Passover and the Christ

The day that this article is posting, April 1, 2026, is the Day of Passover. This day is a day of commemoration for the Israelite people for the remembrance of the final plague that God placed upon the nation of Egypt just prior to the Israelites leaving Egypt after 430 years there. This marked the end of their slavery and the beginning of the journey by which God truly made the Israelite nation His.

The Passover celebration centres largely around the meal, the format of which is partially set out by God Himself in the Scriptures, but which has also taken certain elements of tradition and interwoven them into the ritual. This celebration has been in effect for thousands of years, ever since God instructed Moses to make it an annual tradition beginning the year after the Israelites exited Egypt.

The Passover became relevant to the Christian faith at the moment when the Christian faith began to take root, almost 2000 years ago, but the connections between the Passover and the Christ stem all the way back to the beginning. While the meal was instituted as a remembrance of a past event, several aspects of the meal were pointing to a future event.

I will be basing a lot of what I am writing here on a book called "Christ in the Passover", by Ceil and Moishe Rosen. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how the Passover and Christianity relate to each other, and how the Passover is intended to point the Israelites to their Messiah. In this article, I am covering only certain aspects of what this book talks about, so it is still worthwhile to get a copy of this book and read it for yourself.

My own background is not Jewish, but I think that not understanding the cultural relevance of Scriptural passages diminishes our own understanding of Scriptures. If we can tap into the cultural knowledge of Messianic Jews, which is those who have grown up in and still practice some Jewish practices, but who also recognize Jesus as the Messiah, then we can learn more about how God works and thinks, granting us a better understanding of His Word as well. In order to get through this in a reasonable length of time, I will have to skip explaining some doctrinal issues and trust that my readers are either aware of them already or that we will touch on them at another time.

God is holy, meaning that He is set apart for worship. God is also sinless in that, in order for God to sin, He would have to act against His own desires and self-interest, which He will never do.

Man is not holy in that man is not worthy of praise, and man is not sinless in that he will often act against the desires and interests of God, causing us to fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

In order for God to be able to bring His own creation to Himself, there is a price that must be paid for our failures to attain to righteousness in order to be able to appear before God; and the cost is very high. God instituted a blood sacrifice of an innocent creature to atone for the shortfall of mankind, namely the blood of a lamb. Lambs are probably just about the cutest and most innocent creature that we can envision, so the thought of spilling the blood of this creature to atone for our own failings is supposed to be difficult to consider. God uses this in the object lesson of the Passover celebration to point His people, the Israelites, to the One that would bear the guilt of their shame in the time yet to come.

The lamb that was to be chosen for the sacrifice at the time of the original Passover was to be perfect, without any spot or blemish, and it was to be one year old. When we read of the lamb that is to be chosen in Exodus 12:5, we see that "Your lamb shall be an unblemished male", and in Deuteronomy 15:21, we also read that only a substitutionary lamb which is perfect can make atonement; "if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God." To ensure that this was actually the case, the lamb was supposed to be separated from the rest of the flock and it was to be brought in to live with the family beginning on the tenth day of the first month. Over the course of then next few days, it was inevitable that the family would become attached to the lamb as they cared for it and regularly inspected it from nose to tail, from ears to hooves. They would have to feed the lamb and bed the lamb down and clean up after it. Children, in particular would develop an affection for the lamb over the course of the four days of the lamb's care and inspection. 

The Bible even intimates this relationship with the lamb when we carefully read about this chosen lamb. In Exodus 12:3, we read that the Israelites are to “take a lamb” for each household. Verse four states that “the lamb” is to be shared in order that it would be completely eaten on the night of the meal, and Exodus 12:5 refers to “your lamb” as it talks about the perfect nature of the lamb. The Bible presents a progression of relationship with the lamb that was to be the sacrifice for protection of those in the house.

On the 14th day of the first month, the lamb was to be slaughtered at twilight and eaten in its entirety that same night, leaving none of it for the next day. It was also important that the means by which the lamb was killed resulted in the spilling of it's blood. This would be a very difficult time for the family, having been in such close proximity to the lamb and having cared for it. Witnessing its death was a gruesome ordeal. A passage from "Christ in the Passover" puts it this way; "By the end of the fourth day, it (the lamb) must have won the affection of the entire household, especially the children. Now they all must avoid it's big, innocent eyes as the head of the house prepared to plunge in the knife. While the meat was a treat, how could they enjoy eating their lamb's flesh?"

