This Passover the question was asked, “Why do ‘Torah observant’ Christians observe Passover if it was designed to be observed by Israel?” In other words, why do Christians remember God’s establishment of the nation Israel, if they don’t belong to Israel?
My answer to that question is simple. So let me state my answer and then give my reasons for it:
Israel is the source from which Jesus came into existence. According to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:19, the PRIMARY PURPOSE for the existence of Israel was to BRING GOD’S MESSIAH INTO EXISTENCE. So, memorializing the national existence of Israel from the point in time of their national inception, which affirms their present day existence, also memorializes the source and origin of Jesus. I will also briefly discuss the practical implications of this theory from Paul’s perspective.
We can thank ‘the Jews’ today for memorializing themselves, even amidst all the troubles they’ve encountered in the various nations where they have resided for the past 2 millennia. I say this because modern and post-modern Biblical ‘Christian’ scholarship has taken the position that there isn’t enough credible historical evidence to substantiate the existence of Jesus. These scholars constantly attack the reality of Jesus. They also consider him a myth in the minds of 1st century religious propaganda artists. But if you take the writings of the Apostle Paul seriously, then you can’t deny the JESUS-ISRAEL CONNECTION. And therefore, when you affirm the reality of Israel, you also affirm the reality of Jesus. It’s that simple. Remember: the PRIMARY PURPOSE for the existence of Israel was to bring Jesus into the world. So really, Israel’s existence hinges on Jesus’ existence, since without Jesus, Israel would have no purpose for existing!
I prove the above assertion in a previous blog when I talk about Paul’s point in Galatians 3. You can read that blog here.
So now that I’ve established my thesis, let me explain my reasoning on how that relates to our Passover observance. The first thing to note is, when you obey the OT commandment to observe the Passover, it’s impossible to completely fulfill that commandment. That is because Israel no longer exists as a theocracy. The Passover commandment was given to THEOCRATIC NATIONAL ISRAEL. We discussed this in a previous blog. So when we endeavor to obey God’s laws of Passover, we take the conscientious approach and obey all the commands that are possible for us to obey. In other words, we do the best that we possibly can. I think God is OK with that. So, we don’t worry about the Passover commands that we can’t obey.
Also note that the manner in which the Israelites obeyed the Passover at the beginning was very different from how 2nd Temple Israelites (Jesus, for example) observed it during 2nd Temple times. That change of methodology which Jesus practiced, resulting from historical developments in their cultural norms, shows us that God was OK with the adjustments. Jesus did it according to 2nd Temple man-made law instead of the original Mosaic law. The principle for us today is that there are different ways to APPLY the commandments, depending on your social or family customs. In other words, you and I are obeying all the commandments of Passover, but we may be doing so using a different methodology or procedure. In any case, we believe that in due time we will all be able to obey the Passover fully, one way or the other. And we will all be doing it according to our own social customs. That will happen when Jesus returns to establish God’s rule over mankind ‘with military might’ that no one will be able to argue with!
To put a finer point on it, note that when we Christians observe the Passover, we are remembering Israel incidentally. In other words, we are not focusing on Israel. Instead, just like the Bible says, we are REMEMBERING GOD’S DELIVERANCE of Israel from slavery in Egypt, those many years ago. So the focus is on GOD and HIS saving actions, not on the beginnings of the nation Israel. This principle also applies to Jesus coming into the world as God’s salvation for humanity, their deliverance from slavery to sin, the devil, etc. See the connection?
Another aspect of Passover is its relationship to the Mosaic COVENANT. I blogged about the covenants previously, showing the STRUCTURE of the covenant in one of those blogs. The beginning part of the covenant agreement has a PREAMBLE in which the initiator of the covenant recites the BLESSINGS he has previously granted to the group of people he is covenanting with. So with respect to Israel, God’s deliverance of them from Egypt is the substance of the Preamble to the Mosaic Covenant. Therefore, Passover also memorializes the Preamble to the Mosaic Covenant. That is, it’s a perpetual memorial of the BEGINNING STAGES of God bringing Israel into existence AS A NATION. I blogged about this too, noting the reasons God states for doing this. It is to FULFILL HIS PROMISE TO ABRAHAM. I’m capitalizing those words to stress them, since Abraham is a key person in all of this, even more so than Moses. His life and God’s initial PROMISES to him serve as the pattern of the covenant God is making with humanity through Jesus. Abraham is therefore foundational to Jesus’ history.
