Christ Our Passover cgi.org

This article explains why Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are relevant to modern-day Christians, and gives helpful guidance on how to observe them.

God (the Word who would become Christ) instituted the Old Testament Passover when Israel was enslaved in Egypt. The blood of lambs was the symbol by which the Israelites were protected when the angel of death “passed over”. Thus, the early church recognized the significance of John calling Christ the “Lamb of God”. Yet the Jews in Jesus’ day missed this clue; They wanted a messiah to overthrow the Romans, and the miracle-working Jesus fit the bill. So many were disappointed when he was crucified. They misunderstood His mission.

Christ instituted the New Testament Passover when He ate the last supper with His disciples on the night of the fourteenth of Nisan/Abib. He washed their feet and commanded them to do as He did. He broke bread and told them to eat it as a symbol of His body. He told them to drink wine as a symbol of His blood. Thus, He revealed that the original Israelite Passover in Egypt was prophetic. Like the blood of the Passover lambs, Christ’s sacrificial death delivers us from the bondage of sin and saves us from eternal death. Christ Himself is our Passover. The Passover signifies God’s grace.

When the Israelites hastily departed Egypt, freed from bondage, their bread was unleavened. Thereafter, God required of His people that they cast out leaven annually during the Spring festival to commemorate this liberating event, and to underline the process of removing of removing sin from our lives.

Christ did not “do away” with this commanded Old Testament festival, the other Holy Days, or the 10 commandments. He fulfilled them – meaning he expanded them. Jesus spoke of sin and false teaching in terms of leaven. Paul compared “yeast,” or leavening, with “malice and wickedness,” or sin. The correlation between sin and leaven is evident in the Exodus account. The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds us that God delivers us from the bondage of sin through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. We are “sinless” only to the degree in which we put Christ into our lives. So the festival is not just about putting sin out, but also eating unleavened bread – i.e. the bread of life. Unleavened Bread signifies our obedience to God’s perfect eternal law, abiding in Christ, and the true freedom that results.

Christ is at the center of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, and this double festival is vital to all Christians.