Jesus – the Passover or Easter?

It should be called happy resurrection day.

The Passover lamb was when Jesus gave up His life on the cross, and by His death and shedding of His blood produce life.

As disciples, we are commanded to die daily and be risen with Christ daily.

The apostles of their time faced a big issue when the Passover started to shift into what we call Easter today.

Easter has its roots in paganism.

Easter came from the goddess Ishtar, while eggs and the rabbit represent fertility in the spring. The Roman Catholic Church amalgamated Easter into Christianity.

The Passover is a holiday commemorating the Hebrew’s liberation from oppression in Egypt and the (passing over) of the forces of destruction, or the sparing of the firstborn of the Israelites when God (smote the land of Egypt) on the eve of the Exodus.

A short history of Passover

Joseph was an honourable man:

Genesis 41:39-41

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, clearly no one else is as intelligent or wise as you are. You will be in charge of my court, and all my people will take orders from you. Only I, sitting on my throne, will have a rank higher than yours.” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.”

God had granted Joseph the ability to interpret dreams, so Pharaoh commissioned him the second most powerful man in Egypt after releasing him from prison. Several hundred years passed and the community of Jacob had grown large as Hebrews from procreation. Egypt had appointed another pharaoh after the death of the old one. This pharaoh despised Joseph and the Hebrews so began a time of persecution of the Hebrews in Egypt. The Pharaoh gave the command that all the Hebrew boys born into Hebrew families would be killed. After a time, he ordered them to be thrown in the River Nile, most likely just to be sure it got done. This was purely a matter of population control, brutal as it was.

Jochebed was a daughter of Levi and mother of Miriam, Aaron and Moses. As she gave birth to a son she refused to kill the healthy male child. The name Jochebed is primarily a female name of Hebrew origin that means God’s Glory. She created a basket and put her son Moses into and floated it down the river.

The name Moses means to pull out (water). Pharaoh’s daughter was bathing in the river, spotted the basket and child, and (pulled out) the child to safety adopting him as her own. Moses (Greek: Μωϋσῆς), Moishe (Yiddish: משה), Moshe (Hebrew: משה), or Movses (Armenian: Մովսես).

Moses’ birth was predicated by Egyptian scholars. Moses received Egyptian education, grows up as a prince, and is forced to leave eventually after being exiled from Egypt. He had seen an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. He became a Shepard and God spoke to him from the bush that was burning to be his prophet. Moses was required to lead the people from captivity out of Egypt.

Moses marches back into Egypt filled with the power of God demanding that he release the captive people. Pharaoh refuses and God delivers the famous ten plagues upon them. This was a demonstration that Egypt had no power, their idols had no influence and there was only one true God. The last plague was the destroyer into Egypt to take the life of every firstborn. The firstborn was given certain unique rights, responsibilities, and privileges. A married couple’s firstborn male child was given priority and preeminence in the household, and the best of the inheritance.

The nation of Israel is identified as God’s (firstborn) in the Scripture. If there is a sign on the doorpost of your house the darkness will Passover and spare the firstborn. The Hebrews were charged to take a peace offering by killing a lamb eating the chosen parts, and then putting blood on the threshold of the door.

When God required the Israelites to paint the blood they collected from the Passover lamb on the doorposts, He was asking them to cover their names with the blood of the lamb. By doing this, they were taught the rudiments of salvation. The next morning there is an outcry in Egypt and Pharaoh finally asked the Israelites and Hebrews to leave for the promised land. Pharaoh chased the leaving people to the Red Sea, Moses parted the waves, and they walked across while Pharaoh and the army were swallowed up by the foamy deep.

The Israelites left a life of slavery and walked up to the mountain of God, where the Lord formed a nation out of the captive people as sons of God.

The Passover is just one of God’s feast festivals where man joins Him, not God joins man. The Passover was designed for all followers to remember the event if it just happened yesterday, to be focused on His kingdom. It’s a picture that we are no longer slaves to sin.

We know that the apostles kept this anniversary long after Jesus’ death and resurrection:

1 Corinthians 5:8

“Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Isn’t it interesting now that children are taught Easter and long for chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs?

