This
is the time of the year when we remember our Savior Jesus Christ, how He was
crucified on the cross, was buried in a tomb, and three days later rose from
the dead! John the Baptist, his cousin, told everyone that Jesus was the LAMB
OF GOD who would take away the sins of the world! The story of this Lamb is
found all through the Old and New Testaments,[1] especially in the story of
the Passover, which is found in the book of Exodus, the 12th
chapter.
Way
back two thousand years after the world was created, God found a man with
faith, named Abraham, and promised him that He would bless him and make of him
a great nation, that through his descendants, especially One descendant, God
would bless the whole world.[2] God gave him sad news,
too, that this nation, called Israel, would be slaves in Egypt for over 400
years. But God promised that He would bring the Israelites out of Egypt, make
them a free people to show the world what God is like, and He would bring them
into the Promised Land![3]
The
problem was that the King of Egypt, Pharaoh, would not let the Israelites go.
God chose a Hebrew man, an Israelite, named Moses, to have a showdown with
Pharaoh, and He sent Moses and his brother Aaron to the palace to demand the
Hebrew slaves be set free. The Egyptian people worshiped lots of gods, such as
frogs, flies, and the Nile River, so God decided to prove that none of these
things were real gods, only He was God. He would send plagues on the land of
Egypt to force Pharaoh to release God’s chosen people. He turned the Nile River
to blood, and He sent frogs, flies, locusts, and other plagues[4] to destroy the land of
Egypt. Each time the Pharaoh would get Moses to pray to God to take these
terrible things away, but then he became stubborn again and refused to release his
slaves.
The
tenth plague would be the worst of all. Every first born son of the families of
Egypt would die, even the Pharaoh’s son! None of the Israelites’ sons would
die, but they had to obey God and kill a lamb for each household, take its
blood and smear it on the tops and sides of the doors to their houses. Then
they had to get inside the house and eat the roasted lamb with bitter herbs while
standing up, being ready to leave Egypt. The death angel would come through the
land of Egypt to kill all the first born sons. But he would PASS OVER the
houses that had blood on the doorposts. So the Israelites were saved! You could
hear the loud cries of the Egyptians all over the land. Pharaoh held his dead
son in his arms and told Moses to get out of his land! The Egyptians gave them
gold, silver, clothing, and expensive things and urged them to leave!
The
Israelites left the next morning. Their bread dough did not have time to rise,
but all of the people left. There were around two to three million people, and
Moses led them out. Later, the Pharaoh hardened his heart again and got his
army to chase after them. The Israelites were stopped at the Red Sea and
trapped. But God did a miracle when Moses prayed. He parted the Red Sea, dried
up the ground, and the Israelites walked across to the other side! When the
Egyptian army tried to follow them, God caused the Red Sea to flow back
together and drown all the soldiers and chariots! Moses’ sister, Miriam, led
the people in a victory song and dance![5]
After
40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Moses’ assistant, Joshua, led them
across the Jordan River into the Promised Land, and they prospered. As the
years went on the Israelites were called Jews, because most of them were from
the tribe of Judah. It had been about 1,500 years since they left Egypt, when
Jesus was born. He was the one that God promised Abraham would be a blessing to
the whole world. He was Jewish, so every year He celebrated the Feast of
Passover and remembered how God had led His people out of slavery in Egypt by
using an innocent lamb to die for each family, so they could smear its blood on
the doorposts of their houses and be saved from death. It must have startled
Jesus the day that John the Baptist saw Him and said, “Behold the Lamb of God
that takes away the sins of the world! (John 1:29, 36)”
Back
in the exodus from Egypt, God had instructed Moses to teach the Israelites that
they must celebrate what happened at the Passover every year. They must be
ready to tell the story to their children at the Jewish month of Nisan on the
14th day, how God took His chosen people out of slavery. God had
promised Abraham hundreds of years before that He would make his descendants a
great nation, and this was the day! They had to relive the history of that day
when they became a free nation. It was their Independence Day! So the Jews put
that day on their calendars, and they have been celebrating it every year for
almost 3,500 years!
Christians
have started celebrating the Passover also, realizing that the Passover Lamb is
our Jewish Savior. We want to remember that Jesus died on Passover around the
year 33 A.D., was buried that night, and the third day rose from the dead. Back
in Egypt, God had required the Jews to eat only unleavened bread for seven
days, beginning with Passover. Yeast, or leaven, represents sin, and the Jews
could not even have a crumb of bread in their houses, only the flat bread, more
like a cracker, which today is called “matzah.” God wanted His people to be
pure and holy, without sin. These seven days, Nisan 15-21, God called the Feast
of Unleavened Bread. The third day after Passover, on the 16th of
Nisan, they were commanded to celebrate the Feast of Firstfruits.[6] God was thinking ahead to
that day on the calendar, during “Passover week,” when Jesus would rise from
the dead!
So,
Christians see Jesus Christ in the Passover
week of three feasts, His death (Passover), burial (Unleavened Bread), and
resurrection (Firstfruits). During the Passover meal, called the Seder (a
Hebrew word, meaning “order”), Jesus can be seen in the LAMB – He was crucified
on the cross at the same time the
Passover lambs were being sacrificed at the Temple! He can be seen in the MATZAH
– He was buried, and his body could not decay in the grave, because He had
never sinned! He can be seen in the FIRSTFRUITS, because when the harvest of
wheat came in, the very first part of it was given to God at the Temple. Jesus
said He would be the FIRST to rise from the dead, but those who believe in Him
will also rise from the dead! He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). “But now Christ is risen
from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of
those who have fallen asleep (I Cor. 15:20).
