Passover

I would say that most Christians don’t fully understand the full symbolism and the ramifications of the Passover meal that Jesus gave to his disciples. Most Christians understand it exclusively in the context of “The Lords’ Supper” or “Communion”, depending upon your denomination or tradition. Jesus breaks bread and pours a cup of wine, hands it out and tells us to do it for all time – and so we do. For most – that is where the relevance ends. Having a Pastor with Jewish origins has provided Covenant Fellowship with an interesting perspective.

Where does the Passover Come from?

The origins of this meal are recorded in Exodus 12:1-14

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,  2  “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.  3  Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father's; houses, a lamb for a household.  4  And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.  5  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,  6  and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

7  “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.  8  They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.  9  Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.  10  And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.  11  In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's

Passover.  12  For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.  13  The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. 14  “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast."

The Passover is the memorial meal that the Israelites kept every year to celebrate their freedom from the Egyptians as Moses would lead them out of their captivity into a life reliant exclusively upon Yahweh. And thus, the Jews have kept the Passover for 4000 – 5000 years. The oldest record we have of this is mention of a ‘Passover Letter’ from the 4th Century BC, detailing that even under the Persian empire, extant communities of Hebrews were celebrating the Passover. We have further evidence from the manuscript evidence of the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy among the Dead Sea scrolls as well as details that the Essene community would always celebrate the ‘Sedar’ mean on Wednesday – in

contrast to the more traditional Pharisaical tradition of basing the Passover upon the Lunar calendar. The Essene community that collected the Dead Sea scrolls were a kind of splinter faction of ultra- conservative Jews that had broken from the Pharisee and the (mostly Hellenized) Sadducee Jewish groups that are featured as opponents of Christ during his time on Earth. While there is some academic discourse among a minority, the general consensus among academia is that Jesus is celebrating a ‘Sedar’ meal with his disciples in the upper room.

A Short list of parallels

Jewish tradition involves quite a bit of ritualistic ‘washing’. Not only are these practices detailed as requirements in Deuteronomy (23:9-4, 23:11, 21:1-9), there is substantial archaeological evidence of baths (mikvot) were present in many Jewish households during the time of Jesus and before. The Passover begins by the family washing their hands in a bowl of clean water and drying with a towel. Jesus broke tradition by removing his clothes, wrapping himself in a towel and washing the feet of the disciples – an act that even Roman slaves were not required to perform. What a beautiful image of servant leadership does Jesus provide when he goes far and beyond the tradition of purification to start the meal – and giving the explanation in John 13 vs 14- 17:

14  If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.  15  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.  16  Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant [c]  is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  17  If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

The Cup of Plagues – During the Passover meal, the Hebrews drink four cups of wine to celebrate the four promises of God given in Exodus 6:6-7

The Cup of Sanctification – “I will bring you our from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”

The Cup of Judgement – “I will rid you out of their bondage.”

The Cup of Redemption – “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.”

The Cup of Praise – “I will take you to me for a people.”

During the Cup of Judgment, the Hebrews recognize that their freedom came with a horrible the deaths of thousands of Egyptians, their livestock and their children. During the Passover, the Hebrews would dip their fingertip into the wine and remove a drop for each of the plagues that God visited upon the people of Egypt and have it fall to the ground This reduction of wine shows that the cup is not ‘full of Joy’ – there was a cost. As the wine falls to the ground (or the plate) – it is red like blood, reminding us of the horrible cost of sin – death. When God sent the plagues – he was not only using them to show His power for Pharaoh – he was dismantling the Egyptian gods and their power.

Nile turned to Blood – Osiris was the god of the Nile river and the god of the underworld. To transform the Nile into blood meant that Osiris himself was ‘bleeding’ – a mortal wound from which he would not recover. Note that this plague is ‘mimicked’ by magicians in the biblical account.

Frogs – The frog-headed goddess was named “Heqet” (or Hecate for the Greeks). She was a fertility goddess that assisted Egyptian women with childbirth. To see swarms of this fertility goddess coming out of the Nile – and having to constantly be ‘stepping on’ the image of their goddess would have been unnerving, at least.

Lice – Geb was the god of the earth and it says that the lice ‘came from the sand’. He is the

personification of the ‘fertile earth’ and brought for crops from the ground. He was also the ‘father of snakes’ – a symbol that would not be lost on the Israelites.

