The Passover

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What is The Passover?

When we see this video clip, we rightfully become filled with pride to be an American. Maybe even a little choked-up. This is the way our Jewish friends feel at Passover.

We live in a free country – the United States of America. We love this country and would give our lives to protect what it stands for…Freedom.

But truly, as we live today and fight our wars to protect ourselves and even those of other nations from tyranny, I wonder if we really know what it means to not have Freedom. The slaves who were brought to this country, and other countries as well, recognized what freedom really meant. The Fathers of this Nation went to war with the British because they knew the true meaning of freedom. The Israelites in Egypt cried out to their God because they wanted to be free.

This year, we will celebrate our independence from the British Empire on the Fourth of July. The Jewish people will celebrate their independence from Egypt on Passover. In essence, the Passover is the Jewish Nation’s Independence Day.

Every American knows the names of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. We know about the Boston Tea Party, “Give me Liberty or give me death”, and One if by land and two if by sea. Every Jewish person knows the names of Moses and Aaron. They know about the Nile turning to blood, “Let my people go”, and The death of the Firstborn.

It’s important for us as Christians to truly understand the Jewish captivity and subsequent freedom because, as much as it is a part of Jewish history, it by definition becomes a part of Christian history.

The history of the Passover and the Tenth Plague

Let’s look at the Tenth Plague – the Death of the Firstborn in Exodus 11:4-7 and Ex 12:12-13. Here we see what the promise of God is to the Egyptians if they continue to keep the Israelites in slavery. God says that He will come down and bring death to the firstborn of every family. It wouldn’t matter if the family was the poorest, most insignificant family or the richest, most significant one. Even Pharaoh’s family would be included in this plague.

Only the believers in the true God would find salvation. The proof of their belief would be their actions. God gives instructions for all His people to follow. All who followed His instructions would be saved. Any who did not would suffer the penalty of the plague. Ex 12:3-11, 14, 22, 24-27.

The instructions were to take an unblemished lamb for the family. An unblemished lamb was one that had no faults, no imperfections – it was perfect. This lamb was to be one year old. This symbolized that the lamb was to have its life cut short but yet, that it lived long enough to show any imperfections and faults should it not be a perfect lamb. An interesting command is that those who might not have a perfect lamb would be taken in by those who did. It is a picture of salvation for those who cannot provide for themselves.

On the prescribed day, the day that God determined, they were to sacrifice the lamb in the twilight hours – not a bone was to be broken. Twilight hours would be between the ninth and twelfth hours, which we would understand to be between 3PM and 6PM. Also, notice that this sacrifice would be done at the hands of the entire community – all the Israelites would have a hand in the death of the lamb. Once the lamb was slain, the blood of the lamb was to cover the entrance to the protected home, placed on the doorposts and the lintel (the post above the doorway) using a hyssop branch. There are many who feel that the hyssop branch is a symbol of faith in this action and in using the hyssop to apply the blood to the doorposts, it is symbolic of the faith needed to obey God and be saved by Him.

Once the blood was applied, God would save those of that household. He would slay all of Egypt, but would pass over those whose doorposts were covered with the blood. It was the blood that would save them. It’s important to recognize here that it was not their righteousness that saved them, but the grace of God. It was God’s grace that gave them a way to be sealed so that they could be saved. It was God’s grace that allowed death to pass over them.

Then they were to roast the meat and eat it. It was not enough simply to sacrifice the lamb, but once the lamb was sacrificed, it was important that the people did something with it. God wanted them not only to see the lamb, but to take it in, to eat it. It was not enough to know that the lamb was sacrificed for them, but they had to partake of it. He also tells them that if they do not eat any part of the lamb, it would not keep until later – they would have to burn it in fire. So, if they did not eat their portion of the lamb when they had the chance, the opportunity for eating the lamb would end and they would not have another chance.

Additionally, God told them to eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The herbs would represent the bitter lives they had lived as slaves and the unleavened bread would be a reminder that on this night, God’s rescue of them from slavery would be so quick and abrupt that they would not even have time to wait for the bread to rise. Their deliverance from Egypt would be so sudden, that if they were not prepared, they would be left behind. This was reiterated by God’s command that they eat with their cloak tucked into their belt – allowing them to move fast – and sandals on their feet and staff in their hands.