On the night Christ was betrayed, He celebrated His last supper, which was, in fact, a Passover Seder His final one. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. On that night, Jesus declared Himself to be the bread of life as He identified His body with the middle piece of matzo—usually broken, hidden, wrapped, and brought back, which is part of the traditional Passover Seder meal. He portrayed Himself as the lamb of God, whose poured out blood redeems those who put their faith in His death on the cross at Calvary. The entire picture of redemption is presented in type in the Passover and fulfilled by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper:

Luke 22:19–20

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way, He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”

Jesus was crucified and buried at Passover

Jesus was crucified and buried at Passover, and rose from the dead on the third day, the feast of First Fruits. Because Jesus was a perfect spotless offering, He holds the promise of the greater harvest from the dead and those of us who believe in him are the greater harvest:

1 Corinthians 15:20

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”

The Quartodecimam controversy arose because Christians in the churches of Jerusalem and Asia Minor observed Passover on the 14th of the first month (Nisan), no matter the day of the week on which it occurred, while the churches in and around Rome changed to the practice of celebrating Easter always on Sunday to distinguish themselves from the Jews. The tradition around Rome of Easter evolved so quickly after Polycarp made such a big fuss to the Bishop of Rome at the time. Polycarp was betrayed by a member of his household, named Herod. Polycarp was burnt alive but survived the fire to be finished off by a spear to the chest for not denouncing Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. If we take this into account believers and the Jews were keeping this festival right up to this time. Man changed the biblical calendar the date, and the meaning of the Passover. Everything that looked Jewish and Hebrew was chopped up to fit the pagan narrative.

A short history of Easter

Tammuz which was Nimrod’s son was gored to death by a wild boar during a hunting incident. Forty days weeping for Tammuz is where we get Lent. When Nimrod’s mother died, she was sent back to earth by the gods on the first Sunday in a giant egg. She reincarnated as the goddess of fertility named Ishtar or Easter. To prove she was divine she changed a bird into an egg-laying rabbit. In a cave, the occult priests would impregnate a virgin woman on top of the altar of Easter on the sunrise Sunday service. Years later they sacrificed three-month-old babies on the same altar to Baal and dipped Easter eggs into the child’s blood. Easter Sunday ends the forty days of weeping for the death of Tammuz or Lent. Many traditional Christians continue to eat the Easter ham on Sunday. This was a way to get back at the boar that gored and killed Tammuz. Passover and Easter are often an entire month apart. Easter is the celebration of child sacrifice, while Jesus was the final Passover sacrifice. We must remember that Satan always has an opposite. If pagan festivals are an abomination to the Father, should we be celebrating them in a watered-down form?

Instead of giving children unhealthy chocolate just because it’s fun for them, isn’t it better to teach them 100 per cent biblically instead of half measures?

Isn’t it time to truly come out of Babylon?

It isn’t about what we enjoy or its tradition, it’s about being properly ready for Christ’s return as a spotless bride.

How the Passover represents Jesus.

1. A sacrificial lamb is offered. Jesus offered himself to die as an offering for us. Jesus came to stop all of those animal sacrifices in His one and only sacrifice on the cross. If life is in the blood, and animal sacrifices were done to appease the flesh, Christ was sacrificed without blemish or defect. He was sinless and spotless. Jesus came to remove the guilt of our past sins. Animal sacrifices are a shadow, He is the fulfilment hence they are not needed anymore. What we have to note is the priestly sacrificial system was done daily but was unable to complete the task properly, hence a perfect body was required to end the imperfect tradition under the law.

