Spiritually speaking, this week is pretty busy. For my family, it’s not really because of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, or even Easter, but because of three other holidays that are either glossed over or forgotten completely. I’m speaking of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits.
Just like with most holidays and not a lot of nearby family, we did what we do best. Invite a variety of friends, decorate a festive table, and cook like its Thanksgiving.
These feasts, along with several others in the autumn, make up what we call God’s Holy Days. If you wanna know more about them, just check out Leviticus 23. There, God commanded His people to observe special days, not simply for the fun of it, but also to set into motion prophecy of Jesus’ coming.
The Spring Feasts remember how God rescued the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt while also announcing the coming of the messiah.
Fun Fact: Jews came from the line of Judah, only one of the twelve tribes. The entire twelve tribes of Israel were called Hebrews. God gave His feasts for all His people.
While celebrating the Passover we remember that Jesus acted in the position of the Passover Lamb, covering our hearts with His blood and forever saving us from the Angel of Death. His sacrifice is a gift we don’t deserve and can never repay.
One of the main focuses in Passover is the act of getting sin out of our lives. Job 11:14 says, “If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not injustice dwell in your houses.” (ESV paraphrased). Egypt represents the sin so ingrained in our lives that it almost seems normal. This week is the perfect week to allow God to show us the sins that continue to rule over us and save us just as He did that first Passover.
There are a lot of interesting traditions that come with celebrating Passover. If you’d like to know more about them, check them out here.
I was in high school when my family celebrated our first Passover. I’ll have to admit, I thought the Seder plate was weird and religious and I wondered if I really had to do these things in order to love God?
Six years later, I can finally say that the answer is no. We don’t eat horseradish and hide bread because we want to please God by celebrating Passover. But the traditions are there to help us remember. We are such a forgetful people, so quick to forget all that God has done for us. Not only in our lives, but in the lives leading up to ours.
Now that I’ve come to a better understanding of Passover, I have grown to love gathering a group of people together to share in the amazing power of Jesus. Him as the Passover Lamb was just the beginning. He was merely gearing up for battle against sin and death.
And in the end? He wins.
God always wins.
-LJM
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
Leah Jordan Meahl 