This past weekend we celebrated Passover, or what some of us know as Easter, weekend. However, in Biblical times the Feast of Passover is comprised of three feasts consisting of Pesach (Passover), Unleavened Bread and First Fruits – the whole feast lasts seven days. There is some overlap in time between these three feast days during that week. You can read about this in Ex 12 and Lev 23. To remind us of the significant symbolism of these feasts, I share with you the following summary.
The feast of Passover
The first Passover was held the night before Israel as a nation was redeemed from Egypt. It was the night when all the firstborn of Egypt died. God told Moses and the people to put blood on the lintels of their doors and when the angel of death came that night, he would pass-over those houses where he saw the blood on the doorposts. However, he would enter those houses where there was no blood on the doorposts. They had to make a meal of lamb and unleavened bread and be ready to move out the next day. I can imagine that there might have been Israelites that did not believe and did not put the blood on their doorposts, it was a choice. They had to act in faith. They had to apply the blood. We know there were Egyptians that moved out of Egypt with the Hebrews - by then they must have believed. Faith is always a freewill choice.
We know that Jesus was our Passover lamb. In 1 Pet 1:18-19 He is described as the Passover lamb without blemish or spot. He was inspected and found to be innocent by Pontius Pilate, who declared Jesus' innocence and washed his hands as a sign of not being accountable for the death of an innocent man. Jesus was crucified at the exact hour that the Passover lambs were sacrificed in the temple. They never broke the bones of the lambs that were sacrificed, Jesus’ bones were not broken either – he was already dead when the soldiers came to do that. This happened in fulfilment of the prophesies we find in Ps34:20 and John 19:34. He fulfilled every aspect of this feast in every way.
Just like the blood of the Passover lamb caused the angel of death in Egypt to pass-over the houses of those who applied it to their doorposts, so does the blood of Jesus cause the angel of death to pass-over those who believe and apply the blood of Jesus to the doorposts of our hearts. When we celebrate Passover, we celebrate Jesus who took our sin upon Himself and made us free of the slavery of sin.
The feast of unleavened bread
Unleavened Bread starts the same day of Pesach but lasts seven days. With the first Passover the people had to eat unleavened bread with the Passover lamb. Partially because there was just no time to leaven the bread as this takes time and they had to be ready to move, so everything had to be done quickly, but also because it symbolized the fact that sin had to be purged from their midst. In this context leaven carries the symbolism of sin that permeates our whole life and therefore we need a redeemer.
The opposite is also true - in Math 13:33 Jesus likens the Kingdom of God to leaven: “He told them still another parable: The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.” In other words, the important thing we need to see here is that both the kingdom of darkness (sin) and His Kingdom of Light permeates everything and everyone. It ‘takes over’ the whole being of the person, spirit soul and body. This feast reminds us that Jesus was the unleavened bread (the sinless one) who purged us from sin and gave us a new beginning when He was resurrected - a life where our sin has been dealt with on the cross and we can receive the the Spirit of God who now wants to permeate our whole being with the Kingdom of God. Nothing of my old life in sin needs to go into the new life I have in Christ.
The feast of first fruits
This feast was initially a feast where Israel celebrated the first fruits of their harvest. Giving praise to God for His provision to them. This feast is celebrated on the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Paul says the following in his letter to the Corinthians:
1 Cor 15:17-24 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him”. Paul says that Christ is the First Fruits of those raised from the dead. Because Jesus was the first fruits of those that were raised in victory over death we can now rise with Him not only into a new life here on earth but also into an ultimate new life in heaven.
I think this should help us to understand more clearly why Jesus, in Luke 22, when He celebrated the last Passover with His disciples, taught them that the wine is symbolic of His blood and the bread symbolic of His body. He was the Passover lamb that made atonement for our sin, He was the unleavened bread - the sinless One who purges all sin from our life so that the Spirit and Kingdom of God can permeate us body, soul and spirit, and He was the first fruits of those raised in victory over death and sin. Because He rose in victory, we can raise with Him into a new life.
©2020 HG Venter "Celebrate to Remember" All rights reserved.
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