It was then that Mark and I decided to begin a deep study on how Scripture said they applied to us, as Christians. When speaking of the Feasts, the Lord said, "Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as an ordinance forever". It quickly became apparent that all of the seven feasts pointed not only to the historical experiences of the nation of Israel, but to those who called themselves "the children of Abraham". Since Abraham is the father of our faith, too, then these Feasts of the Lord must also have great significance for us.
As we approach the first of the Feasts, I would like to share a basic understanding of Passover and why it has such special meaning to both the Jewish and Christian faiths. In Leviticus 23, God commands Moses to tell the children of Israel, "The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts... to be proclaimed at their appointed times... and to be followed by all generations." Since we have been adopted and grafted into His chosen people, we are also the children of Israel. I am encouraged that so many Christians are now seeing the picture that these feasts show us of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and are agreeing to approach these sacred times as humble seekers of God's revelations.
We know that this approaching Passover "season" and the feasts of Pesach,
Unleavened Bread and First Fruits have all been incorporated into the
celebration of Passover, and reference to Passover means all three of these
feasts. In 2018, Passover will be celebrated from sundown Friday, March 30th, to sundown on Saturday, April 7th. If you are celebrating as a church or a small gathering, I pray that God will
recognize your desire to please Him in this effort and that He will bless
your assembly.
The Passover Seder meal commemorates the Israelite’s deliverance
from slavery in Egypt nearly 3500 years ago.. Jesus honored the Passover while on earth, and
I believe that it was at this Seder meal that He spoke the words in today's closing verse. But what significance does it have for us? First, we have to
understand the significance of what was served at this Seder and why
Jesus wanted to experience this meal with His disciples.
First, there must be served a perfect lamb, without blemish. It
must be sacrificed and served in remembrance of the blood of the lamb
that allowed them to leave Egypt. You may be aware that Egypt has
always symbolized bondage and slavery to sin. During this very Seder
meal, Jesus reveals that He is the Sacrificial Lamb that delivers us
from the bondage of sin.
The only type of bread eaten during the eight days of Passover was
unleavened bread or Matzah. It was made with flour and water only, no
leaven or yeast, in remembrance of their hasty departure from Egypt.
They had to have a form of sustenance that would last and not spoil.
They were specifically instructed that the bread was to be striped and
pierced during baking. This is a picture that should remind us that
Jesus was striped (scourged) and pierced for us; and that He is the
"living bread from Heaven."
Also, in the Jewish Seder, there is a ritual in which the matzah or
unleavened bread is broken, hidden, found, bought for a price, and then
eaten to end the meal. This is not only a picture of the Jewish
experience during their captivity in Egypt and their Exodus ... read the
actions again that are taken with the bread ... but Jesus is also
telling His disciples (and us), "I was broken, hidden, found, bought for
a price." When he breaks the unleavened bread in Luke 22:19, and says,
"“This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of
Me", He is saying "I did that for you, and I am the only sustenance you
need."
In this particular Passover Seder, Luke 22:20 reveals that "Likewise He also took the cup after supper (The Third Cup),
saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for
you." This cup of wine was to be drunk in remembrance of that third
part of the covenant God made with them when He brought them out of
Israel ... I will ransom you. Jesus is showing them (and us) that yes, God ransomed them from Egypt and the Pharaoh; but now He, Jesus, is the new covenant that ransoms. His blood ransoms us, and He says it right there in the Scripture!
So the Passover Seder, which had been observed for nearly a century
and a half, and religiously observed by Jesus, who was a Jew, is a
picture of the Lord's Supper that night in the upper room before His
crucifixion, burial, and resurrection a few days later. The celebration
of the Feast of First Fruits completes the picture.
The Lord instructed the Israelites on how to conduct the Feast of
First Fruits: the people offered the first ripe sheaf (their first fruit)
of barley to the Lord as an act of dedicating the harvest to Him. On
Passover, a marked sheaf of grain was bundled and left standing in the
field. On the next day, the first day of Unleavened Bread, the sheaf
was cut and prepared for the offering on the third day.
On this third day, which was the actual Feast day, the priest waved
the sheaf before the Lord. They then began counting 50 days until
Pentecost, which is the next feast to be celebrated.
It is easy to see the picture of Jesus in the Feast of First Fruits.
It is a picture of Jesus’s resurrection, which Christians celebrate as
Easter, (with all of its Constantine influences). His resurrection is
the first fruit of God’s redemption of mankind …. and we see a picture
of “things to come” … the harvest and promise of the future resurrection
of believers.
