This was when Easter perhaps most officially replaced Passover. However, today, more Christians are beginning to take an interest in Passover and its meaning for the Jewish people and Christians alike. In the end, we must look to verses like Colossians :. Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
What matters is our worship of Christ. In some ways, this will look different for each person. Alyssa Roat studied writing, theology, and the Bible at Taylor University. She is a literary agent at C. Find out more about her here and on social media alyssawrote. Share this. Alyssa Roat Contributing Writer 19 Mar. For resources see www. Step Three : Learn traditional prayers that are said during Passover. You can find these online at www. Or, you can learn them from a rabbi.
Step Four : Cook a traditional Passover meal. Passover begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, which usually occurs in March or April. Jewish and Christian traditions are different and must be observed as such. Some might debate whether or not it is appropriate for a Christian to celebrate Passover. Whether one chooses to do so or not is a decision for the individual Christian to make. While Passover remembers the Jews deliverance from slavery, it also is a depiction of Christ's atonement for His people and His deliverance of us from the bondage of sin.
The end result is certainly worthy of a Christian's consideration and could provide needed "bread for the journey" - whether it is unleavened or not! As a final step in the process, allow me to encourage you to speak with a Rabbi about Passover if you have additional curiosities.
Beginning a meal with drinking wine and breaking bread could have been part of a Sabbath evening meal or even a weekday meal. Indeed, according to the Gospel of John, the Last Supper took place the evening before Passover and Jesus was crucified on the eve of Passover at the time of the Passover offering for, according to John, Jesus is the Passover offering.
Regardless of whether or not the Last Supper was a Passover seder , Passover plays a crucial role in understanding Easter in particular and Christianity in general. Just as for Jews Passover represents the redemption from slavery and the deliverance to freedom, for Christians Easter represents the ultimate redemption of humankind through the life and death of Jesus.
But while Passover is crucial for understanding the story of Easter, Christians should not allow these theological points to obstruct their understanding and observance of the Passover seder. Rather, the seder rituals and foods should be understood in the context of Judaism. The most important symbols of Passover are the matzah unleavened bread , maror bitter herbs , and lamb or shank bone. The Bible tells us that we are to eat the lamb with matzah and maror Exodus , and later on the rabbis insisted that we had not properly observed Passover if we did not explain these three items.
The lamb bone some Jews use bones from other animals represents the Paschal lamb whose blood was used to mark the Jewish homes which God passed over during the tenth and final plague, the slaying of the firstborn of the Egyptians. The sacrifice and eating of the lamb was central to the Passover ritual until the destruction of the second Temple in the year 70 C. When the pharaoh refuses, God unleashes 10 plagues on the Egyptians, including turning the Nile River red with blood, diseased livestock, boils, hailstorms and three days of darkness, culminating in the slaying of every firstborn son by an avenging angel.
Terrified of further punishment, the Egyptians convince their ruler to release the Israelites, and Moses quickly leads them out of Egypt. The pharaoh changes his mind, however, and sends his soldiers to retrieve the former slaves. As the Egyptian army approaches the fleeing Jews at the edge of the Red Sea, a miracle occurs: God causes the sea to part, allowing Moses and his followers to cross safely, then closes the passage and drowns the Egyptians.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jews—now numbering in the hundreds of thousands—then trek through the Sinai desert for 40 tumultuous years before finally reaching their ancestral home in Canaan, later known as the Land of Israel.
For centuries, scholars have been debating the details and historical merit of the events commemorated during the Passover holiday. Although the ancient Egyptians kept thorough records, no mention is made of an Israelite community within their midst or any calamities resembling the 10 biblical plagues. A handful of scholars, including the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, have suggested a link between the Israelites and the Hyksos, a mysterious Semitic people—possibly from Canaan—who controlled lower Egypt for more than years before their expulsion during the 16th century B.
Most modern academics, however, have dismissed this theory due to chronological conflicts and a lack of similarity between the two cultures. One of the most important Passover rituals for observant Jews is removing all leavened food products known as chametz from their home before the holiday begins and abstaining from them throughout its duration. Instead of bread, religious Jews eat a type of flatbread called matzo.
According to tradition, this is because the Hebrews fled Egypt in such haste that there was no time for their bread to rise, or perhaps because matzo was lighter and easier to carry through the desert than regular bread.
On the first two nights of Passover, families and friends gather for a religious feast known as a seder for the Jewish holiday. For example, vegetables are dipped into salt water representing the tears Jews shed during their time as slaves, and bitter herbs usually horseradish symbolizing the unpleasant years of their bondage are eaten. A seder plate at the center of the table contains Passover foods with particular significance to the exodus story, including matzo, bitter herbs, a lamb shankbone and a mixture of fruit, nuts and wine known as charoset , which represents the mortar Jews used while bonding bricks as slaves in Egypt.
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