Here we at the tail end of Passover week, approaching Resurrection / Easter Sunday. The two holidays are intimately connected despite having been separated on the calendar by the Council of Nicaea back in the year 325. Yeshua’s death, burial and resurrection is completely dependent on Passover.
And that means Yeshua completely depends on Passover, too. We would do well to both more solemnly remember it and also rejoice in how the two are interconnected.
Paul, in I Corinthians 5:6-8, in the midst of writing about sexual immorality, breaks away from that thought – momentarily – and writes:
“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
On the surface it is perplexing. Why does Paul jump from telling the Corinthians how to deal with incest in the congregation to writing about Messiah being the Passover lamb?
The Corinthians may have been allowing the sexual immorality either because they figured – “Why not, if your sins are forgiven in the long run, what does it matter”. Or they did not fully comprehend the power of the Cross.
Paul is essentially saying: Jesus will break you free of this immoral and lifestyle that God hates. Paul implies that if you understand how God has worked in the past, you will understand how Yeshua will free you from sin.
Passover has been celebrated for more than 3000 years because God freed the children of Israel from slavery. Pharaoh would not let the people go until all of Egypt’s first-born (humans and animals) were killed on one frightening night. The children of Israel were instructed to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, sprinkling the door posts and lintels of their houses with the lamb’s blood. All houses with blood sprinkled as instructed would be passed over and the first born would not die. But houses without blood on the door posts and lintels would experience the death of the first born.
Pharaoh let the people go the next day. He had second thoughts, however, and sent the army after them, including 600 of the best chariots. The Sea of Reeds parted, allowing the children of Israel to pass before swarming over and drowning the Egyptian army.
The Passover of the Lord is a celebration of God freeing the children of Israel from slavery. Never again would they be enslaved. Yes, horrible things would happen to Jewish people between then and now but it could never be worse than slavery.
Yeshua died for your sin and Paul is telling the Corinthians that they are no longer slaves to sin. They’ve been freed forever from the chains of sin and instead of living like they were still in bondage – they need to rejoice and live like victoriously!
Yeshua, our Messiah, is the Passover lamb whose blood shields us from everlasting death. We may have once been slaves to sin but we aren’t anymore. Praise God we’re on our way to the promised land!
L’Shalom,
Chris
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