Happy Passover 2016 (And A Quick Q&A)

Happy Passover! I hope you and your families are having an amazing week. Unfortunately, I’m still in California and had to make do with a quick home cooked meal and YouTube videos on the meaning of passover, while Derek got to celebrate with his fellowship group in Idaho with lots of good food and community.

I thought I would do a little Q&A about the heart behind this festival, because once you see the meaning behind it, (including but not limited to feasting and family togetherness ;), it takes on an entirely new significance. I for one am super excited to share this with my family and our generations to come; no not just for the lamb, but I’m gonna leave this picture right here, because food pictures make me happy 😉

Question #1 What is passover?

Biblically, Passover begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan, which is the first month of the Jewish year that’s around March/April. The primary reason why God instituted Passover was to commemorate freedom and the exodus from Egypt after generations of slavery. This story is told in Exodus 1-15.

Exodus 12:14 And this day shall be to you for a memorial. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, keep it as an ordinance forever.

The meaning behind Passover takes on an even deeper significance in the New Testament though, because here we realize that Jesus was the true Passover lamb, and that through Him, we find freedom and fullness of life – which leads to question #2 🙂

Question #2 How does this relate to Christians today?

The Old Testament Passover lamb, although a reality in that time, was just a shadow of the better and final Passover Lamb, Jesus. We were once slaves to our sinful nature, and He shed His blood to ransom us – to save us from death, the same way the lamb’s blood in the Exodus saved the Israelites from the angel of death. He gives us more imagery at the last supper 

(Mark 14:12). Raising up the bread, He said it was His body broken for us, while the wine was his blood shed for us. All in all, Passover always points to the risen Messiah.

Question #3 Hmm, k, if Passover is today, why in the world was Easter in March?!

Easter like I mentioned, isn’t exactly a holiday specified in the Bible. It originated from the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325, which, for all us non-church-history- nerds, was basically a council of Christian bishops gathered under the command of Roman Emperor Constantine I, to bring unity to a church that was growing disunited by the day.

One divisive issue at the time was that Christians at the time had to rely on the Jews to know when the Passover date would fall on, which some felt was inaccurate. So the council endorsed changing the date to a computation by the Christian community, specifically, the Catholic calendar. Which leads to question #4…

Question #4 Why Does The Date Always Change?

The calendar is based on the rotation of the earth around it’s axis (a day), the rotation of the moon around the earth, (a month: 28 & 1/2 days) and the earth around the sun, (a year: 365 & 1/4 days). That’s a lot of fractions! Not only that, if we were to do simple math on this, we’d have years where spring would land in the middle of summer, or fall in the middle of winter. In our regular calendar, this is taken care of by different months having different number of days, and having a leap year every 4 years. The Jewish calendar also has ways of compensating for these drifts. So why does the date change? In simple terms, math, fractions and compensation 🙂

Question #5 So which is it? Easter or Passover?

We’ve all heard the “what do eggs and bunnies have to do with Jesus”, and read the articles on how “christian holidays originated from pagan festivals”, so I’m not going to add my voice to that debate.

I think holidays are so important, but not in a legalistic, or ritualistic or imprisoning religious way. That’s not our Father’s heart for us. He’s the one that keeps telling us to celebrate and commemorate with week-long feasts and festivals! I would venture to guess that His heart is that celebrations would give His kids something to look forward to, a remembrance, a custom, a way to be with friends, family and community, and a way of creating memories that shape who we are.

Personally, I didn’t grow up celebrating Easter, simply because my family just didn’t, so it’s not a big leap looking forward, that my family will more than likely be “that” family that doesn’t do egg hunts or put up bunny ceramics on the mantle. At the end of the day, all I want is to celebrate the fact that Heaven’s greatest gift came to the world, and gave us the greatest sacrifice. That’s what Passover means to me and what I hope it will mean to our kids.

Well, I hope this answered a couple questions you might have had, and as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts, so comment, share, subscribe 🙂