Having arrived at all of the above premises in our study, we then did a little research to see if the Bible directly associates Jesus with the Passover. In other words, we looked for DIRECT EVIDENCE in the NT that connects Jesus to the Passover. But before getting into that, let me draw an analogy between Israel and Jesus with respect to God and His Kingdom: Just like God delivered Israel from bondage through Moses His mediator, God also delivered ‘all who believe’ from ‘eternal condemnation’ through Jesus His mediator. And just like God brought Israel into Theocratic national existence through Moses His mediator, so too God began his eternal Theocratic Kingdom with humanity through Jesus His mediator. So Passover represents GOD’S KINGDOM, first with ISRAEL, and then beginning with Jesus, with THE ENTIRE WORLD. Back to the study…
We began our study by reading the Greek NT and then the Hebrew gospels. We read the verses in Matthew 26 that relate to ‘the Lord’s supper’:
20 Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples…26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” 30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 26, English translation of the GNT)
20 And when it was evening he sat by the table to eat with his twelve talmidim. 26 And when he sat to eat Yeshuah took the bread, and blessed it, and did a prayer of thanksgiving, and broke it and said, “Take and eat, for this is my body.” 27 And afterwards he took the cup, and did a prayer of thanksgiving, and gave it to them, and said, “Drink this – all of you, 28 for this is the blood of the new, which will be shed to atone your iniquities. 29 And I say to you faithfully that from now and onward, I will not drink of this [smoothness] of the vine until that day that I will drink it with you anew in the kingdom of my Father.” 30 And when they had said a thanksgiving – this is, that they did a prayer of thanksgiving – they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 26, English translation of the Hebrew gospels)
Before I get into the text, let me make one statement about a controversy that denies that ‘the last supper’ was Passover observance. Let’s allow the context to resolve this for us. Note the immediately preceding verses:
17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” 18 And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”‘” 19 The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. (Matthew 26:17-19, GNT)
17 And a former day of Pesach, the talmidim came and said to him, “In what place do you want that we prepare the Pesach?” 18 Then Yeshuah said, “Go unto the city, and that man whom you will find, say to him, ‘The rabbi say that his time is near, with you he wants to keep the Pesach – with his talmimdim.’” 19 So the talmidim did as Yeshuah commanded them, and prepared the Pesach. 20 And when it was evening he sat by the table to eat with his twelve talmidim. (Matthew 26:17-19, Hebrew Gospels)
See also Luke 22 and John 18 in confirmation. Anyway, back to the study…
The bold text in the above Matthew 26 passages is the focus of this study. Note the underlined words. When we read the word “new” in the Hebrew translation, we were immediately reminded of the Biblical phrases NEW COVENANT and NEW AND LIVING WAY. The phrase ‘new covenant’ comes from Jeremiah 31:31 (cf., Ezekiel 36), and ‘new and living way’ comes from Hebrews 10:20:
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jeremiah 31)
24 “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. 28 “You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36)
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10)
The thing about the underlined words in the above NT passages is, they are historically integral to the COVENANTS. So the implication when reading the word ‘new’ in the Hebrew gospels is, ‘new covenant’. Since we didn’t want to assume anything, we sought out direct evidence for that proposition. So we then looked up the individual words and phrases in the above verses. This is what we found:
- ‘New’ in Hebrews 10 is the Greek word πρόσφατος (prosphatos).
2. However, ‘new’ in Hebrews 10 is not directly associated with the words covenant because that word does not exist in the immediate context, although a main subject of the entire book of Hebrews is covenant.
3. ‘New’ in Matthew 26 is the Greek word καινός (kainos).
4. However, ‘new’ in Matthew 26 does not occur in association with the word covenant, because it is associated with another subject.
5. In the Hebrew gospel of Matthew the writer does not use any word for covenant.
6. Yet in Luke 22:20, the word ‘new’ (kainos) is directly associated with the word covenant.
7. So although it is obvious from the Greek gospel of Luke that ‘new’ is a reference to a covenant, the Hebrew must have been written with the assumption that the readers would understand that a covenant is being referred to when using the word ‘new’ in that verse.