Beasts or Flies – When the hoards of flies descended – it would have been the god Shu, the god of air and winds, that would have prevented them. He was also a god of light and peace and ‘held up the sky’– similar to the Greek ‘Atlas.

Cattle Disease – There are multiple gods and goddesses depicted as ‘cows’ – they were the most sacred animal of the Egyptians. Hathor was among the most important goddesses and was depicted as a cow. She was the consort of Horus and exemplified the Egyptian conception of femininity. She was said to give birth to the sun every morning. She, with Isis, is also the goddess of magic – at this point, the magicians are ‘powerless’ to replicate any of the miracles of Yahweh. Heset was another cow goddess. Apis, Mnevis, and Buchis are all competing ‘bull gods’. By attacking this creature specifically, Yahweh cast all of them down.

Boils – Sekhmet is the daughter of the sun god, Ra, and was responsible for warding off disease and healing the sick. She was also a goddess associated with celebration, as the Egyptians would drink copious amounts of alcohol to the point of intoxication to placate her wrath.

Hail – Nut was the goddess of the sky and ‘swallowed the sun’ at the end of every day, to give birth to it the next day. She is the mother that bore all the other gods. She would protect Ra, the sun god. To have death come from the heavens… well, even this protector goddess was powerless against the God of Moses.

Locusts (or swarms) – While the Bible often translates this as ‘locusts’ – it is more generically ‘swarms’. In this case, the god Khepri was the scarab-headed god is often a prized symbol of amulets of protection. Such idols have been found in the possession of Pharaohs all the way down to ancient graves of the common people. These were common for protection – and to have the symbol of protection become a symbol of death… Khepri also moved the sun across the sky every day, so the next plague had two meanings.

Darkness – Ra is the well-known god of the sun and the head of the pantheon. The Egyptians believed that he was involved in creation and was the head of the pantheon of gods. That Yahweh could overcome the greatest of their gods would have been devastating.

Death of the Firstborn – The Pharaoh himself was considered a god among the Egyptians -and, thus, so would his firstborn son. Horus is a falcon-headed god and was the son of Isis and Osiris, two of the most important deities. The Pharaoh was said to be a god because he was the manifestation of Horus, who governed all cosmic and terrestrial forces. Horus protected the Egyptians from all calamities. By this time – Horus was deemed powerless. With this final plague, the Angel of the Lord would pass through the streets of Egypt and kill not only the son of the Pharaoh – but the firstborn of all Egypt. Those who had the ‘Blood of the Unblemished Lamb’ on their door would have the Angel “Passover them” – and

they would be saved from destruction.

The Passover Lamb

The final plague required an activity by the Hebrews. They would take a young lamb – one without blemish or spot – and they would kill it and collect its blood. During Passover, they would eat the flesh of this lamb. Then, they took that blood and painted it on the doors of their homes. That way, when the Angel of Death would see the blood – the sacrificial blood of a lamb – he would spare that household from death. During that Passover Sedar in the upper room – the Lord once again breaks with the tradition of the original meal and says that HE is the Passover Lamb.

Jesus was ‘inspected for blemish’ in the temple by the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees for 7 days and was ‘found to be without blemish’. Matt 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46

John the Baptist gives Christ the title when he says – “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” Jesus place of birth, Bethlehem, is called the ‘house of bread’. During the time of Christ, this town was the primary place where they would ‘raise the lambs’ for the Passover. These shepherds – the same ones that would visit Jesus at his birth would bring their lambs into Jerusalem to sell them to various families to commemorate the Passover. Jesus says that we are to ‘take bread and break it – for it is his body’ – given to all of us.

When Jesus blood is shed on the cross – he was without spot and blemish. And when death comes for all of us – it looks up on the blood of the spotless lamb that was shed for each of us – and we are saved from death – forever.

Celebrating the Passover

Covenant Fellowship church has been celebrating a ‘Messianic’ Passover for the last 25 years as a church family and have developed our own ‘Haggadah’ – or the “Telling” of the Passover – to commemorate the symbolism in this Jewish tradition. Pastor Ray walks through every aspect of the Passover meal and where we can find Christ and the gospel in every aspect of this meal. A meal that the people of God kept for thousands of years to celebrate their freedom from the slavery of the world. Today, this church celebrates the Passover in memory of our salvation from our own sin – and the glorious sacrifice of Jesus that has given all of us life eternal.