Passover - Celebrating the Life We Have in Christ

Holidays Are Awesome!

What are you doing for July 4th? We will have our grandkids and plan to go to the parade in Tomball. For me, July 4threquires a grill and, at least, hotdogs – the more delicious the meat the better! The evening is about fireworks. If you can’t get to the fireworks, an outdoor TV tuned to fireworks with the Boston Symphony or New York City’s celebration are good. It will be a busy day! Then, on to Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas…. we love holidays!

The Bible is Filled with Holidays Too

Every culture has their own celebrations. Not all the world celebrates the 4th, Thanksgiving, or even Christmas. Imagine that! In fact, celebrations (or typically ‘feasts’) in the Bible are completely different but they are important to understanding the Bible and they can make us appreciate Jesus even more!

Over the next few weeks, I want to look at 7 feasts found in the Bible to help us understand them and appreciate what they tell us about the goodness of God.

This chart gives us more information than we need but here are the feasts that we will look at and how they would show up in the Jewish calendar and ours.

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The feasts of Israel celebrate specific aspects of God’s saving work and reinforced His presence with His people.

Paschal Feasts

- Passover & The Feast of Unleavened Bread – Freedom, Ransom

- Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) -

Fall Feasts:

- Feast of Trumpets – Call to repentance

- Day of Atonement – Redemption

- Feast of Tabernacles – the fulfillment of the redemption from Israel

Post-Exilic Feasts

- Purim (Feast of Lots)

- Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication)

The Sabbath

I want to look this morning at the combined feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread with specific interest in what they tell us about Jesus.

Celebrating Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

What is the Passover?

Exodus 12:12–20 NIV

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment 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. “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do. “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

I have a short video that will explain what the celebration of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread would be like for a modern Jewish family.

Video: (5:33)

I find it interesting to see and hear the themes that come to the surface as this man and his family celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Our holidays all have meaning – Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, July 4th, and so on. All have significance.

This Jewish Rabbi gave several themes: liberation, humility, acceptance, and hope for the Messiah. Let’s dive briefly into each of these themes to see how these connect to Jesus!

Liberation (Freedom)

Imagine an entire nation that moves from one nation into another! That is what happened sometime near the 13th Century BC. The Hebrew nation left the bondage of Egypt and moved into the Promise of God to Abraham.

The Rabbi pointed out that in the dinner (Seder) of the Passover there were specific dishes that were bitter or salty that reminded them about their pain and sweat in slavery. Of course, the Bible talks about freedom in many contexts – freedom from Egyptian bondage, slavery, and spiritual freedom. Let’s look at 2 verses that focus on spiritual freedom:

2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Galatians 5:1 NIV

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Freedom was the intended purpose of the work of Christ. He could be crucified only once but his freedom continues as we continue to apply the blood of Christ to our lives and live as servants to Christ – obedient, repentant, loving.

Humility

Cindy’s grandmother, Mamaw, used to make a friendship cake that was amazing. The secret to it was a fermented starter that was packed with yeast. Your family probably had a similar recipe that called for a starter. To make bread in the ancient days, the Israelites would normally use a piece of fermented dough and add it to the fresh flour mixture.

The Bible uses leaven as a metaphor because it changes something entirely. Jesus compared the corrupt teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees to the effects of yeast.

Matthew 16:5–6 NIV

When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Jesus uses leaven as a lesson against allowing sin or error to creep into your mind/life. Paul does as well.

1 Corinthians 5:7–8 NIV

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.

Although there is nothing inherently bad about leaven (yeast) it is frequently used as a warning against the things that can infiltrate our minds and spirits. The Feast of Unleavened bread was a 7-day long elimination of corrupt things like pride that puff us up!

Acceptance

The idea that the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread highlighted kindness to strangers was a surprise to me. We do know that the Hebrews were not to forget that they should treat foreigners well.

Exodus 22:21 NIV

“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.

It may be that this is the connection referenced by the Rabbi. Regardless, it is interesting that as families celebrate the Passover/The Feast of Unleavened Bread that this is a strong theme. It doesn’t take much to translate this concept into the NT.

Ephesians 2:19–22 NIV

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

The fact that we are no longer foreigners and strangers points us to the Grace of God.

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.

The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. “What’s the rumpus about?” he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” After some discussion, the conferees had to agree.

The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eightfold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law—each offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional.

—Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing about Grace? (Zondervan, 1997)[1]

How do we ‘get in’? It’s grace! Now that is a thought that is worthy to consider during a holiday.

Hope for the Messiah

Do you remember the part when they opened the door? The Rabbi said that this is to remember that the Messiah is coming. Sadly, this Jewish man believes that the Messiah has not come.

To the Jew, Jesus does not make sense as the Messiah.

The cross is what separates the Christ of Christianity from every other Jesus. In Judaism there is no precedent for a Messiah who dies, much less as a criminal, as Jesus did. In Islam the story of Jesus’ death is rejected as an affront to Allah himself. Hindus can accept only a Jesus who passes into peaceful samadhi, a yogi who escapes the degradation of death.

There is, in short, no room in other religions for a Christ who experiences the full burden of mortal existence—and hence there is no reason to believe in him as the divine Son whom the Father resurrects from the dead.

That the image of a benign Jesus has universal appeal should come as no surprise. That most of the world cannot accept the Jesus of the cross should not surprise us either. Thus the idea that Jesus can serve as a bridge uniting the world’s religions is inviting but may be ultimately impossible.

—Kenneth L. Woodward, “The Other Jesus,” Newsweek (March 27, 2000[2]

As Christians, we know that the Messiah has come. He is Jesus Christ the Lord.

John 4:25–26 NIV

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Are You Celebrating Passover in Your Life?

It is hard to imagine celebrating Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread without seeing Jesus in it all.

- It is only through Jesus Christ that we have freedom from the slavery of sin and get to inherit the promises of God.

- It is only through Jesus that the problem of sinful pride is destroyed at the root.

- It is only through Jesus that we can experience the amazing Grace of God and we are granted acceptance into the body of Christ, forgiveness, and Heaven.

- It is only through Jesus who was the promised Messiah that we can have hope eternal. He has already walked through the door. In fact, He is the Door!

If we look, we will find Jesus

Jeremiah 29:11–14 NIV

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

[1]Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 120. [2]Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 121.