How the Passover Reveals Jesus Christ
by Rich
Deem

Introduction

The festival of the Passover has been celebrated by Jews for thousands of
years. It is the retelling of the great story of how God redeemed the Jewish
nation from enslavement in Egypt.1 The
celebration itself was given to the Jews while they were still in Egypt.2 The
original celebration centered around the Passover lamb, which was sacrificed and
its blood put over the doorposts as a sign of faith, so that the Lord passed
over the houses of the Jews during the last plague poured out on the Egyptians -
the killing of every firstborn.3 To
a large degree, the Passover lamb has been eliminated from the Passover festival
(with the only remnant being the roasted lamb shank bone).4 The
New Testament says that Jesus is our sacrificial Lamb.5 The
Passover lamb was to be a "male without defect,"6
which is the same description given to Jesus.7 In
addition, when the lamb was roasted and eaten, none of its bones were to be
broken.8
This fact was also prophesized for the Messiah, whose bones were not to be
broken.9 It
was customary during crucifixion to break the leg bones of the person after a
few hours in order to hasten their death. The only way a person could breathe
when hanging on a cross was to push up with his legs, which was very exhausting.
By breaking the legs, death followed soon by asphyxiation. However, in the case
of Jesus, they broke the legs of the other two men, but did not break His, since
He was already dead.10

Passover symbolism

Much of the symbolism of Jesus' last Passover week is lost to us because we
are unaware of the customs of the time. For example, Jesus came into the city of
Jerusalem five days before the lamb was killed in the temple as the Passover
sacrifice for the sins of the people of Israel. Five days before the lamb was to
be sacrificed, it was chosen. Therefore, Jesus entered Jerusalem on lamb
selection day as the lamb of God.11
The people did not understand the significance of this, since they greeted Him
with palm branches12
and hailed Him as King,13
shouting "Hosanna,"14
which means "save us." However, they were not looking for a spiritual Savior,
but a political savior. Palm branches were a symbol of freedom and defiance,
since Simon Maccabeus had entered Jerusalem with that symbolism.15
Jesus' reaction was to weep,16
since He realized that they did not understand the Messiah's purpose in
coming.

Passover sacrifice

Good Friday was the day of the Passover celebration and the day that the
Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. For the previous 1,200 years, the priest
would blow the shophar (ram's horn) at 3:00 p.m. - the moment the lamb was
sacrificed, and all the people would pause to contemplate the the sacrifice for
sins on behalf of the people of Israel. On Good Friday at 3:00,17
when Jesus was being crucified, He said, "It is finished"18 -
at the moment that the Passover lamb was sacrificed and the shophar was blown from the Temple. The sacrifice of the
lamb of God was fulfilled at the hour that the symbolic animal sacrifice usually
took place. At the same time, the veil of the Temple (a three-inch thick,
several story high cloth that demarked the Holy of Holies19)
tore from top to bottom20 -
representing a removal of the separation between God and man. Fifty days later,
on the anniversary of the giving of the law (Pentecost), God left the earthly
temple to inhabit those who call on the name of Jesus through His Holy
Spirit.21

Burial

The festival of unleavened bread began Friday evening (at sunset). As part of
the festival, the Jews would take some of the grain - the "first fruits" of
their harvest - to the Temple to offer as a sacrifice. In so doing, they were
offering God all they had and trusting Him to proved the rest of the harvest. It
was at this point that Jesus was buried - planted in the ground - as He said
right before His death.22
Paul refers to Jesus as the first fruits of those raised from the dead in 1
Corinthians.23 As
such, Jesus represents the fulfillment of God's promise to provide the rest of
the harvest - resurrection of those who follow the Messiah.

Resurrection

Christian symbolism in the Passover occurs early in the Seder (the
Passover dinner). Three matzahs are put together (representing the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit). The middle matzah is broken,24
wrapped in a white cloth, and hidden, representing the death and burial of
Jesus.25
The matzah itself is designed to represent Jesus, since it is striped and
pierced, which was prophesized by Isaiah, 26
David,27
and Zechariah.28
Following the Seder meal, the "buried" matzah is "resurrected," which was
foretold in the prophecies of David.29

Christian communion

It was during a Passover seder30
that Jesus proclaimed that the meal represented Himself and that He was
instituting the New Covenant, which was foretold by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
Isaiah.31
The celebration of this covenant has become the ordinance of communion in the
Christian Church. At the end of the meal, Jesus took the unleavened bread, broke
it, and said that it represented His body.32
Then He took the cup of wine, which would have been the third cup of the Seder -
the cup of redemption. He said that it was the new covenant in His blood "poured
out for you."33 It
is through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are
declared clean before God, allowing those of us who choose to accept the pardon,
to commune with Him - both now and forevermore through the eternal life He
offers.

