Our Passover

The Bible tells us many titles of Jesus.  For instance He is called the Messiah, the King of Kings, our High Priest, the Saviour, Shepherd, Lamb and Mighty God, just to name a few.  Also in 1 Corinthians 5:7 He is called our Passover – “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”

 Of course this tile comes from the Jewish festival of the Passover.  The Passover was first instituted in the time of Moses when the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt.  God had ordered Moses to tell Pharaoh to “Let My people go.”  These commands from God were ignored with terrible consequences.  God afflicted the nation of Egypt with a  series of plagues.  The last of these was the plague of the death of the first born.  In the whole of Egypt all the first born would be killed.

To save His people God instituted the Passover.  Each household was to take an unblemished lamb.  This lamb was to be eaten on the night of the terrible plague.  The blood of this lamb was to be taken and painted on the door posts and lintels of the house as a sign to God.  He would then passover that house.  Exodus 12:11-13 reads,

“ And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. ‘Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

 

We no longer celebrate the Passover festival under the New Covenant, the reason being that we no longer need a Passover lamb because Jesus is our Passover Lamb.  Under the Law of Moses the blood of the lamb on the door posts signified salvation.  We now have the precious blood of Jesus that is our salvation.  We no longer need the sign.  Jesus was the sacrificial lamb that died to pay the price of our sins.  1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us, “you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 

The Jews only had a symbol of salvation in their Passover lamb, today we have the Saviour Jesus Christ.  We only need to come in contact with his life giving blood through obedience and we will be saved.