Over the past three years our household has celebrated Passover. This Jewish festival is currently being celebrated, starting April 22 and finishing April 29.
You may ask, 'why would you do this? I thought you were a Christian, not a Jew?'
My wife and I have discovered the richness which comes with connecting to the roots of the Christian faith—the history of the Jewish people. It gives us an even greater and deeper understanding of who the Father is, who the Son is and who the Holy Spirit is. I will do my best to summarise why Passover—and this incredible moment in the history of the human race—is so important for us today.
We celebrated Passover on Friday night with a few brothers and sisters in our home. Each year our celebration aims to give insight into the truth of this festival—the prophetic message of who the very person of Jesus is and his act of sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. We hold a celebratory and remembrance meal of awesome food, worship and prayers reminding us of the story of Israel and how we are part of this continuing story.
What is Passover?
My first experience of Passover was watching the animated movie Prince of Egypt. I loved this movie as young person because it combined two of my passions: cartoon animation and Bible stories.
You can read the biblical account which inspired the film in the book of Exodus. This story follows Moses and his journey to free the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians and Pharaoh.
In the midst of this story is the first Passover meal. God (Yahweh) instructs the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and paint the blood of the sacrifice over the doorframe of their houses to protect them from the angel of death, who would come and take the life of the firstborn of all families in Egypt.
The film depicts the angel of death hovering over the houses and entering where the blood was not on the doors. It would enter the house and take the last breath of the all the firstborn sons. When the angel saw the blood on the door posts it would not enter and pass over. This visual gave me an understanding of Passover being about the angel of death entering/not entering houses, but there is more. Passover is not about the angel of death, but about the presence of God.
God's presence
The sacrifice of animals was part of Israel's heritage. It was symbolic of a transaction: a relationship being formed. When blood was spilt it represented the restoration of relationship with God or the forming of relationships—or covenants—with others.
This system may sound barbaric to us, but it would have been clear to the Israelites what was going on. This action was not about fear of the angel of death taking their sons, but about God himself taking up a relationship with them.
The blood of the Passover lamb provided the opportunity for the presence of God to literally come and pass-over into their homes, thus protecting them from the messenger of the Lord—the angel of death. This moment became the foundation of Israel as after this night the Israelites were released from slavery and became a nation unto God.
This Passover moment was etched into Israelite culture, and is instituted as an important time of year to observe, this is why it is still celebrated today. It was a message about the freedom God offers through a blood sacrifice and relationship.
Passover and Christ
The Passover festival is not just a reminder of Israelite history in Egypt, but the prophetic meal and celebration of Christ's finished work on the cross. Christ's death occurred during Passover festival celebrations. This is important because Christ crucified is the fulfilment of the Passover lamb.
Just as the presence of God passed over into the homes of the Israelites because of the lamb that was slain, so too is Christ the ultimate lamb who was slain, whose blood was spilt and was painted over our door way for the very presence of God to take up his home in us.
This is quite an incredible and often very hard thing to fathom, but it's the truth. The very presence of God resides in your temple, your body, because of God's plan to dwell with his people and be their God.
In his word God continually ties us back to our roots; reminding us of the importance of knowing our heritage because it helps us to understand even more of who God the Father is. As Christians we follow Jesus and try to live like him. Jesus' example was his Father and he only did what the Father told him to do (John chapter 5, verse 19).
So, as we met around our table in our home in South Australia last week with a cooked lamb we were living out the very history and heritage of God and his family. This time of Passover reminds us of the amazing finished work of Jesus on the cross, and how it made way for the Father's very presence to take up home in us.
Maybe next year you might join me in celebrating the 'real' festival—the special, historic, prophetic and fulfilled festival of Passover.
Justin Monaghan is currently launching as a professional prophetic artist under the label JR Faith Creations and runs a creative home fellowship with his wife Liana. Justin is also heavily involved in his local surfing community of South Australia as a surf coach, a judge of surf contests and a member of Christian Surfers
Check out JR Faith Creations to see some of his art at https://www.facebook.com/Jrfaithcreations
Justin Monaghan's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/justin-monaghan.html