Passover: Do it in remembrance of Me

Remember the old thing we say at communion, "Do this in remembrance of Me"? When Jesus said that to his followers, what was Jesus doing? What are we supposed to do in remembrance of Jesus?

Matthew's gospel spells it out plainly:

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.' " So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

Here Jesus is celebrating Passover. When he says, "do this in remembrance of Me" a few verses later, he's talking about the Passover -- a Feast of the Lord which we're supposed to be celebrating, one that Jesus made complete by becoming the sacrifice Lamb. Passover is not only God-commanded and Jesus-approved®, it's also reinforced by Paul:

Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened lump. For even Messiah, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. So, let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without leaven, the bread of sincerity and truth.

This "leaven" talk is all Passover language: at Passover, we're to eat unleavened bread:

Additionally during Passover, we're to eat lamb meat, taken from a spotless lamb. It was done as a way of remembering the exodus from Egypt.

How does Jesus fit into all this? Leaven is a picture of sin, the lamb was spotless and had to be killed so that death would pass over Israel. Jesus, the sinless, spotless lamb of God, was killed. His blood covers us from death; by becoming an ultimate sacrifice for us, his death atoned for sin. Fulfilling Passover, in this light, was Jesus' real purpose.

If there is 1 Feast of the Lord that modern Christians should celebrate, it's Passover. Jesus himself celebrated it, his disciples celebrated it, Paul celebrated, Jesus commanded others to celebrate it, and Paul commanded others to celebrated it. We can and should do better than labeling it as "the Lord's Supper", pretending to celebrate it during a man-made ritual known as communion. [Ugh.] We can and should do better than that. We should celebrate Passover.

Getting back to the value of Passover and why Christians should celebrate it, I'll let First Fruits of Zion expound on that:

The value of Passover for believers in Messiah transcends mere ritual and symbolism. It speaks to us of the death and resurrection of the Master and the great salvation of human souls. It serves as a type and a shadow for the ultimate redemption that has been granted to us through Messiah. In every respect, it is a festival for believers.

Commentary:
Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. (Exodus 12:7)

Moses commanded the children of Israel to mark their homes with the blood of the Passover lambs. They were to dip hyssop into the blood and smear it on their door posts. Although Passover was thereafter celebrated annually, the Israelite homes were never again smeared with blood from the Passover lambs. The smearing with blood was a one-time ritual. Every Passover thereafter, the blood of the Passover lambs was splashed on the altar in the Tabernacle/Temple as a remembrance of the plague of the firstborn and the blood on the doorposts of Israelite homes in Egypt.

Try to imagine the Passover in the Temple on the day the Master died. While His precious body hung dying on the cross, a short distance outside the city walls pilgrims were flooding the Temple courts, leading their lambs to slaughter. While His blood stained the stones beneath the cross, the priesthood of Israel was splashing basin after basin of Passover blood against the stones of the Temple altar. While the women wept at the foot of the cross, the Levites in the Temple courts were chanting the songs of the Hallel: Psalms 113–119. Once slaughtered, the lambs in the Temple were hung from iron hooks in crucifixion poses for skinning, and once skinned, they were bound by the hooves, hand and foot as it were, to wooden poles, to be carried from the Temple on the backs of the worshippers. Meanwhile, the Master hung in crucifixion pose from iron nails, bound hand and foot to a wooden pole.

Believers have traditionally interpreted the Passover blood on the doorway as a symbol of Messiah’s blood. Consider a few of the parallels. Messiah is called our Passover Lamb. He died at Passover time. Just as the death came upon Egypt to claim the firstborns, so too all mankind is given over to death. Just as those under the protection of the Passover lamb’s blood markings were protected from death, so too those who take refuge under the blood of Messiah are protected from condemnation. They are given eternal life and will overcome death in the resurrection.

What is more, Messiah’s blood marked the soil of Jerusalem, the city in which the Holy Temple is located. According to Jewish tradition, Jerusalem and the Temple therein are called the “gateway to heaven.” It is as if Messiah’s blood was smeared upon the doorposts of heaven.