Most
of the Jews don’t believe that Jesus is their Messiah, but the first church was
made up of Jews who did believe in Jesus. They could see at their Passover
Seder meal that the matzah represented Jesus. The holes in the matzah cracker
represent the holes in Jesus’ hands and feet made by the nails that held Him to
the cross! The brown stripes from cooking the cracker bread represent the
stripes on Jesus’ back made from the Roman soldier’s whip. And the matzah had
no yeast in it, just as Jesus had no sin.
During
thousands of years more things have been added to the Seder meal, but God only
required that the Israelites eat the roasted Lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter
herbs. Today horseradish is used for the bitter herbs, which may cause tears
when eaten. It is to remind the Jews of the pain of slavery. Remember that the
Last Supper Jesus had with His disciples the night he was arrested was really a
Passover meal. After supper he took a cup of wine and told them it symbolized His blood that He would shed on the
cross the next day so they could be forgiven of their sins. He took a piece of
matzah, broke it, and told them it represented His body that would be broken for them. This was the New Covenant
He was making with everyone who would believe in Him as their Lord and Savior.
An
interesting part of the meal was later added by the believers in Jesus. Today
there is a “matzah tash” (unity bag) on the table that has three compartments
holding three pieces of matzah. Christians can see that this represents the
Father, the SON, and the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of the Seder meal, the
host takes out the MIDDLE piece of matzah and breaks it in two pieces. The
Christian knows that represents the
broken body of God’s Son Jesus on the cross! (The Jewish people who don’t
believe in Jesus do that every year, but they don’t realize what it means!)
Then the host wraps one of the pieces in a white napkin, representing the
burial cloth in which Jesus’ dead body was wrapped. He asks the children to
close their eyes, and the host hides this wrapped matzah in the room. Near the
end of the Passover Seder the children are asked to go find the hidden matzah.
This means two things: Jesus’ body is hidden in the tomb, and also the Jews’
eyes are blinded, so their Messiah Jesus is hidden from them! When a child
finds the wrapped matzah and brings it back to the host, he receives a reward
of money. Then the host unwraps the matzah, which signifies two things: Jesus
rising from the dead and also Jesus coming back to earth the second time! To
make this even more exciting, the name of this piece of matzah is the AFIKOMEN.
It is the only Greek word in the Passover Seder, and it means THE COMING ONE!
One day the Jews’ eyes will be opened, and they will see that Jesus (his Hebrew
name is Yeshua) was and is their true Messiah! Maybe it will happen this year when
they are having their Passover meal!
Not
only does the Passover meal reveal Jesus as the Passover Lamb who takes away
the sins of the world, but the entire Exodus story is a picture of what Jesus,
our Lord and Savior, has done for all who believe in Him, both Jews and
Gentiles. Egypt represents the WORLD. The Pharaoh represents SATAN. Slavery
represents SIN. Moses represents JESUS/YESHUA. Killing the Passover Lamb
represents the crucifixion of Jesus. The angel of death passing over the houses
with blood on the doorposts represents SALVATION, being saved and washed in the
blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Crossing the Red Sea represents being BAPTIZED
into the body of Christ. Wandering in the wilderness represents GROWING AS A
CHRISTIAN and learning to trust God. Some believe that crossing the Jordan
River represents being BAPTIZED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. The Promised Land
represents SPIRIT-FILLED LIVING ON THE PROMISES OF GOD and also entering heaven.
Jesus delivers us from Satan, the
world, sin and death, washes us in His blood, baptizes us, and leads us by His
Spirit to our ultimate destination in heaven!
The
Pilgrims saw themselves as the Israelites, being led out of bondage and going
to America, their Promised Land, where they could worship God freely. They even
wanted to make Hebrew the national language, and they wanted to celebrate the
Feasts of the Lord (Leviticus 23). Some believe that our national Thanksgiving
holiday was first intended to be the Feast of Tabernacles like the one the Jews
were commanded to celebrate up to the present time.
To
sum up, it is a good thing for Christians to celebrate Passover at a Seder Meal
and to remember what our Jewish Savior and Lord has done for us as the Passover
Lamb. The Apostle Paul said “Christ our
Passover was sacrificed for us…. let us keep the feast” (I Cor. 5:7-8) It
is also good to remember the common heritage we have with the Jews, His natural
brothers and sisters. The first Church, the Apostles, and the Scriptures are
all Jewish! As Christians, we have
Jewish roots.
However,
the most important thing of all to remember from the Passover story is that the
blood of a perfect and innocent lamb on the doorposts of the houses saved the
Israelites, causing the angel of death to PASS OVER. Each of us must be sure
that the blood of Jesus, the Passover
Lamb, is on the doorposts of our HEARTS, so we will be saved from eternal
death. If you have not yet asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, do it now.
Pray, and ask Jesus to come into your heart, forgive your sins, and be the Lord
of your life. He will teach you how to live on His promises and lead you to the
Promised Land of heaven one day. From the moment you give your heart to Jesus,
you will have ETERNAL LIFE! God promised this in John 3:16.
[1]
God provided a lamb instead of Isaac for sacrifice (Gen. 22); He was like a
lamb led to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7); over 30 times in the New Testament is
the Lamb mentioned – John 19:36; Rev. 5:6-14; 7:17; 13:8; 14:1; 17:14.
[2]
Gen. 12: 1-3
[3]
Gen. 15: 13-21
[4] Ten
plagues: blood, frogs, flies, lice, cattle disease, boils, hail, locusts,
darkness, death of the firstborn (Ex. 8-11)
[5]
Ex. 14; 15: 1-21
[6]
Lev. 23:10-11. All seven annual feasts are described in Leviticus 23.
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