2. The purpose of the Lamb was to avoid punishment for sin. Jesus was saving us from the wrath of God. God was redeeming sinners when He brought the Israelites out of Egypt. The Israelites had committed idolatry as well as the Egyptians. The body at the Passover meal was a lamb symbolising His body. The purpose of Jesus’ blood is to give us forgiveness for sins. John the Baptist said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

3. The Lamb had to be male, not female. The male lamb was a representative of the male Jesus. Adam represents all mankind. In Adam, all will spiritually die, but in Christ, all may live. Jesus is the kingdom representative and the door to those who knock. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

4. Jesus was without spot or blemish just like the Passover lamb. All lambs that were sacrificed had to be perfect without deformity or debilitation. It had to be pure and innocent or without sin. All humanity are sinners. Jesus came in human form and was exposed to sin in all its forms, yet never once fell into temptation. This meant He was able to be the perfect offering that no other human could achieve. We are not whole whereas Jesus is wholesome. We are passed-over, where He is examined and passed worthy. The lamb had to be (one year old) which is classed as an adult in its prime of life. Jesus was in His prime of life as a sacrifice, because from 30 years old is when He could serve as a priest in the temple according to the law.

5. The lamb was selected on the 10th of Nissan. Jesus came and announced himself as the coming King of Israel on the day the Lamb was selected for Passover. The lamb was selected between the tenth and the fourteenth day of Nissan, which was the same days Jesus was on trial and found faultless. Jesus was examined a lot to find fault in Him within the scriptures but was always found spotless. The Passover Lamb was a substitute for the firstborn. The redemption of the firstborn of clean and unclean animals is also compared with the rules pertaining to human firstborn. It is stated that the concepts of redemption and substitution were emphatically promoted in order to stop the existing practice of child sacrifice. Jesus is the firstborn of Israel. Jesus was the only begotten son of the Father.

6. In The ritual meal of the Passover, you were not allowed to break the bones of the animal. On the cross, Jesus’ leg bones were not broken by the soldiers as He was already dead, whereas the two thieves next to Him their legs were broken to hasten their deaths.

7. The Passover meal was for the family. The Passover pictures is that believers are all one family with Jesus as our High Priest in the household of God.

8. The Passover Lamb had to be slain, which is a picture of Jesus. Christ hung on the cross for about six hours, from approximately 9 am to 3 pm. During that time, soldiers cast lots for His clothing while people passed by shouting insults and scoffing. From the cross, Jesus spoke to his mother Mary and the disciple John. He also cried out to his father, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” At that moment, darkness engulfed the land. A little later, as He breathed his final agonising breath, an earthquake shook the ground, ripping the temple veil in two from top to bottom. Matthew’s Gospel says, “The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.”

9. There was a special location in Jerusalem for the Passover meal. Jerusalem means the bread of life.

10. The blood on the mantle and two-door posts of the houses. When God required the Israelites to paint the blood they collected from the Passover lamb on the doorposts and lintels, He was asking them to cover their names with the blood of the lamb. Also when they enter the house through the door (Jesus) He is their salvation you enter through Me. The blood of the firstborn was also tied prophetically to Isaac and Abraham, although Isaac did not spill a drop of his own blood. Isaac was a sign to look forward to Christ. Hyssop was used to put the blood on the door. The hyssop branch is symbolic, it helps connect scripture. It’s referenced in Psalm 51:7 to purify and cleanse from sin. Some even would take hyssop baths as a personal ritual for the cleansing of sin.

11. The veil in the temple was torn top to bottom. This symbolised the separation between God and man. The door symbolises Jesus and the reconnection with God. The veil and the body of Jesus are all connected. The veil was open to being in the presence of God and the tombs were split open.

12. The Lamb was sacrificed and also consumed, which is a picture of taking Christ into the body in a relationship with Him.

13. It is customary to have three pieces of Matzah stacked on the table. Two are traditional for Sabbath and festivals (when we usually use two challot), as a reminder of the double portion of manna (food from heaven) the Israelites gathered before every day of rest in the desert (Exodus 16:11-22). The third on Passover to break at the beginning of the [seder] service. The bread has holes representing Christ being pierced on the cross by the spear, and burnt stripes represent The stripes He suffered on the cross. It’s unleavened to show it’s pure or without sin. One piece of the broken bread is hidden in the cloth and then brought back at the end of the meal. This relates to Jesus covered in a burial cloth hidden in the ground, then resurrected at a later date.