It has been a long time since I last posted on my blog, but what better time than this famous weekend. Jews around the world celebrated the Passover this week while Christians remembered Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified. What do these holidays (“holy days”) have in common?
Over three thousand years ago, the Israelites were living in Egypt and had been enslaved by the Egyptians. God raised up a man named Moses to deliver them and after a series of plagues, the Israelites were on the brink of this deliverance. At this time, God instituted the Passover as a way to protect them from the plague of the firstborn that was about to take place. Each family was required to take a young lamb on the tenth day of the first month and take care of it until the fourteenth day of the month. They were to kill the lambs at twilight and take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs (Exodus 12:7). Then God said, “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12-13)
In essence, God was delivering a people from slavery in an oppressive idolatrous nation and taking them to the Promised Land. Verse 12 said that God brought judgment on all the gods of Egypt, the last god being Pharaoh himself. By acknowledging God as their deliverer and following the Passover instructions, the Israelites were protected from the final plague and ultimately delivered to freedom and a journey to the Promised Land.
In John 1:29, John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, an unusual title for a new prophet coming on the scene. That is, unless you understand the Passover. You see, Jesus was chosen by the Jews on the tenth day of the first month to be their king (Palm Sunday). However, a mere four days later, the people turned on Him and had Him crucified because He wasn’t going to be the type of delivering king they wanted and besides, he was messing up their religion. Jesus died at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month at the same time many Passover lambs were being killed throughout Jerusalem.
Zola Levitt, a Jewish convert to Christianity puts it this way: Back in Egypt the Jew marked his house with the blood of the lamb. Today the Christian marks his house — his body, “the house of the spirit” — with the blood of Christ. The Angel of Death will pass over each Christian as surely as he passed over each Israelite in Egypt. We are already living our eternal life. (Levitt, Zola (2012-11-14). The Seven Feasts of Israel. Zola Levitt Ministries.)
So, this Easter, have you decided in your mind and heart who Jesus is? Was he a lying, lunatic deserving crucifixion for blaspheming that he was the Son of God? Or was he our Passover lamb, one who would cover our sin with his blood and lead us to the freedom of a Promised Land?