So we now have the historical significance of the Passover Seder.
We have the meaning behind Pesach and the Exodus; we know the
significance of the unleavened bread and the first fruits of the
harvest. We see the picture of what God did for the Israelites, and
what Christ has done for us, in the Seder Meal and what is eaten. And
we see the picture of His death and resurrection in that somber assembly
at the Last (Passover) Supper. And most importantly, I hope we see
that we are called to observe these Feasts by our Lord, in remembrance
of what He has done for those He calls His own, both Jewish and
Christian. Jesus may have instituted the Lord's Supper from rituals of
the Passover Seder, but neither negates the other. I believe that it
pleases the Lord for us to be obedient to His command to observe the
Feasts; to see that they point to Christ; and to worship His Son's
death, burial and resurrection as the fulfillment of the promises of
these Feasts.
In the spirit of praise and worship, I say "Pesach Same'ach (Happy Passover), and I hope you will be blessed by observing the first of the Lord's ordained Feasts!
Next post I will share how our Home Church celebrates this solemn, yet joyous occasion.
Luke 22:14-16 When Jesus arrived at the upper room, He took His place at the table along with all the apostles. Then He told them, “I have longed with passion and desire to eat this Passover lamb with you before I endure my sufferings. I promise you that the next time we eat this, we will be together in the banquet of God’s kingdom realm.”
While most of us Christians easily connect the Passover celebration with the work of
ReplyDeleteour Messiah, Who died and was resurrected for us during Passover, there are still other themes and concepts to be harvested from Passover. Passover celebration can
and does have a transformative effect for all who prepare and participate in it--we embrace the Passover, and in so doing, it embraces US. We gather family, relatives,
friends and strangers to share in the worship-at-the-table that Passover provides.
1. However, we should also remember that Passover not only foreshadows the great salvation wrought by Yeshua/Jesus our Paschal Lamb, it also reveals the heart of YAHWEH ELOHIM, Who clearly set His heart on delivering ALL the slaves of Egypt, the
"mixed multitude" who escaped bondage with the Hebrews. YAHWEH, the scriptures remind us, is a GOD OF JUSTICE--a direct contrast to the gods of nations, who are always
on the side of the upper classes. The God of the Hebrews Who declares "All souls are
mine" (Ezekiel 18:4)provided the liberation of THOUSANDS OF GENTILES through sending
the Ten Plagues to Egypt in judgement of a society built and maintained on the backs
of slaves. For Christians, the Exodus story reminds us never to accept human degradation as "business as usual." Humans created in the image of God are created to
worship the True and Living God in complete FREEDOM. The entire Exodus account
teaches us what God thinks about human oppression in all its forms, and its power to destroy human beings whom God loves. This challenges us to find ways to alleviate
human suffering and invite to our Passover tables those whom society tends to
throw away--the widow, the orphan, the homeless, the refugee family no one wants,
the lonely undocumented immigrant who sojourns among us, desperately fleeing war,
crushing poverty or criminal cartels.
2. The story of the "mixed multitude" (Exodus 12:38) reveals how God so loved all the
ethnic groups laboring in slavery--victims of oppression from Africa, Western
Asia, and the Mediterranean region, including Egyptians and Sudanese peoples--that
He provided a way of escape through the blood of lambs and goat kids. The Gentiles
who leave Egypt HAD TO BELIEVE THAT YAHWEH WOULD DELIVER THEM, and then had to ACT
UPON THAT BELIEF BY APPLYING THE BLOOD UPON THEIR HOUSES WHERE THEY LIVED. For many
of these slaves, this meant completing a ritual without their owners' permission.
Unlike the Hebrews, many Gentile slaves captured in war or sold by human traffickers
had no family or support system. Many of these slaves lived alone in lowly huts or
small buildings, and had to act on their own. Their persistence meant that they
had enough faith to believe that YAHWEH would deliver them, just as He would the Hebrews! They, too, escape Egypt when they trust that the Destroyer of the firstborn
would not touch them, if they were literally "under the blood of the Lamb."
For millions of believers who have no known Hebrew ancestry and who celebrate the
Passover, it is comforting to remember the fact that thousands of Gentiles were ALSO delivered from slavery, along with the Hebrews.
Therefore, Gentiles, as well as Jews, have the right to celebrate this Festival of
Freedom in remembrance of God's deliverance of their ancestors from Egyptian bondage.
Thank you so much for this educative thesis on Passover. I love getting other people's perspective and seeing the bigger picture. Thank you for sharing this with the readers! And Happy Passover!
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