Passover Tidbit No. 6

Jesus and Passover

To many Christians, the idea of Jesus and the Passover seems to go together like ... say ... a nice steak and a gallon of gasoline.  You know what I mean, to pick up a nice steak, you must travel to a grocery store, or a restaurant, typically by automobile. We know that any motorized vehicle requires fuel, thus the connection between steak and gasoline.  That is to say, many Christians don't immediately associate the idea of Jesus with Passover.

Most believers know in the back of their minds anyway, that Y’shua celebrated the Pesach Seder with His disciples immediately before His crucifixion.  Mark 14:25 (and the other Gospels as well) tell us Y’shua was celebrating the Seder but declined "to drink any more wine, (the 4th cup we later find out) until that day when He can drink it anew in the Kingdom of Elohiym" 

Just that phrase tells us a couple of things, Y'shua, always celebrated the Seder and all of the Feasts of YHVH.  No surprise, He is, after all from the House of Yehudah, and He came specifically to "fulfill the law and the commandments and not to destroy them " per Matthew 5 chapter 17, these are, after all, the Feasts of YHVH, Y’shua’s father, not the Feasts of the Yehudiym (Jews) or anyone else.  

It is equally expected that all of His disciples were also celebrating.  There was never the slightest question by the disciples whether or not the arrival of the Messiah would cancel, override, void, change, or cause an end, to any of the Feasts. 

The arrival of Y'shua Ha Mashiach, Jesus the Christ, in English, never created any question in the minds of the disciples, His followers, or even His enemies that He would in any way, put an end the commandments of YHVH, or supersede the Words of the TaNaKh. More than 200 times we read in the Second Testament we are to celebrate the Feasts.  In fact, Y’shua himself said several times "If you love me, you will keep (shaw-mar’ שמר guard protect) My commandments".  

Believers of “The Way” and the Yehudiym everywhere always celebrated the feasts well in to 300’s AD, and many to this day.  It was the persecution from the Roman Church in the mid 300's that made it difficult for some believers to celebrate the Feasts, or all believers would still celebrate it today, just as Y’shua did.

Y’shua's comments that He would not drink the last glass of wine (the cup of redemption) until the "Kingdom was restored" clearly indicate He expected His followers to continue to celebrate Feasts, at least until that time of Restoration, which if you are unsure, has not happened yet. Are you a follower of Y’shua of Nazareth? Will you be found at the Feast when He returns?

The Pesach is Y’shua; it is the picture of the coming Messiah, Y'shua, who would protect the faithful with His blood, that He would be the sacrificial Lamb, sacrificed to offer the faithful a new beginning by showing the way of redemption.  It was the blood sacrifice of the perfect spotless sacrificial lamb of Pesach that would set the captives free, and lead them to the Promised Land, if they would only hear and obey. 

1500 +/- years later, on the exact same day, it would be the sacrifice of another perfect spotless sacrificial lamb, Y’shua, which would set the captives free and led them to the Promised Land. And three days after His sacrifice, exactly on the Feast of First fruits, Y’shua arose from the grave fulfilling the rest of the Feast.  There is no daylight between Y’shua and the Pesach.

The Exodus of the people from Egypt is not the first picture in Scripture of the idea that the Messiah to come would shed His blood for our salvation and was certainly not the last time we would encounter that idea. That picture is frequent and unmistakable from B’ray-sheeth’ (Genesis) to The Revelation if you are looking for it.  And that picture is always the same,  YHVH, did not send Y’shua, The Son, to simply move in with us and slide some furniture around to clean up the place.  He sent Him that we may know there is a cost to our sin, to our unbelief, to our compromise.  He sent His Son not to move in with us, but that we may come to camp with Him khane כן in Hebrew.

This word khane or camp is rather unfortunately translated as grace in English. He did not just to join us and pal around, He did not bring a get out of jail free card, we are to leave what we know, what we are comfortable with, to follow after Him, be obedient to His Words, which of course are those of the Father, and those words include celebrating the Feasts of YHVH.  We are to literally join Him in His camp.