7 comments:

  1. To begin what do you mean by "Jesus-approved®"?

    At too Jesus meaning the passover, of course he did. Again it seems that it is very important to you that everyone celebrate as the Jews did in Jesus' time. What about Galaitans 5:1-6? The Law does not justify, it does not sanctify, it does not save. There are many other quotes I could list, but I like the fact that we are told that choosing to become circumcised will make Jesus mean nothing to us. I do not find warnings in the Bible that a lack of ritual will leave you in a poor state with God, but there are many warnings (old testament and new), that empty ritual will hurt your relationship with God.
    If God has put it on your heart to celebrate the passover then do so. I have several times in my life, but I am reluctant to making it a yearly event. Perhaps this is my own limitation, but I see from God's writtings that this is a limitation shared with a number of others.

    Pat O

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  2. Hi Patrick, thanks for stopping by and posting.

    "To begin what do you mean by "Jesus-approved®"?"

    Just having a little fun. :-) All the while saying, Passover is something Jesus approved in his own celebration of the festival, and in his telling his disciples to celebrate it.

    "Again it seems that it is very important to you that everyone celebrate as the Jews did in Jesus' time"

    What's important to me is doing as Jesus did. We don't have to celebrate 1st century style. :-)

    "What about Galaitans 5:1-6?"

    In good Jewish fashion, :-) let me answer with a question: what about Matthew 5:17-20? Then, read Galatians - by Avi Ben Mordechai (or listen to the audio book online free) for an answer.

    "The Law does not justify, it does not sanctify, it does not save."

    Yes, yes, and yes. I'd follow up by saying faith alone does not justify (James says faith w/o works is dead, Paul says without Abraham's physical sacrificing of Isaac, his faith was also useless). I'd also add that faith cannot tell us what's right and wrong -- that's what the Law is for, as Paul puts it.

    "I do not find warnings in the Bible that a lack of ritual will leave you in a poor state with God"

    We agree again. I'd say God's commandments are more than ritual. Further, there are warnings in the Bible that a lack of following God's commandments will leave you in a poor state.

    "but there are many warnings (old testament and new), that empty ritual will hurt your relationship with God."

    I heartily agree! That's why I'm trying to get away from dead, man-made rituals like communion, and into God-enacted commandments like Passover.

    "I have several times in my life, but I am reluctant to making it a yearly event."

    That's cool, let God lead you into his commandments. I've no problem with that.

    Take care, Patrick.

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  3. How is communion a man-made ritual?

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  4. It's a religious practice, borrowed from Catholic Mass, which is not commanded by God in Scripture. It is something created by men in place of something found in Scripture.

    That doesn't mean it's bad, it just means it's not a commandment from God. It's a tradition, much like Jews have a tradition of wearing yarmulkes (a tradition not found in Scripture), Muslims fast during Ramadan (another tradition not found in Scripture), and so on.

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  5. Mr. Judah please continue to do Yahweh God and Yahshua Messiah's work by the Holy Spirit working through you. Please use the Sacred Names Yahweh and Yahshua so that The gentiles will know the memorial Name that Yahweh intended His children to know. We are Messianics of Yahweh. When you have time visit our blog at http://messianicsofyahweh.blogspot.com/. Your article was good. Yahweh bless you.

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  6. Hi Monica

    I use the real names all the time amongst those who know it.

    Among Christian gentiles, I'll sometimes use the names they are familiar with.

    Thanks for the encouragement. I'll be subscribed to your blog feed, keep in touch.

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  7. I'm a gentile Christian exploring the Hebrew roots of the faith for the first time after spending some major time in the book of Ruth.

    I am so fascinated and drawn in, I just can't even stop, and my love for Israel grows by the minute...truly, there has been a piece of my faith that has been absolutely missing: the entire root system.

    I couldn't concur more about the Passover, and am reading and digesting as much as possible. would appreciate resource recommendations.

    am starting with Finto's Your People Shall Be My People and have come across the Statement of Repentence in the appendix...it brought me to tears...do you know it? thank you!

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