Passover Part 1

This is my son's first Passover. It is also my husband's first to lead a seder. As Messianic followers of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, we have been afforded a deep richness to the traditions which many secular, traditional, or Orthodox Jews do not see. But having one-upmanship over secular and religious Jews is not our goal in this important Feast of God. What is important is that the central message or theme, gets conveyed to all who are present.

The Passover was instituted by God when the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. God told them to pack their things, to take a lamb (1 per household), sacrifice it, and smear its blood on the doorposts and lintels of their homes. God said He was going to smite all the firstborns of Egypt. But if they had the blood on their doorposts, the angel of death would "pass over" them. They must have been thinking, what a strange thing to do to save our children and preserve our people. Nonetheless, they didit because God told them to do it. Because of their faith, even the faith of those Egyptians who housed Israleites and obeyed the command to place the blood of the lamb on their doorposts were saved, God spared them and preserved His people. He brought them into the Land of Israel, the Promised Land. They began by purging their homes of leaven (symbolic of sin). And they ate unleavened bread during the week leading up to the events of the sacrifice.

Now, thousands of years later, as believers in Jesus, we have been given the understanding of the big picture and how this first Passover was a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of all the world. The Lamb of God, as John the Immerser declared Him to be, had come to live among his people, became endeared to them (as the little lamb in Moses' day had become to those who obeyed), then gave Himself as the Sacrifice to end all sacrifices. The one which would not only cover, but take away the sins of the world, God's only provision to have a relationship with Him and live eternally in Heaven with Him. At the very first Passover, God told the Israelites to observe Passover throughout all their generations. He said to teach it to their childrena dn to their children's children. What a loving, wise God! He wanted to ensure that Jewish people down through time would have the opportunity to hear and observe these things so that they may have the opportunity to see their Sacrifice Lamb, Yeshua of Nazareth, in the traditions they practice every year and in the scritputres. They are to be without excuse.

Why did God command the purging of leaven prior to the sacrifice? True, they did not have time to let the yeast rise before the hasty preparations to flee Egypt. Could it be that an omniscient God knew that down through time, sin would be disregarded and even exalted as good? Yet His treatment of it was so severe. The head of the house, the husband, was responsible for the purging out of sin in his household. This is a far cry from how husbands in the Body of Messiah today treat sin. The scriptures say we are to hate sin. We are to love righteousness. Say that in the public arena today, or even in church or synagogue and you risk harm to career, reputation, even your very physical safety. Yet God said to get rid of it. John the Immerser came before Messiah and told the people to purge their lives of sin as well. He said "repent!" (turn around!) for the Kingdom of God was near. Then he announced the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. That Lamb was Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth. Approximately three and a half years later, that Lamb was sacrificed. Well after the people of Israel had grown fond of Him (just as the Israelites in Egypt had gotten well-acquainted with their Passover lamb.) Yeshua said that His blood would be poured out for the forgiveness of sin. In Jerusalem on Passover in the first year A.D. (or if you prefer, in the common era), Yeshua was beaten and then hung on a cross, a Roman execution stake. A horrible death. We get the word excruciating from the word crucifixion, but the way. At the same time Jesus was dying for the sins fo mankind, totally separated from the Father, the High Priest in the Temple- God's authority figure on earth, declared the people of Israel to be clean before God. Their sins were washed away.

There are traditions for Passover which have been passed down through time which even the rabbis do not know where they originated. Yet they are done without question. Such is the tradition to take the middle matzah (piece of unleavened bread) and break it, hiding one piece until later during the dinner when the children are released to search for the missing matzah, the winner earning herself a prize! This is interesting because Yeshua Himself said He would be in the ground three days. He was then resurrected. And He also said if any man is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, he must become as a little child. The prize? Eternal life with the Father in Heaven, never to be separated again. Not to mention the abundant life Jesus promises here on earth.