Perhaps that makes some Christians uncomfortable, we all comfortable knowing what we think we know, and we are not typically big on change.  TaNaKh and the Second Testament, are always teaching us to be more like Avraham, Moshe, Rivka, Ya’akov Yisrah’el, Yo-saf’, and yes Y’shua, along with many others in Scripture, all of whom in order to follow, first had to leave.  We must leave our worldly traditions, the traditions of men, and follow the true words of YHVH.  Will I miss the chocolate bunny ears?  Not so much. 

In today's world we see Christian church’s celebrating the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, usually on the wrong day and certainly in the wrong way.  Easter, complete with Easter egg hunts, chocolate bunnies with ears we love to break off, sunrise productions, huge banners, truckloads of flowers, tons of pomp and circumstance is nowhere instructed to keep in Scripture. This pagan celebration of fertility is an abomination to Him.  His Feasts are commanded for us to keep.  He has invited us to meet with Him at a specific time to see the rehearsal of future events.   

Churches today are celebrating in big huge ways His resurrection, not His sacrifice.  Y’shua did not call attention to His resurrection, but only to His sacrifice.  The Feast of First fruits the day He rose from the grave is little more than a minor feast, but the day He sacrificed all for us … now that is a day to remember and celebrate, and it was Nisan the 14th. It came with great meaning, with blood with fear and freedom.  It was a day like no other and YHVH specifically invited us to join Him in the remembrance of that day.  No bunnies needed. 

The modern church wants to celebrate His resurrection and move His sacrifice to a back page of history. The picture seems to be we want to share the rewards, but not the work.  It is like having Ice Cream for dinner, it’s great for a while, but offers no real nutrition. The Feasts of Unleavened Bread highlights in advance, the sacrifice that made the resurrection possible. Certainly, the resurrection is important, and it falls on the only day it really could, the Feast of First Fruits, three days after the sacrifice, but it is not what YHVH considered to be the main event.  

I wonder to myself if the hype over Easter, basically a pagan fertility celebration, thus the eggs and bunnies, is like those Christians expecting “God” to join them, to clean up their place a bit, that He will somehow bless and honor thier celebration because we use His name and tell His story.  Perhaps He will, He is after all, a good and merciful God, but I think we can do better, certainly for Him and for ourselves also. 

I think, or at least I hope, it is less an issue of salvation, as we know YHVH looks at the heart of His people not the actions so much, and this may be more an issue of blessing, but do we want to miss His blessing in this for the sake of man’s tradition? He offers His blessing to those who follow after Him, and He often removes His blessing from those not walking in His ways.  

The account of Stephen, in the Book of the Acts, we find Stephen speaking to the Pharisees by saying, more or less, "you are missing it".  Amen.  The action of the religious leadership of the day might have been a good faith attempt to follow YHVH, but it was filtered through man's wisdom.  The Book of the Acts reminds us that the religious leaders of the day were "gnashing their teeth" at Stephen for having the unmitigated gall and nerve to actually remind them what the Scriptures said. To any follower of YHVH who celebrate the Feasts according to YHVH’s wishes , that gnashing is a familiar sound. 

But Stephen, like Moshe, Avraham, Yo-saf’ and Y’shua had the correct response, "lay not this (sin) to their charge".  We are all on a walk, and will meet the Messiah on His terms, not ours.  The time will come when every true believer will sit at the Seder Table with Y’shua, and at that time we will all thankfully drink from that last cup of the Pesach, the cup of Redemption. I can't wait for that day to come, but until that day, I will celebrate the Pesach as Ay-lee-yaw’-hoo (Elijah), the Gentile offered a seat at the most important event in all of Human history.

As for me and my house we will celebrate on Nisan 14, just as Yahuah ask. 

Shalom,

CB