8. And although the Matthew and Hebrews verses don’t associate ‘new’ with covenant, it does mention the word covenant, besides the fact that the Luke verse makes that association.
9. So the Luke verse is the only direct evidence we found so far that links the word ‘new’ with covenant.
10. Because Hebrews uses the word prosphatos (‘new’), which seems to be referring to a covenant ,we decided to look up that Greek word in the LXX and OT pseudepigrapha.
11. That word study didn’t reveal anything relevant to our study.
12. Also, we didn’t have time to do the OT Hebrew word study, so we can’t comment on that.
Therefore, based on the Luke evidence and Matthew’s use of the word covenant, we can assume Jesus is referring to a COVENANT with respect to his death (blood) in the Hebrew gospel of Matthew. Also, we can assume it’s a reference to the NEW COVENANT of Jeremiah 31:31.
Also of note is that both the Hebrew and Greek gospel of Matthew use the word KINGDOM. So we can be sure this concerns God’s kingdom. In fact, Jesus directly says so. The verses indicate that Jesus is declaring his prophetic knowledge of the future.
Since that pretty much exhausted our textual inquiries in the gospels, we then looked elsewhere in the NT for direct evidence associating Jesus with the Passover. We found 2 verses in the Apostle Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, chapters 5 & 11. We didn’t find any other direct evidence in the NT. Let’s first consider chapter 11:
23 For I received from the Lord [Jesus] that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. (1 Corinthians 11)
Note the bold words. I also underlined the key words. Note that Paul is clearly saying that Jesus was talking about a COVENANT (“new covenant in my blood”). But of special note is the change in MEMORIAL. The Passover has now become a memorial of JESUS’ ATONING DEATH instead of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery. That’s the key point in this entire discussion. Also note that Paul does not mention ISRAEL at all in this pivotal statement about ‘the Lord’s supper’ (Passover observance).
Now go back and read the Hebrew and Greek gospel of Matthew quotes above, and compare what you see in them with Paul’s statement. You are looking at 3 different viewpoints as expressed in 3 different languages (translated into English of course!). That’s 1) Hebrew for 2nd Temple Jews, 2) Greek for general 2nd Temple readers, and 3) a legal (Hebrew) scholar and powerful bureaucrat (Paul). Very interesting and also very informative!
Let me state my point plainly:
THE CHRISTIAN’S OBSERVANCE OF PASSOVER
IS AN ANNUAL PROCLAMATION OF JESUS’ ATONING DEATH
IN ANTICIPATION OF GOD’S FUTURE KINGDOM.
Whether or not anyone in the church or any unbelievers know about that is another question. But if we look at what Paul says in verse 10…
Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. (1Corinthians 11:10)
…we see that this may be a proclamation to THE ANGELS (spirit messengers). In any case, God’s people are commanded to observe the Passover (I blogged about this previously), so we had better do it, along with the right motives and focus: JESUS NOT ISRAEL (but don’t forget about Israel because God hasn’t!).
Finally, let’s take a quick look at 1 Corinthians 5:
1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife…6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
For our purposes, there are 2 points to be seen in that passage. Firstly, the obvious message Paul is sending is the JESUS-PASSOVER connection (‘Christ our Passover [lamb] has been sacrificed’). That constitutes the direct evidence we are looking for. He is making an analogy with a well-known and long-standing government operation: animal sacrifices in the temple, and on Passover in particular. We know that the Passover animal sacrifice was the thing that gave the Israelites immunity from the activities of the ‘angel of death’. In NT terms, Paul is reminding the Corinthians that JESUS IS THE KEY TO DELIVERANCE FROM GOD’S DESTRUCTIVE CONDEMNATION.
The second message in the above passage concerns the meaning of the phrases ‘celebrate the feast’, ‘leaven’ and ‘unleavened bread’. Those words are the key phrases related to the week-long observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That feast was historically so integral to the Passover observance, which immediately preceded it, that both events became merged into one event known as ‘Passover’. You can see this in the gospels, extra-Biblical literature and the rabbis. This second message is where the practical implications of Passover are discovered, according to Paul.
