Spring is here, and with flowering plants comes, arguably, one of the most important and impactful of the major Biblical holy days: Passover. We find Passover in the book of Exodus. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, are enslaved by the Egyptians, kept in deplorable conditions and fearing for their lives and the lives of their children. They are worked to the bone and cry out to the Lord for deliverance. The Lord hears their cries and brings forth Moses to carry out that deliverance. Yahweh could have struck the Egyptians down, simply, easily, in one fell swoop, and been done. Instead, He enacts twelve plagues: blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn. Despite each plague, Pharaoh refuses to let God’s people go. Until the last, the death of the firstborn, when the angel of death passed over the homes of those with the blood of the lamb on their doors, sparing the Israelites but killing the Pharaoh’s own son.. Then, Pharaoh lets them leave…kind of. He does take his army out after the Israelites, but (spoiler alert) the Pharaoh and his armies drown in the Red Sea. And after all of this, the Lord says, “This will be a day for you to remember ( זכרון), and celebrate as a festival to Adonai; from generation to generation you are to celebrate it by a perpetual regulation” (Exodus 12:14). And thus, we are called to observe and remember this Passover day every year, and celebrate how the Lord passed over, sparing the lives of our people, and leading them out of slavery.
Fast forward to the day before Messiah Yeshua’s death. Yeshua sits down with his disciples for a Passover Seder, for the yearly remembering just like the Lord instructed. They pour wine, break bread, say the blessings and the Yeshua says to them: ‘זאת עשו לזכר
“…do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19
Now, we are tasked with two instructions for this day. Both to remember the Passover and how the Lord freed our people, and also to remember Yeshua, and how he…oh yeah, how he too saved us and our people. With this in mind, let’s look at some of the ways we can find and remember both Yeshua and the original Passover exodus while we go through our Passover Seder.
I think the most obvious nod to Yeshua is the Passover lamb itself. Back in Egypt, the Lord warned Moses and the people of what was going to happen, telling them to take a lamb, one without blemish or defect, and keep it in their homes for four days before slaughtering it and painting its blood on their door frames. When the angel of death saw the blood, they would pass over that home and spare the firstborn living inside. Years later, Yeshua himself, blameless and without defect, was slaughtered so that for those who choose to believe and accept the blood of that sacrifice, death will not be the end. This image of the Passover lamb is brought to mind with the shank bone on the seder plate. When we see that lamb bone we remember both lambs and how the Lord always provides a way for us to be spared from our own iniquities. “…Adonai laid on him the guilt of all of us. Though mistreated, he was submissive —he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to be slaughtered like a sheep silent before its shearers…” (Isaiah 53:6-7)
Another place we can find Yeshua in the Seder is with the Matzah, the unleavened bread. At the start of the feast, we take the top three pieces of matzah from the pile. We can look at these three pieces as the three facets of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We take the middle matzah, the son, and we break it, just like Yeshua was broken for our transgressions. We wrap that piece in a cloth-like Yeshua was wrapped in the shroud, and we hide it for the rest of the meal like Yeshua was hidden in a tomb for the length of the Passover holiday. We call this broken and hidden matzah, the afikomen. At the end of the meal, we find the afikomen, resurrect it from its tomb and its shroud, and we each take a bite so it is the last taste on our tongues at the end of the Passover seder. “Yeshua took a piece of matzah, made the b’rakhah (blessing), broke it, gave it to the talmidim (disciples), and said, “Take! Eat! This is my body!”” (Matthew 26:26)
There is another unconventional way in which matzah reminds us of the Messiah. It comes in that traditional boxed matzah I think a lot of us purchase as soon as we see it on store shelves. Each piece is large and square like a cracker, filled with holes and textured in stripes. Do you see where I am going with this? He was pierced for our transgressions…and by his stripes, we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
Lastly, the wine. During a typical seder, we are instructed to have many glasses of wine. But it only takes one to remind us of Yeshua. “Also he took a cup of wine, made the b’rakhah (blessing), and gave it to them, saying, “All of you, drink from it! For this is my blood, which ratifies the New Covenant, my blood shed on behalf of many, so that they may have their sins forgiven” (Matthew 26:27). With this cup, Yeshua entered into the agreement that his death, his blood, would be the final sin sacrifice required for forgiveness. So when you pour that cup, bring it to your lips, and taste, remember the Messiah, the Passover lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.
