Celebrating Passover

What are the biblical holy days?

• Weekly Sabbaths – Seventh day sanctified by God at Creation(Gen. 2:3).

– A weekly celebration and invitation to spend exclusive time with the Creator of all things (Ex. 20:8-11).

– Observed Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

• Annual Sabbaths & Festivals – Seven festivals with Christ at their core.

– All require rest, celebration, and time with God.

– Do not necessarily fall on the weekly Sabbath.

Holy days

Biblical

Passover (April 14) Ex. 12:3-11 Unleavened Bread (April 15-21) Lev. 23:5-6, Ex. 12:19-20, 1 Cor. 5:7-8 Feast of Pentecost/Firstfruits

(June 8) Ex. 34:22

Feast of Trumpets/Rosh Hoshana (September 25)

Lev. 23:2, 24, Num. 29:1-6, Ezra 3:4-6

Atonement/Yom Kippur (Oct. 4)

Feast of Tabernacles (Oct. 9-15)

Last Great Feast Day (Oct. 16)

Lev. 23:33-43

What is Passover, the holy day?

• Modern observance is a unique blend of the festival’s agricultural and pastoral origins and the commemoration of the Exodus (Exodus 1-14).

• Passover is a holiday celebrated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread (April 14-22) to remind us to love and cherish our families, our freedoms, and our blessings.

• It commemorates the power and love that God has shown to His chosen people.

• It should also remind us of the sufferings that we have overcome and the suffering that

we will continue to overcome by living a life faithful to God.

What was the Passover?

• Passover (or "pasàch“) references God "passing

over" the houses of the Hebrews during the final of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Exodus 12:23

• The word “pesach” translates as "he had

pity”, over the homes of Hebrews who had applied the blood of a sacrificial lamb to their doorways.

• This act would save them from the final plague that would take away all of Egypt’s firstborn and bring them out of slavery.

• Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread pointed to God offering a Sacrificial Lamb to cover His people and bring them out of the bondage of sin.

Animal sacrifices are no longer needed as Jesus served as our ultimate

sacrifice. To celebrate Passover, we may now look to Him and offer

ourselves as living sacrifices.

(Hebrews 10:3-10, Romans 12:1)

How is the Pesach celebrated in Jewish culture?

Chametz (leavened/fermented Food) is forbidden, matzah is eaten, and seders are enjoyed! The first and seventh days are considered “annual

sabbaths” where work and laborious chores are forbidden.

Why is chametz forbidden?

No chametz is eaten or even retained in the household to commemorate the unleavened bread that the Israelites ate when they left Egypt and must be removed by the night before Passover. Chametz is any food or drink that contains even a trace of wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt or their derivatives, and which wasn’t guarded from leavening or fermentation. This includes bread, cake, cookies, cereal, pasta and most alcoholic beverages. Traditional Jews clean, scour, and polish the entire house to remove any trace of leavening and, the evening before the first seder, the family takes part in the Bedikat Chametz ritual, the Search for Leaven. Armed with a candle, a feather, and a wooden spoon, the parents lead the children in a search out the last bits of leaven (if necessary, placed in a predetermined spot in the house before the search), lighting the way with the candle, and sweeping the crumbs into the spoon with the feather.

Did Easter egg hunts take the place of the Search for Leaven?

What is Matzah?

Instead of chametz, matzah (flat unleavened bread) is eaten on Seder nights and during the rest of the holiday to represent the Israelites leaving in such a hurry that the bread they baked as provisions did not have time to rise.

The matzoh is pierced and striped, as Jesus' body was striped from the whip, and pierced by the thorns and the sword. Jesus, likely used this bread when he said "This is my body broken for you."(1 Corinthians 11:24).

What is the Passover Seder?

Seder means order and the Seder itself follows an order handed down through generations as a means to retell the story of our forebears’ liberation from bondage in Egypt. Through stories and prayers, the Haggadah provides a logical telling of the important chapter in our Jewish history.

What is the Haggadah?

