was not spared of this plague.
God’s instructions to His people for the “pass over” were clearly outlined in Exodus 12. On the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, they were to select a year-old lamb without blemish or spot out from the flock and keep it until the fourteenth day of the month (Exodus 12:3). During this duration, each family would become personally attached to their lamb so it would no longer be just an ordinary lamb (Exodus 12:3) but something like their very own pet (Exodus 12:5). This would deeply impress upon them the costly nature of the sacrifice; an innocent lamb was to die in their place. On the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, as the sun was setting, the lambs were to be publicly killed by "the whole assembly" and then subsequently eaten (Deuteronomy 16:7); none of the animal was to be left over on the following morning (Exodus 34:25). Although collectively, everyone was responsible for the death of the lambs, each family was to individually apply the blood of their lamb to the doorposts of their own home as a visible sign of their faith in the Lord (Exodus 12:13). At that moment, the innocent lamb became their substitute making it possible for the Lord's judgment to "pass over" them. Therefore, the Lord instituted Passover as "a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:42).
This final climactic plague dramatically set God’s people free from the bondage of Egypt.
The Passover Celebration
Passover is the first of the seven annual festivals celebrated by the Jewish people. It is considered to be Israel's foundational feast, upon which the other six feasts that follow are simply built upon.
Passover is also often referred to as the Feast of Unleavened Bread because only unleavened bread was eaten during the seven days immediately following Passover.
In Exodus 12:14 God commanded that Passover be observed as a memorial forever. He also declared that it was to be kept by a service (Exodus 12:25). This service was to incorporate the lamb, the matzah (unleavened bread), and bitter herbs, as well as raise questions in the minds of children so that the Exodus story could be rehearsed from generation to generation (Exodus 12:26-27).
God required three symbolic foods to be eaten that Passover night: the lamb, matzah (unleavened bread), and bitter herbs (called "maror" in Hebrew) (Exodus 12:8). The sacrifice was to be a young lamb, symbolizing innocence. It was to be roasted with fire depicting the judgment that would befall it instead of the Israelites’ own firstborn. Matzah was to be eaten representing the purity of the sacrifice since leaven, with its souring characteristic, was often a symbol of sin (I Corinthians 5:6-8). Additionally, bitter herbs were to be eaten as a reminder of the suffering of the lamb.
A somewhat traditionalized Passover service began to emerge several centuries before Jesus. The ritual Passover service was called the Seder from the Hebrew word meaning “order”. It prescribed the traditional order of the Scripture readings, prayers, symbolic foods, and hymns in the Passover service.
The relevance of Passover to Jesus/Yeshua
1. Five days before the lamb was to be sacrificed, it was chosen. Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem five days before He was killed as the Passover sacrifice for the sins of the people of Israel.
2. The day Jesus was crucified was the day of the Passover celebration and the day that the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. He was being crucified at 3:00 p.m., the same time the priest would blow the shophar (ram’s horn) the moment the lamb was sacrificed, and all the people would pause to contemplate the sacrifice for sons on behalf of the people of Israel. The sacrifice of the lamb of God was fulfilled at the hour that the symbolic animal sacrifice usually took place.
3. The festival of unleavened bread began Friday evening (at sunset). As part of the festival, the Jews would take some of the grain - the “first fruits” of their harvest - to the Temple to offer as a sacrifice. In so doing, they were offering God all they had and trusting Him to provide for the rest of the harvest. It was at this same point that Jesus was buried, planted in the ground. Paul refers to Jesus as the “first fruits” of those raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:23).
4. Christian symbolism in the Passover occurs early in the Seder (the Passover dinner). Three matzahs are put together (representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The middle matzah is broken, wrapped in a white cloth, and hidden, representing the death and burial of Jesus. The matzah itself is designed to represent Jesus, since it is striped and pierced, which was prophesized by Isaiah, David, and Zechariah. Following the Seder meal, the “buried” matzah is “resurrected”, which was foretold in the prophecies of David.