God tells them that this is the Lord’s Passover and that it would be celebrated from that day on, for all generations to come.

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!

Jesus’ last supper

We see that this instruction from God continued even into Jesus’ day. We read in the New Testament about Jesus participating in the Passover celebration.

Mark 14:12, 16-17, 22-26

Here, we see Jesus actually participating in the Passover celebration. It turns out that this is not only the Passover that Jesus is eating, but it is also the last supper that he will eat on this Earth. We see that he enters Jerusalem for the feast, which was the custom for all Jewish people at that time. In fact, the sacrifice of the lamb could only be done wherever the Tabernacle or the Temple was. Before Solomon built the Temple, Moses was given instructions by God on how the Tabernacle should be built. Everywhere the Israelites went, they brought the Tabernacle with them. This is where the Shekinah Glory of God would reside during the trek through the desert. From that time until Solomon’s Temple, the sacrifices had to be done at the Tabernacle. After Solomon built his temple and God’s Glory went in to it along with the Ark of the Covenant and all the articles of the Tabernacle, the sacrifices had to be done at the temple.

And so, this is where Jesus has to go to celebrate the Passover: To Jerusalem, where the Temple was, because it is only at the Temple that the Jewish people are allowed to sacrifice to God. Hence, not only Jesus, but all the faithful, would be in Jerusalem at this time to celebrate the Passover.

We see that Jesus’ disciples ask him where they will celebrate the Passover and Jesus tells them how to find the place. They go and find everything just as Jesus says and they prepare the meal. When the evening came, Jesus arrives.

We see that Jesus and his disciples are doing what all faithful Jewish people are doing and have been doing for over a thousand years – keeping the ordinance of God to keep the Passover. Interestingly, it is during this most sacred of evenings, in the midst of keeping with the oldest sacrament on their faith, that Jesus actually gives to us a new ordinance – that of the Last Supper. Luke 22:19 tells us that Jesus told his disciples to do this in remembrance of him. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, tells us likewise that Jesus said to do this in remembrance of him. It is important to recognize that the Last Supper elements are also the elements of the Jewish Passover - the Cup is the Cup of Deliverence and the Bread is the Afikomen.

So today, millions of Christians take part in an ordinance from Jesus which comes directly from the Passover meal that God gave to the children of Israel.

What it is to the Jewish community today

Today, the Passover continues to be celebrated. There are some changes to the celebration – a couple of elements were added in the inter-testamental period – that’s the period between the Old and New Testaments. Also, some elements were necessarily changed or removed after the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, including the sacrifice of the perfect lamb. Today, a lamb shank-bone is placed on the Seder plate as a reminder of the lamb that was supposed to be sacrificed.

However, not only are there differences in the way the Passover is celebrated, there are also some differences in the way the Jewish people think of Passover today in comparison to how the Jewish people of biblical times thought of it. Rabbi Naftali Silberberg says this: “ Passover is the time of the year when we are supposed to focus on escaping from our personal Egypt . The Hebrew word for Egypt, " Mitzrayim ," means limitations. Our personal “ Mitzrayim ” consists of our negative constraints and limitations, our bad habits and tendencies. Just as in Egypt G-d cared that we should be free, so too today G-d wants all of us to "Pass over," and become free people. By overcoming our limitations, we are free to become the spiritual people we are destined and yearn to be.” And so, the Passover has lost some of the awe for what God has done and has become more about what we need to do.

However, regardless of how the Passover is celebrated today, it is more important that we recognize what God did thousands of years ago for his people in Egypt, to bring them out of bondage, to the promised land. Today, He continues to bring us out of bondage, the bondage of sin, and bring us to the promised land, eternal life. He does this through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus. If you paid enough attention through this lesson, you should have seen Christ in every aspect of the Passover story (if you didn’t, go back and read this again!) Next week, we will discuss (less obscurely), how Jesus is in The Passover.

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Last modified: March 26, 2006