Passover Celebrations
“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. 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” – 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 ESV
My Thoughts:
By now it’s mid-afternoon on Friday, meaning that the Sabbath day of rest approaches at nightfall with the setting of the sun. And Passover would begin for Judeans. While northern Jews, such as Jesus and His disciples from the northern region of Galilee, celebrated Passover on Thursday evening, because they calculated days from sunrise to sunrise, Judeans in the south celebrated Passover on Friday evening because they calculated days from sunset to sunset. Thus, Jesus was crucified and died in Jerusalem at the same time and on the very afternoon of the day the people there celebrated the beginning of Passover with the killing of the sacrificial unblemished lamb.
This was God’s chosen time for Christ to die. Christ had avoided His enemies’ plots to kill Him, until now. As Jesus says to His disciples on Wednesday, “You know that two days from now will be Passover. That is when the Son of Man will be handed over to his enemies and nailed to a cross” (Matt 26:2 CEV). With great symbolism, Jesus is portrayed as the new Passover Lamb who is without blemish, spot, or sin, who takes away the sins of the world, not temporarily as the Mosaic sacrifice did, but once and for all.
Benediction:
May the love of the Father enfold us,
the wisdom of the Son enlighten us,
and the fire of the Spirit kindle us;
And may the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always.
Amen.
