There is a significant moment in the Passover order (seder) of observant Jews that goes back, at least, to the days of Jesus. The traditional unleavened bread is matzah which is the large, flat square of bread that looks like a huge cracker. It is made without yeast, rolled out, pierced with numerous small holes so it will not rise, and then baked at high temperatures on a rack so that browned stripes run across the bread. It is often called the bread of haste which recalls Israel’s hurried flight from Egypt the morning after the tenth plague.

In the tradition of the Passover meal the matzah is placed on a special plate and often is inserted into a matzah cover with three pockets. One whole unbroken square of matzah is placed into each of those pockets. At the set time, the middle piece of bread is removed and broken approximately in half. The larger piece is called the afikomen from a word that means “that which comes after” or “hidden.” That half is then placed in a decorative bag usually made of linen. The head of the house then takes the bag with the broken bread in it and hides it. Towards the end of the meal, the children are released to search the house to find the afikomen and bring it back to the table where it is then broken and shared with the family.

Here is the interesting part. Jewish rabbis disagree greatly about the meaning of the afikomen and its origins seem to be unknown. Since the matzah is placed in a bag with three compartments some assume that it represents the unity of the Jewish Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Others believe it represents a unity of worship consisting of the priests, the Levites and the congregation. However, they have no idea why the middle matzah is removed, broken, and made the afikomen.

Let’s think about it. What has three parts but is unified as one? The triune God – Father, Son and Spirit comes to mind. The Son, taken from the middle of that order and even crucified in the middle of three crosses, is the bread of life – broken, bruised, pierced, and marked with stripes for our sake. His broken body was wrapped in linen and hidden away until he was found by those who sought him. Some Jewish writers suggest that the afikomen actually represents the Passover lamb that can no longer be offered because there is no temple remaining in Jerusalem. At the end of the meal, after the afikomen has been recovered, it is broken into smaller pieces at eaten by the family in a way that strikingly mirrors the Lord’s Supper.

It is ironic that shortly after the afikomen is found and consumed, the Jewish family will send the youngest child to the door to see if Elijah is outside ready to announce the coming of Messiah. It is as if God has already announced the first coming of Messiah to his people through their own Passover Seder and especially through the afikomen. The gospel itself is hidden in the Jewish Passover waiting to be discovered. Messianic Jews clearly connect the dots but observant Jews do not. And yet, God has imbedded the truth of Jesus not only in Old Testament prophecies but even in the traditions that God’s people have added to Passover.

We wonder how they could miss it but I wonder how much we are still missing about Jesus, the Holy Spirit, our inheritance in Christ, and so forth that, in time, might seem so obvious that we will wonder how we missed it for so many years even though God had been clearly pointing to it. That possibility challenges me to be open to God doing new things that I have not experienced before. Perhaps, my continuing prayer should be the same as Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians – that God might give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that I might know him better. Because I am human I will probably miss much or most of what God is pointing to in my own strength but his Spirit can point the way. I must remain open to that and, perhaps, that should be your continuing prayer as well. What might he show us this Easter than has been there all along?

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

With Passover and Easter coming up next week I thought I would use this week’s blogs to reflection on the single most significant event in post-Garden, human history – the death and resurrection of the Son of God.

As I look at Easter I wonder if it really had to be that way. Did Jesus really have to suffer for my sins? Couldn’t God have just swept them all away with an executive order and given Jesus a pass on his Passion? We could argue the point but the Father’s intentionality about the death of his only begotten tells me that there was no other way. Remember that Jesus asked the same question in the Garden of Gethsemane. The resounding silence of the Father answered the question.

His intentionality predates Adam’s sin. John tells us in his vision, “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev.13:8). The idea that in the mind of God Jesus was slain from the beginning of time tells us that, in his foreknowledge, God knew the path that man would take and the cost of redeeming his fallen creation even before he formed Adam. I find it remarkable that Elohim (Father, Son, and Spirit) was willing to pay that indescribable price in order to have a portion of his creation choose to spend eternity with him. That seems to be an almost obsessive love on the part of our Heavenly Father.

From the beginning of time, the cross would be the solution where God’s holiness and love would intersect. His holiness demanded that sin be dealt with rather than excused or ignored. Love desperately looked for a way to redeem the relationship between God and condemned man. Jesus willingly went to the cross to satisfy both the holiness of God and the love of God. Sin would be dealt with justly. Love would be triumphant.

The intentionality of God in his love was demonstrated from the very beginning. Immediately after the sin of Adam and Eve, God declared that the offspring of Eve (Jesus) would be in conflict with the serpent Satan and that the conflict would culminate with Jesus being bruised but the serpent would be crushed (Gen.3:15). Immediately after declaring that first Messianic prophecy, we are told that God covered Adam and Eve’s nakedness and shame with animal skins. At the outset, God sacrificed the innocent to cover the consequences of sin in man. From that moment on, sacrifices of innocent animals pointed to the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the cross.   Sin condemned man as he ate from a tree in the Garden of Eden and man was set free from that condemnation as the Son of God hung on a tree (the cross) thousands of years later.

As God downloaded the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, a whole system of sacrifices was codified. Each sin offering pointed to the reality that sin deserved death, but that God would allow an innocent to take our place on the altar of judgment.   Paul declared that the “wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23). Sin earns death and death, in the spiritual sense, is separation from God. On that Passover Eve two thousand years ago, did Jesus simply die a physical death or did he also endure everything that would be experienced by those who die in sin? For a moment, on that dark Friday did Jesus experience the absolute desolation of the lost: fear, shame, guilt, unbearable loneliness, absolute darkness, and even torment so that we would never have to experience any of that? I’m not certain but I know that, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor.5:21).

I also know that this death, this sacrifice was not accidental, unplanned, or a last ditch effort to salvage men who had unexpectedly rejected Jesus. It was an intentional offering of himself on our behalf that had rested in the mind of God while the blue prints of this earth were still being drawn up. It is the intentionality of God’s unrelenting love. Passover and Easter are without question God’s lavish expression of his love for a fallen race.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us,

in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom.5:8)