To get the message Paul is sending, we need to identify the three elements in Paul’s list in verse 8: 1) ‘old leaven’, 2) leaven of malice and wickedness, and 3) unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I believe that the old leaven is a reference to the man-made laws and law enforcement system that 2nd Temple Israel utilized to coerce people into obeying what they considered to be ‘God’s law’. In other words, ‘the old leaven’ was the man-made laws that the GOVERNMENT considered to be the MOSAIC LAW, which the GOVERNMENT had determined was GOD’S WILL FOR ISRAEL TO OBEY (in order to receive the Mosaic covenant BLESSINGS and escape the covenant CURSES). I discussed this in a previous blog.
The leaven of malice and wickedness is probably a reference to the wrongful uses of the law that the government bureaucracy and the rich people were foisting upon the powerless citizens of 2nd Temple society. These perpetrators also incorporated such abuses into their social institutions which became the power structures through which the rich and privileged (government bureaucrats) perpetrated their destructive agendas against their political enemies and hapless victims. We see this kind of thing in all governments today around the world, and especially in America as of late. This is an age-old problem that no one has figured out how to solve. It is one of the main reasons WHY we look forward to Jesus’ return–so he can fix that problem once and for all for all the good people who don’t participate in such INSTITUTIONAL wickedness! James repeatedly condemns this sort of thing this in his NT letter. Paul mentions it when using terms like ‘sordid gain’, ‘rich’, ‘love of money’, etc.
The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth is probably a reference to people using God’s law the way God intends it to be used. He gave His law so that people can take the initiative to learn it and to apply it to their own daily lives. Also, so they could jointly use it the same way to structure their social institutions so that they have the force of social pressure to motivate the not-so-conscientious and the weak-willed, emotion-led people to obey God’s law. Such social institutions also serve to PROTECT good people from becoming victims of society’s wicked schemers, exploiters of the masses, and the seditious who destroy national ‘law and order’. We see that evil today in America, right out in the open, at all levels of government and business, and especially the corporate/government partnerships that are plundering the life out of the American working-class people.
Incidentally, the main point of the above passage is not the Jesus-Passover connection. Instead, it is Paul commanding the covenant community believers in Jesus to quit tolerating and bragging about sexual sin within the community. Such acts condone sin instead of eliminating it, which is a reversal of the purpose of God’s covenant communities. Remember that God never tolerates willful sin, and neither should His people.
An important point I want to emphasize about this is that Paul is addressing THE COMMUNITY of covenant believers regarding their relationships with each other and with God. That’s the sum total of sinful activities. In other words, when you sin, it may be against a fellow human being, it may also be against God, and you can sin as an individual as well as a whole community. The point of God giving His law is to show you how NOT to sin against either your fellow man or God, whether as an individual or as a group. Throughout human history, governments have been a prime example of groups who sin. Today’s corporations are another example. Banks are another. Churches are another. The list is long. In this case, Paul was condemning both. A man was sexually sinning against God, against his father, against his stepmother, and by applauding this sin, the Christian community (the church) was sinning against everyone!
The point in this passage is that those who observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread do so as a declaration of their conscientious lifestyle of knowing and obeying God’s law. They are telling the world (or angels) that they don’t willfully violate God’s law which would result in sin against God and their fellow citizens. I blogged about this previously, so I won’t get into it here.
Suffice to say that when we observe Passover, we are doing it as a memorial of Jesus’ atoning death for all believers, and as an annual reminder that we must be vigilant to obey God’s law so that we act properly towards fellow believers and towards outsiders. Ritual observance of Passover (the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist/Communion) alone won’t suffice for fulfilling God’s requirements! We must also take the meaning of these things to heart and think/act accordingly in our daily lives and in the lives of our Christian communities.
In conclusion, we have seen that Paul considers Passover to be about JESUS NOT ISRAEL, since Jesus is our Redemption and our Perfect Role Model for personal and community living. Rebellious Israel cannot compete with Jesus!
Thanks for stopping by and reading our thoughts on this important annual holiday observance. See you in the next blog!
(A big thanks goes out to my good friend Jim for editing this blog for grammar and content!)
Reality Bible 