The Haggadah divides the night's procedure into 15 parts:

1. Kadeish – recital of Kiddush blessing and drinking of the first cup of wine

2. Urchatz - the washing of the hands – without blessing 3. Karpas – dipping of the karpas in salt water 4. Yachatz – breaking the middle matzo; the larger piece

is eaten later during the ritual of Tzafun 5. Maggid – retelling the Passover story, including the

recital of "the four questions" and drinking of the second cup of wine

6. Rachtzah – second washing of the hands – with blessing

7. Motzi – traditional blessing before eating bread products

8. Matzo – blessing before eating matzo 9. Maror – eating of the maror 10. Koreich – eating of a sandwich made of matzo and

maror 11. Shulchan oreich – lit. "set table"—the serving of the

holiday meal 12. Tzafun – eating of the larger matzo 13. Bareich – blessing after the meal and drinking of the

third cup of wine 14. Hallel – recital of the Hallel, traditionally recited on

festivals; drinking of the fourth cup of wine 15. Nirtzah – conclusion

These parallel the 15 steps in the Temple in Jerusalem on which the Levites stood during Temple services, and which were memorialized in the 15 Psalms (#120-134) known as the "Songs of Ascent“.

Where in Passover is Jesus?

• The sacrificial killing of animals could not finally take away sin, but awaited the atonement of Christ (Heb. 10). Jesus is the innocent lamb of God, slaughtered for the blood that takes away the spiritual death.

• He offered the one sacrifice that was acceptable to God, and now He lives forever as the believers' intercessory high priest, replacing the Jewish sacrificial system and its sacerdotal priesthood. Most Christians consider the external ritual of sacrifice instituted in the Old Testament by God to be a precursor of the self-sacrifice offered by Jesus. For this reason, Jesus is called the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

• The Israelites' Passover observance was the commemoration of their physical deliverance from bondage in Egypt, whereas Passover represents for most Christians a spiritual deliverance from the slavery of sin (John 8:34) and, since Jesus' death, a memorial of the sacrifice that Jesus has made for mankind.

• The spiritual theme of Passover is one of salvation by the atoning blood of a perfect, spotless sacrificed lamb. At the very beginning of the Abrahamic Covenant, the promise had been given by the God of Abraham that "God would provide Himself a lamb." (Genesis 22:8) For many Christians, this is the spiritual pattern seen in Passover which gives it its eternal meaning and significance. The theme is carried on and brought to its ultimate New Covenant fulfillment in the sacrificial death of Christ as the promised Sacrificed Lamb.

What else can Christians do to celebrate this time?

Christians can begin celebration at the time of the Last Supper, one day before preparation day

(2 days before Passover). This usually includes the traditional communion and foot-washing.

Other ways to celebrate!

• Make Passover crafts with children. – Make a matzo house, a passover seder plate, or an afikomen bag.

• Watch Passover movies. – Ex. the Prince of Egypt, the Ten Commandments movie, or the Devil's

Arithmetic.

• Sing Passover songs.

• Learn Hebrew.

Holidays

Biblical

Christian

Pagan

HALLOWEEN/ SAMHAIN

CHRISTMAS/ WINTER SOLSTICE

CANDLEMAS/ IMBOLC

VERNAL EQUINOX/ EASTER/ PASSOVER

Ash Wednesday (Mar. 5)

Palm Sunday (Apr. 13) Holy Thursday (Apr. 17) Good Friday (Apr. 18) Holy Saturday (Apr. 19) Easter Sunday (Apr. 20) Divine Mercy Sunday (Apr. 27)

Ascension (Jun. 1) Pentecost Sunday (Jun. 8) Trinity Sunday (Jun. 15) Corpus Christi (Jun. 22) Sacred Heart of Jesus (Jun. 27)

Assumption of Mary (Aug. 15)

Halloween (Oct. 31) All Hallow’s/Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2)

First Sunday of Advent (Nov. 30) Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) Christmas (Dec. 25)

Mary, Mother of God (Jan. 1)

Candlemas Day (Feb. 2)