Jewish Feasts: (1) Passover, Pesach

Leviticus 23:4–5 (RSV)
4 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is the Lord’s passover.


• Special thanks to Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum for his research and study on this topic
• Interesting Facts:
• The feast is given separately from the other six feasts (it appears in Exodus in the story of the plagues)
• It fits within what we might call the first holy season
• It is mentioned 49 times in OT and 29 times in NT (using the ESV)
• It is the most important festival in the entire Jewish calendar
• Two names:
• First name is pesach, a Hebrew name. The term comes from the Angel of Death passing-over the houses with the lamb's blood on the lintel and doorposts, and passing-through the Egyptian homes
• Second name, also Hebrew, is zman cheruteinu, meaning the season of our emancipation. This emphasizes the freedom from slavery


Exodus 12:1–13 (RSV)
1 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 they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; 4 and if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house 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 shall 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 in the evening. 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 them. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with 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: your loins girded, 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 smite all the first-born 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, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.


• Biblical practice
• Killing of the lamb
1. Lamb for the Passover meal
2. Lamb for the Passover sacrifice
• When did you get the lamb and when do you kill the lamb?
• You got the lamb of the 10th day of the first month, Nissan.
• You sacrifice the lamb on the evening of the 14th (which would be the evening of the 13th in our case, http://www.cgsf.org/dbeattie/calendar/?roman=33)
• Some believe the 10th to 14th was to make sure it was without spot or blemish
• On the following morning, the first day of passover, the special sacrificial lamb is killed on the altar by the priesthood
• One additional requirement -- no bones broken
Exodus 12:46 (RSV)
46 In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not carry forth any of the flesh outside the house; and you shall not break a bone of it.
• Eating of the Lamb -- this is the second major component of Passover
• The paschal meal included the eating three items
• The lamb
• The unleavened bread
• The bitter herbs
• The meal focuses on two key elements
• Unleavened bread
• Wine
• Jewish Observance
• Unleavened Bread -- requires 3 things to qualify for Passover
• It had to be unleavened. Leaven is a symbol for sin in the bible. The bread had to be completely free of yeast
• The bread has to be striped
• The bread has to be pierced (see light through it)
• During the Afikomen (special ceremony around the bread)
• Bag containing three compartments in the center of the table, one side is open
• A "loaf" of unleavened bread is placed in each compartment, separated by a single sheet
• During the ceremony, the middle piece is taken out and broken in two.
• Half is wrapped in a linen cloth and hidden for a time
• Later, it is brought out, broken and given to each person
• Wine -- 4 cups
• First cup is the cup of blessing or cup of thanksgiving
• Second cup is the cup of plagues, symbolizing the ten plagues upon Egypt
• Third cup is the cup of redemption symbolizing the physical redemption from Egypt by the shedding of the blood of the lamb
• Fourth cup is the cut of praise where Jewish people sing Psalms 113-118


Isaiah 52:13–15 (RSV)
13 Behold, my servant shall prosper,
he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high.
14 As many were astonished at him—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the sons of men—
15 so shall he startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they shall see,
and that which they have not heard they shall understand.


Isaiah 53:5 (RSV)
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.


Isaiah 53:7–9 (RSV)
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.


John 1:35–36 (RSV)
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples; 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”


1 Peter 1:18–19 (RSV)
18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.


Revelation 5:12–14 (RSV)
12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.


• Messianic significance
• What do the NT (and OT) teach about the final Passover lamb? Jesus, the Messiah
• John identifies him as the lamb
• Peter draws a picture of him as a lamb
• John is revealed in Revelation a lamb that was slain
• Paul identifies Jesus as  the entire Passover feast in 1 Cor 5:7
• When was the lamb set aside? 10th through 14th
• The triumphal entry was Jesus presenting himself as the lamb of God
• Four groups test him: Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and Herodians
• On the first night of the Passover, the evening before, the lamb is eaten and on the morning of the first day, there is the Passover sacrifice for the people (9 am)
• Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples
• He was crucified the next morning at 9am (he was nailed to the tree at the same moment the sacrifice was occurring at the temple)
• No bone was broken


Luke 22:19 (RSV)
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”


• This was probably at the end of the Afikomen ceremony, where the bread is brought out from "hiding" (the grave) and given to each person. Jesus identifies this bread as?
• His body
• He is the final lamb
• Jesus' body would also be wrapped in a linen cloth and would rise after three days
• This also clarifies:
John 6:51 (RSV)
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
• Eating is believing in Jesus Christ (it is done in his memory)


Luke 22:17–18 (RSV)
17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”


Luke 22:20 (RSV)
20 And likewise the cup after supper, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.


• So Luke identifies which cups in the meal here?
• First cup, thanksgiving
• Third cup, redemption
• Except, it is not physical redemption by the blood of the lamb but spiritual redemption by the blood of the Lamb of God


APPLICATION:
1. The manner in which Passover pictures Jesus and Jesus fulfills the prophecy are startling and should reaffirm our faith
2. There is no need for further sacrifices, Jesus is the final sacrifice (there are still Judaizers today who would argue for continued feasts)
3. The NT only has two biblical sacraments, communion and baptism. There are no festivals or feasts. One is singular and the other is regular. We need to take communion seriously and celebratory
1. I also like how Jesus says "as often as you …" instead of giving a set time
2. The NT is based on the heart not on rituals
4. We are going to celebrate a Jewish Seder meal near Easter, and go into a little more of the detail of a Seder