Easter truly begins with Passover. Passover will begin at sundown this Friday. The death of Jesus cannot be fully understood without the background of both Passover (Pesach) and Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. But since this is the season of Passover let’s focus on that element. As you know, Passover is the annual celebration of the Hebrew’s release from centuries of slavery in Egypt. For Jews, it is the equivalent of our Fourth of July, Independence Day, yet with much greater spiritual overtones. It is the day God set them free and led them out of bondage to make them a nation and give them the land promised to Abraham and his descendants. It was a time when the power of God was manifested on behalf of his people to deliver them from Pharaoh, the most powerful despot on earth at the time.

Through Moses, God had commanded Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go that they might serve and worship him. Pharaoh had no mind to do so. One ragged, stuttering prophet Moses and his brother Aaron stood before the sovereign leader of Egypt and conveyed the edicts of the Almighty. Of course, Pharaoh who considered himself a god backed by pantheon of gods that Egypt worshipped, felt no compulsion to listen to this former but disavowed prince of Egypt. And so…God sent plagues, one after another, on the nation of Egypt. Each plague demonstrated God’s power over the “god’s” of Pharaoh: the Nile turning to blood demonstrated Jehovah’s power over Anuket, the goddess of the Nile; total darkness over Egypt demonstrated Jehovah’s power over Ra, the sun god, and so on.

After nine plagues devastated the nation, Pharaoh was warned that unless he let God’s people go, every first born (human and animal) in Egypt would die at the hand of God’s judgment. The Hebrew people were warned to stay in their homes that fearful night as God’s judgment passed through Egypt. They were to kill a lamb for each household and spread the blood of the lamb over the doors of each house. The sign of the blood would mark them as God’s people and the angels executing judgment on Egypt would pass over them, sparing their first born. Interestingly, even non-Jews who feared their God could come under the protection of that blood.

Inside that house they were to prepare themselves to leave Egypt. They were to roast and eat the lamb whose blood covered their door and they were to eat “the bread of haste” or unleavened bread prepared quickly for the journey. Exodus 12:11-13 states it this way: “This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.  On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people 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.”   Of course, this final judgment targeted Pharaoh himself and those who proclaimed the rulers of Egypt to be gods. At the death of his own son, Pharaoh released Israel that night into the hands of their God.

Other regulations regarding the Passover lamb state that the lamb (or goat) had to be a year old male without blemish. After marking their doors with his blood, the people were to consume every part of the lamb that was edible and to be dressed and ready to leave on a moments notice which underlined their faith that deliverance was truly at hand.

Christ is all over Passover. Paul declares, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). A year-old lamb is considered mature. A thirty-year old Jewish male was considered mature. Jesus began his public ministry at about the age of 30. The lamb had to be without blemish. Jesus was without sin. The blood of the lamb marked a household as belonging to God’s people and therefore allowed judgment to pass over that house. The blood of Christ marks every believer as belonging to God and allows God’s judgment to pass over each of us as his blood marks our sins and transgressions as paid in full. The household took the life of the lamb. Our sins took the life of Jesus. After the blood of the lamb was shed, the household was to eat or ingest every part of the lamb. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (Jn. 6:53). It’s not enough that we are marked by the blood of the Lamb but we must consume and assimilate every part of Jesus into our lives. Jesus died at Passover. He was raised three days later but his death marked deliverance for each of us.

I find it almost jarring that Jesus said to his disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk.22:15). What must it have been like for Jesus to go through each step of the Passover Seder with his disciples that night knowing that each part pointed to a the terrible death assigned to him in just a few hours? Yet Jesus said he eagerly desired to share that meal. Jesus dreaded the suffering to come but through the meal he looked past the suffering and saw the life and freedom that his death would purchase for each of us. Everything that Passover represents to the Jewish nation, should speak ten times more loudly to us for Christ is the ultimate Passover, our Passover.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36