5. Jesus broke bread and drank wine with His disciples during a Passover seder. In this celebration, Jesus proclaimed that the meal represented Himself and that He was instituting a New Covenant, which was foretold by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. The celebration of this covenant has become the ordinance of communion in the Christian Church. At the end of the meal, Jesus took the unleavened bread, broke it, and said that it represented His body. Then He took the cup of wine, which would have been the third cup of the Seder - the cup of redemption. He said that it was the new covenant in His blood “poured out for you.”
This final climactic plague dramatically set God’s people free from the bondage of Egypt.
The Passover Celebration
Passover is the first of the seven annual festivals celebrated by the Jewish people. It is considered to be Israel's foundational feast, upon which the other six feasts that follow are simply built upon.
Passover is also often referred to as the Feast of Unleavened Bread because only unleavened bread was eaten during the seven days immediately following Passover.
In Exodus 12:14 God commanded that Passover be observed as a memorial forever. He also declared that it was to be kept by a service (Exodus 12:25). This service was to incorporate the lamb, the matzah (unleavened bread), and bitter herbs, as well as raise questions in the minds of children so that the Exodus story could be rehearsed from generation to generation (Exodus 12:26-27).
God required three symbolic foods to be eaten that Passover night: the lamb, matzah (unleavened bread), and bitter herbs (called "maror" in Hebrew) (Exodus 12:8). The sacrifice was to be a young lamb, symbolizing innocence. It was to be roasted with fire depicting the judgment that would befall it instead of the Israelites’ own firstborn. Matzah was to be eaten representing the purity of the sacrifice since leaven, with its souring characteristic, was often a symbol of sin (I Corinthians 5:6-8). Additionally, bitter herbs were to be eaten as a reminder of the suffering of the lamb.
A somewhat traditionalized Passover service began to emerge several centuries before Jesus. The ritual Passover service was called the Seder from the Hebrew word meaning “order”. It prescribed the traditional order of the Scripture readings, prayers, symbolic foods, and hymns in the Passover service.
The relevance of Passover to Jesus/Yeshua
1. Five days before the lamb was to be sacrificed, it was chosen. Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem five days before He was killed as the Passover sacrifice for the sins of the people of Israel.
2. The day Jesus was crucified was the day of the Passover celebration and the day that the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. He was being crucified at 3:00 p.m., the same time the priest would blow the shophar (ram’s horn) the moment the lamb was sacrificed, and all the people would pause to contemplate the sacrifice for sons on behalf of the people of Israel. The sacrifice of the lamb of God was fulfilled at the hour that the symbolic animal sacrifice usually took place.
3. The festival of unleavened bread began Friday evening (at sunset). As part of the festival, the Jews would take some of the grain - the “first fruits” of their harvest - to the Temple to offer as a sacrifice. In so doing, they were offering God all they had and trusting Him to provide for the rest of the harvest. It was at this same point that Jesus was buried, planted in the ground. Paul refers to Jesus as the “first fruits” of those raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:23).
4. Christian symbolism in the Passover occurs early in the Seder (the Passover dinner). Three matzahs are put together (representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The middle matzah is broken, wrapped in a white cloth, and hidden, representing the death and burial of Jesus. The matzah itself is designed to represent Jesus, since it is striped and pierced, which was prophesized by Isaiah, David, and Zechariah. Following the Seder meal, the “buried” matzah is “resurrected”, which was foretold in the prophecies of David.
5. Jesus broke bread and drank wine with His disciples during a Passover seder. In this celebration, Jesus proclaimed that the meal represented Himself and that He was instituting a New Covenant, which was foretold by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. The celebration of this covenant has become the ordinance of communion in the Christian Church. At the end of the meal, Jesus took the unleavened bread, broke it, and said that it represented His body. Then He took the cup of wine, which would have been the third cup of the Seder - the cup of redemption. He said that it was the new covenant in His blood “poured out for you.”
Now that you have a better understanding of the essence of Passover and its parallelism with Jesus – His life, death, and resurrection – don’t you think this is worth celebrating than Easter Sunday? I mean God Himself commanded that Passover should be observed as a memorial forever. Give it a try. I celebrated my first Seder last year and it was more memorable than all of my Easter Sunday celebrations put together.
Lisa Maki is the founder, publisher, and editor of God'z Gurlz. More about Lisa at ...
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