(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
Passover
is coming soon. Passover for the year of
2016 begins on the evening of Friday, April 22 and ends on the evening of Saturday,
April 30. Many do not realize that Passover is not just
one day, but a season that lasts for eight days.
It all
started not long after Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and they began to till and harvest the land. Every year they
enjoyed a celebration of the harvest of the spring barley crops and the new
lambs. We can understand this from the
stories of Cain and Abel. One brought
vegetables and one brought meat. It was a set aside time that God had ordained each
year at the ending of the rainy season and the beginning of the growing
season.
Adam and Eve passed this down through the generations right up until the flood. Noah was the grandson of Enoch. Enoch had walked with God and he taught Noah. Noah taught his sons and kept God's calendar even during the time on the ark and the flood. After the flood Noah's son Shem was made the family high priest. He established a school to teach God's ways to the people of the earth. Shem passed on the Holy Days of God to the generations after the flood. Abraham was the next family high priest after Shem. Abraham knew and passed down God's Holy Days to his sons and his household.
Many
years before the redemption of Israel from Egypt, God instructed
Abraham about the sacrifice of a lamb. We
know that Abraham offered up many lambs for sacrifice, and was even prepared to
offer his own son, but God would not allow it.
The
word Pesach, as the Hebrews call it, was first derived from the instructions
given by God to Moses. It means “passing
over” or “protection.” God had promised
that the Angel of Death would “pass over” the people who had put the blood of
the lamb over the door posts of their homes. The time of the year was right in line with the same clock that God had given men from the beginning. It was the season of Passover when God told Moses to tell the Israelite people that He would bring them out
of the bondage of slavery to the Egyptians.
God
was officially calling His people out and stating that He would lead them to
the promised land, the land that He had promised to the seed of Abraham in a
covenant long ago. This was a land that
would be known as the land of the people of God. These people of God were the ones from which
would come the promised Messiah. It was
a time of new beginnings for Israel.
They were leaving an old life and entering a new life.
After
the Exodus, during temple times, people came up to Jerusalem every year singing
joyous songs, bringing their lambs to the temple for sacrifice. A sign hung around each lamb naming the
family that brought them.
Sometimes
there were 3 million lambs offered up for the sins of the people in Jerusalem
in one 24 hour period of time. The
priests blew the trumpet when the lambs were slain and they caught the blood of
the lambs in a special silver or gold bowl.
Hymns were sung as this happened and the priest carried the bowls to the
altar. The service ended with incense on
the altar after the lambs had been roasted on a special pole made specifically
of pomegranate wood.
The
lambs were eaten at a special meal.
Anything that was not eaten was burned up with fire until none
remained. Unleavened bread and herbs
were served with the lamb as well as red wine and water. The people always remembered how God led them through the wilderness out of slavery into a new promised land where they lived in freedom and luxury.
.JPG)
By the
time Jesus walked the earth this offering had been a required offering for
many years. He too went up for the
Passover every year with his family.
Every Jewish male was expected to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem
during the Passover. It became a week
long festival. It was a time to repent,
to give the offering for atonement, to
cleanse your house of all leaven (sin) then celebrate the harvest with an
offering of the first fruits of your crops.
The
offering of the lamb was made on Passover. The first
fruits waive sheaf of barley was offered and waived before God in the first few days of
unleavened bread which came to be known as The Day of the FirstFruits. The
people, who had put away sin and cleaned their homes of anything ungodly came
up and celebrated the first fruits of their crops with Thanksgiving before God.
The
disciples of Jesus also kept the Passover.
They celebrated The Passover with Christ just before He was
crucified. Having celebrated this set-aside sacred time
all of their lives, and understanding the history of their people, they
realized when Jesus died for them that He had become their true Passover. His resurrection on the third day, the day of Early First Fruits
was positive proof to them that He was Messiah.
He was the perfect lamb of God offered up for the sins of mankind.
Even
after Jesus once more ascended to heaven; the disciples remembered that Jesus
had commanded them to “remember Him” with this special Passover meal every
year. The Messiah is remembered weekly in The Holy
Eucharist celebrated on The Sabbath and remembered annually with the great
ritual and symbolism that tells the whole extensive story at Passover.
The disciples continued year after year to
remember the Passover, Unleavened Bread and Early First Fruits. Each generation taught their sons and daughters, and the Church now
understands the offering of Christ was fulfilled by keeping the Passover. Now we do this to remember that He was once The Suffering Servant, but now is The Resurrected Lord of
Lords and King of Kings and He will come again for His people.
He has commanded us to remember the story.
We retell the whole story each year with The
Passover. The symbols and the whole eight days teach our children how to live in the truth of The Messiah.
With the season of Passover every year we learn and grow in God's grace as we celebrate all He has done for us. We remember His resurrection on the day of Early First Fruits and we look forward to our own resurrection day when we will be with Him forever.
