WHAT IS THE PASSOVER AND HOW DOES IT RELATE TO JESUS?
What is the Passover and How Does it Relate to Jesus?
Jesus was a Jewish man born some 2000 years ago. He died a brutal death on a Roman cross, and then was resurrected and reappeared to his followers. The first Christians (the Apostles) were also Jewish. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, they traveled the world telling everyone they encountered the Good News, that Jesus Christ saves sinners and is the way to reconcilement and peace with God. However, just because they became followers of Christ does not mean they stopped being Jewish. They still followed many of the laws and celebrated the Jewish Festivals (Acts 2:1, Acts 12:3). Jesus himself went to Jerusalem to celebrate these feasts and festivals (John 2:13, John 5:1, John 7:2 & 14). So why do we as Christians no longer celebrate the Jewish festivals the way the early church did? We will look at each of these holidays/festivals to see what they are, why they were established, and how they point to Jesus Christ. This article exams Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and Offering the Firstfruits.
The Passover
Passover is one of the more popular Jewish holidays. You are probably familiar with the story. It initiated in Exodus 12 where you can read the entire description of it. The Passover is a remembrance, once a year, of what God did to free the Israelites. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for some 400 years. Moses declared to Pharaoh time and time again, “Let my people go.” When Pharaoh did not free the Israelites, Moses (God) unleashed plague after plague. The final plague was the “Plague on the Firstborn” where God would go throughout Egypt and kill every firstborn son in Egypt. The Israelites would be protected if they were to take a year-old male lamb without defect and slaughter it. They were then to take some of its blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of their houses. This is what would happen according to Exodus 12:12-13:
“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” -Exodus 12:12-13
After this final plague, Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go. Thus, Passover is a reminder performed on the 14th day of the 1st month (Nisan) of the Jewish year, how God saved the Israelites not only from slavery in Egypt, but from the wrath of God’s judgement.
The Festival of Unleavened Bread
On the 15th day of the first month, the Festival of Unleavened Bread is prescribed. From the evening of the 14th day (sundown starts a new day on the Jewish calendar) until the evening of the 21st day of that month, the people of Israel were to eat bread made without yeast and to remove yeast from their houses. If anyone was found to eat bread containing yeast during that time, they were to be “cut off” from the community of Israel. This festival was a reminder of the day when God rescued his people from the grip of slavery from the Egyptians and is an annual reminder of their hasty departure and the affliction they suffered there. Because they had to leave suddenly once Pharaoh decided to free them, the Israelites did not have time to eat bread made with leaven/yeast because they didn’t have time for it to make the bread rise.
Offering the Firstfruits
Leviticus 23:9-11 says:
“The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain your harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.’” – Leviticus 23:9-11
God was going to take his people into an extremely fertile land. As part of acknowledging that, each spring, when the first harvest of grain was available, the people were to bring part of their initial crops (sheaf—bundle of grain) to the Temple so that the high priest could acknowledge and thank God for them. This was to be done on the Sunday during the week of Unleavened Bread (“on the day after the Sabbath”).
By giving God one’s firstfruits, Israel acknowledged that all good things come from God and that everything belongs to God. Giving the firstfruits was also a way of expressing trust in God’s provision; just as he provided the firstfruits, He would also provide the rest of the crops that were needed.
Jesus and the Passover
In order for the Israelites to be “Passed Over” by the Plague of the Firstborn, they had to sacrifice a lamb without blemish. A perfect sacrifice. However, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Hebrews 10:4 says. The offering of the unblemished sacrificial lamb was an example of the sinner’s faith in God, to remove their sins. The same way faith is used to save in the New Testament. The entire Jewish sacrificial system was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the Godman, who came to earth and lived a perfect, sinless life. John the Baptist called Jesus, ‘the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world’ in the Gospels. Peter in his 1st epistle says:
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” –1 Peter 1:18-19
Anyone that has been redeemed, both since Jesus or before, was redeemed by the blood of Jesus, the perfect, only sacrifice for sin.
Jesus also fulfilled the timing of the Passover. Jesus was the perfect, spotless, lamb and he was even crucified at Passover.
“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” –John 13:1
“It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.” –John 19:14-16
Jesus is the true Passover lamb.
Jesus and the Festival of Unleavened Bread
The Festival of Unleavened Bread is about more than just reminding the Israelites about their quick departure from Egypt. It is symbolic of sin being removed from a believer’s life and Christ taking up residence. Leaven or yeast many times in the Bible is synonymous with sin.
“Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”’ –Luke 12:1
In 1 Corinthians Chapter 5, Paul explains this relationship by noting an area of sexual sin that was occurring in the Corinthian church.
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t’ you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” –1 Corinthians 5:1-3, 6-8
The process of sanctification helps us remove sin in our lives and become more like Christ. We are to do this individually and within the church when we see unrepentant sin present.
Jesus and Offering the Firstfruits
Jesus gave His life as our Passover lamb on the 14th day of Nisan, which in the year Jesus died, was on a Friday. He rose from the dead on the 16th of Nisan, the Feast of Firstfruits. According to the Jewish calendar, any part of a day was a full day, thus, the 14th through the 16th was considered three days. What we celebrate as Easter or Resurrection Sunday, falls on the Offering of Firstfruits. This is what 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 says about Firstfruits.
“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” – 1 Corinthians 15:20-23
If there are firstfruits, then logically, there must be a second, a third and so on, and that is the meaning of Easter. One day, we mortal human beings, sinners, will all rise and receive Resurrected Bodies and be with the Lord in Heaven.
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” – 2 Corinthians 5:1
“There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. – 1 Corinthians 15:40
Conclusion
The Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread and the Offering the Firstfruits are so close in proximity that at times, the Jewish people speak of them as one holiday, simply, The Passover. They eat a Passover Lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs (such as horseradish with lettuce) to symbolize the bitterness of slavery. The “Last Supper” was actually the Passover meal. It is interesting to note, that Jesus, at the last supper with his disciples didn’t take the lamb and say ‘this is my body broken for you.’ Luke 22:19 says “And he (Jesus) took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’” Christ’s selection of the unleavened bread from the Passover meal to signify His broken body indicates the sinlessness of His sacrifice. Furthermore, this indicated that He, by His death on the cross, was to be the final Passover lamb. We now break bread and drink the cup to remember what Jesus did for us that day on the cross. His sacrifice was the last Passover and it can never be repeated. Jesus then rose the 3rd day, on the Offering of Firstfruits as a guarantee of things to come; that we, his followers, who put our faith in him, would have new heavenly bodies and be resurrected and be with God in Heaven.