Conclusion

If you are a Christian, I encourage you to celebrate the Passover with your
friends and neighbors. Our family has been doing this for the last six years and
have used the celebration as a way of sharing the gospel of Christ in a fun and
non-threatening manner. For more information on how you can celebrate your own
Passover Seder, see the related pages below.

<< back

Related Pages

A Messianic
Passover Seder

A
MESSIANIC PASSOVER HAGGADAH

References

The entire story can be read in the book of Exodus

See Exodus chapter 12.

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to
them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the
Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and
put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one
of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes
through the land to strike down the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the
top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will
not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. (Exodus
12:21-23)

The Passover lamb was still sacrificed in the first
century, as indicated in the New testament - Then came the day of Unleavened
Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. (Luke 22:7)

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch
without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7)
The next day John saw Jesus coming
toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world! (John 1:29)
When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the
Lamb of God!" (John 1:36)
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 forefathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter
1:18-19)
I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who
have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:14)
"And they
overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their
testimony, and they did not love their life even to death. (Revelation
12:11)

The animals you choose must be year-old males without
defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. (Exodus
12:5)

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 forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb
without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

"It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat
outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. (Exodus 12:46)

He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
(Psalms 34:20)

The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the
first man, and of the other man who was crucified with Him; but coming to
Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs;...
For these things came to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a
bone of Him shall be broken." (John 19:32, 33, 36)

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

On the next day the great multitude who had come to the
feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches
of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and began to cry out, "Hosanna!
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel."
(John 12:12-13)
And most of the multitude spread their garments in
the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees, and spreading them
in the road. (Matthew 21:8)

saying, "BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE
LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" (Luke 19:38)
And
the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed after were crying out,
saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF
THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21:9)

And the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed
after were crying out, saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO
COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew
21:9)
And those who went before, and those who followed after, were
crying out, "Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Blessed
is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!" (Mark
11:9-10)

Simon Maccabeus entered the Akra at Jerusalem after its
capture, “with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and with harps, and
cymbals, and with viols, and hymns, and songs: because there was destroyed a
great enemy out of Israel” (1 Maccabees 13:51) (see also 2 Maccabees
10:7).

And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it,
(Luke 19:41)

And about the ninth hour [3:00 p.m.] Jesus cried out with a
loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD,
WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?"... And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice,
and yielded up His spirit. (Matthew 27:46, 50) (see also Mark 15:34-37,
Luke 23:44-46)

When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said,
"It is finished!" And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit. (John
19:30)

And behind the second veil, there was a tabernacle which is
called the Holy of Holies, (Hebrews 9:3)

And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top
to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split, (Matthew
27:51)
And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
(Mark 15:38)
the sun being obscured; and the veil of the temple was
torn in two. (Luke 23:45)

Acts chapter 2.

And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the
Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of
wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it
dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:23-24)

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first
fruits of those who are asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

And when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, "Take,
eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance
of Me." (1 Corinthians 11:24)

And so they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen
wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. (John
19:40)

But he was pierced through for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and by his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has
encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. (Psalms
22:16)

"And I will pour out on the house of David and on the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that
they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for
Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like
the bitter weeping over a first-born. (Zechariah 12:10)

For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt
Thou allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay. (Psalms 16:10)
O
LORD, Thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol; Thou hast kept me alive, that I
should not go down to the pit. (Psalms 30:3)
But God will
redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; for He will receive me. Selah.
(Psalms 49:15)
I shall not die, but live, And tell of the
works of the LORD. (Psalms 118:17)

And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this
Passover with you before I suffer; (Luke 22:15)

"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which
they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is
the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,"
declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will
write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jeremiah
31:31-33)
"And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit
within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give
them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My
ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their
God. (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
"I am the LORD, I have called you in
righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will
appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, (Isaiah
42:6)

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and
broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my
body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying,
"Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured
out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matthew 26:26-28)

In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.
(Luke 22:20)

Last Modified March 11, 2005

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