A common and I would
say majority view of Passover by
Christians and the Church is that of
being irrelevant. Views include:
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- Passover
is for the Jewish people
only.
- It
has been done away with,
in that it is part of
Torah (the Law) and
therefore is not
important or relevant to
believers.
- It
has been fulfilled by
Yeshua, therefore we are
no longer required to do
it.
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Interestingly, these
views are changing as we speak. Yet, they
are still a prevalent viewpoint, one of
which is not supported by Scripture. From
the beginning, Passover has always made a
provision for non-Jews to be part of
Passover, yet required circumcision for
males in order to partake in the Passover
lamb (sacrifice). This was significant
because in order to do so, one had to be
part of the Covenant that Adonai made
with Israel. Likewise, the New Covenant,
also made with Israel and the Jewish
people incorporates Passover as well.
Unlike, the first covenant that required
physical circumcision in order to partake
in it, circumcision of the New Covenant
is of the heart and also makes provision
for the non-Jew. We are not partaking in
a specific lamb sacrificed at the Temple
but recognizing Yeshua as the Passover
Lamb that ratifies the New Covenant and
its promises, building upon the promises
of the covenant made at Sinai.
There
is a heightened and growing interest in
Passover among many Christians. Even
though the tide is turning, there is
still a long way to go.
Believers
are beginning to realize who Yeshua truly
is. He is not the Easter ham, Easter lamb
or Easter bunny. Rather, He is the
Passover Lamb who takes away the sin of
the world, as identified by Yochanan in
his Gospel (1:29). As such, there is a
stark reality regarding Passover that can
no longer be hid by a coverup that goes
back 1,700 years, when church leaders
instituted Easter as the "official
representation" of Yeshua's
resurrection, completely ignoring
Scripture and submitting to
anti-Semitism.
Scripture
should in no way be ignored, considering
Passover is identified 16 times in the
Gospels while Easter cannot be found at
all. Yet it is Easter that is identified
as the time in which Christians recognize
Yeshua's resurrection and not Passover.
However, it is the Passover season, which
includes the Feast of Unleavened Bread
and First Fruits, conveys in its totality
Yeshua's death, burial and resurrection.
Unfortunately, it was man who changed the
recognition of this Feast of Adonai and
replaced it with the adaptation of
Easter. I have written extensively about
this in an article "Passover
- Past, Present and Forever".
Unfortunately,
this significant error continues to be
taught to the Church, with many still
accepting "as gospel" what they
are told, yet disregarding Scripture.
What
many Christians don't realize is just how
important Passover is, not just to the
Jewish people but to them as well. If
Passover were only about the Exodus of
the Jewish people from Egypt, then there
would be no reason for them to celebrate
it. However, since Yeshua has been
identified as the Lamb of God and was put
to death on Passover, recognizing this
significance is more important and more
relevant than any meaning attached to
Easter. In order for Yeshua to offer
Himself as the Lamb of God, if there was
no Exodus as a result of the first
Passover recorded in the book of Sh'mot
(Exodus), there would be no redemption.
For this reason the First Passover is
extremely relevant for all Christians.
The foundation of your faith and
salvation are found nowhere else.
As
such the Passover story is extremely
important and should be told every year
and to everyone Jewish and non-Jewish
believer in Yeshua because it is a
reminder of what Yeshua has done for us.
In sharing this with Christians
throughout the years, a strikingly
profound and powerful thing has happened,
that being a deeper devotion and
relationship of believers as a result of
a real and consistent narrative of the
Scriptures that diminishes any and all
contradictions.
"Your boasting
is not good. Don't you know the saying,
"It takes only a little hametz to
leaven a whole batch of dough?" Get
rid of the old hametz, so that you can be
a new batch of dough, because in reality
you are unleavened. For our Pesach lamb,
the Messiah, has been sacrificed. So let
us celebrate the Seder not with leftover
hametz, the hametz of wickedness and
evil, but with the matzah of purity and
truth." 1
Corinthians 5:6 - 8
I
question the common assumption that
Sha'ul's Passover language used here is
entirely figurative. I find it hard to
believe that Sha'ul identifying Yeshua
here as the Passover Lamb and it not
referring to Passover is hard to believe.
Sha'ul's writing style was very direct
and intentional. Therefore, I see no
compelling reason in the context to
excise anything other than the plain
sense (p'shat) from the phrase,"Let
us celebrate the Seder."
("Therefore, let us keep this
Feast" KJV). Reference to this verse
in today's climate conveys an allegorical
perspective rather than one that is a
direct instruction conveyed to Corinthian
believers. Instead, it seems that the
early believers, Gentiles included,
observed the Jewish feast of Passover
(Pesach). As we will see, their service
combined traditional Jewish Passover
symbolism with new symbolism relating to
Yeshua the Messiah's central role in
Jewish and world history. Evidently the
Corinthian congregation observed Passover
without supposing that, as many of
today's Christians might think, they were
"going back under the Law."
This mindset "of going back under
the law" would arise later.
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| For our Passover
Seder, we have created our own Messianic
Passover Haggadah (telling). The purpose
for creating our own Haggadah was that we
were not satisfied with the content,
presentation or selection of other
Haggadahs. We felt they did not flow well
or were fully complete in their
presentation of the Passover story. Our
challenge was to find a Messianic
Passover Haggadah that had what we were
looking for, including a comprehensive
representation of Yeshua. Unfortunately,
each one we reviewed seemed to be missing
something. The result
of our effort is a compilation of the
best ideas found in other Haggadahs while
including aspects that are important to
the Passover story and Yeshua our
Messiah, but were not always found in
other Haggadahs.
Our
Haggadah is Scripture intensive, using
the Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern
as our source to tell the Passover story.
In our view, who better to tell Adonai's
story than Adonai Himself, while in His
Own Words.
Within
the Passover season is Ha Bikkurim (First
Fruits) when another important moment
occurs - the counting of the Omer for
seven Shabbats (49 days), ultimately
reaching our destination on the 50th day,
Shavuot (Feast of Pentecost). For this
dynamic time we have composed another
document providing you with more
information. A time that tracks the first
40 days of Yeshua's resurrection. - Counting of
the Omer
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