The book states that on the night of the original Passover, the lamb was killed at the door of the house. Exodus 12:22 states that the blood of the lamb was to be caught in a basin. The basin referred to in Exodus 12 was placed or dug at the threshold of the door in order to catch groundwater before it would enter through the doorway. This was an Egyptian practice to protect their houses from flooding. It would be similar to the old practice of digging a trench around a tent to protect from overland flooding during a heavy rain. That blood that was captured in the basin was to be smeared on the lintel and both posts of the door using a hyssop branch in order to mark the house as one protected by God. This becomes an important aspect of the Passover.

According to Exodus 12:46, the Jews are supposed to be very careful not to break any of the bones of the lamb as it was being prepared and eaten. It is also specified that the meat of the lamb was to be roasted over a fire; no other means of cooking was allowed. Additionally, Exodus 12:8 states that the meat is supposed to be eaten along with bitter herbs.

The Passover meal includes pieces of matzo bread that are to be handled according to specific means. First of all, the matzo bread is an unleavened bread, which means that it contains no yeast. Also, there are to be three pieces of matzo that are used in the celebration of the Passover Seder. These pieces are to kept together, yet separated by pieces of cloth between them. These things may seem to be innocuous, by they serve a very specific purpose.

One other important aspect of the Passover meal were several cups of wine, which were to be consumed at specific points during the course of the meal. If I remember correctly, this is actually supposed to be one shared cup and several servings of wine presented in that cup that were supposed to be shared by all who were at the table, though I could be wrong about this detail.

This is just a very quick rundown of some of the most important aspects of the Seder meal as it relates to the topic that I am writing about today. As I have already mentioned, this meal was instituted as a remembrance of the escape from Egypt, but it also points to the long-awaited Messiah so that the Israelites would recognize the One in whom their ultimate salvation was to come. So we will now look at the above noted elements of the Passover Seder and see how they point to Jesus the Christ.

We see that the chosen animal for the Passover was a male lamb that was just approaching the prime of it's life and it was supposed to go through a time of examination to ensure that it was perfect. The lamb for the Passover has matured through it's adolescence. It has grown strong and it's natural urge is to seek a mate with which to procreate. That lamb is at the prime of it's life when it is set aside and inspected carefully to ensure that it meets the threshold of perfection prior to the taking of it's life.

The Bible refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God more than 30 times in the New Testament. Jesus entered His ministry at the age of 30 years old, arguably a time in which a man has typically achieved the foundation of a career, the marriage to a woman that he loves, and at least the start if not already the completion of his family unit. Life is at it's fullest for a man at this time. During the course of His ministry, Jesus was subjected to examination through questions and challenges from lay people and religious leaders as to His purpose and His positions on matters of legal, moral and religious issues. He was faced with temptations and trials, and according to 1 Peter 1:19, He was a Lamb without "blemish or defect." The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is able to sympathize with us and He was suitable as a substitutionary sacrifice; "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin." (Hebrews 4:15).

It is interesting that devout Jews are reticent to read, and are even warned against reading, Isaiah 53. This is deemed to be a dangerous passage for those who are young in the faith. Isaiah 53 is understood by Christians to be a passage that is talking about the Messiah, and verse seven specifically refers to the Messiah being lead as a lamb to the slaughter; "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth". I suspect that Jewish elders are afraid that this passage of their Scriptures would (correctly) lead young Jewish scholars to recognize Jesus as their Messiah.

As those who can recognize the Lamb of God in hindsight, and as we choose a relationship with The Lamb of God, He becomes our Lamb of God and His death takes away our penalty; His blood stands between the judgment of God and our failures. His blood on our lives stands between us and God's judgment, just as the blood on the doorway did in Egypt.

The Passover lamb was slated to be killed at twilight, that is after sunset, on the Day of Passover, which in my last article, I presented as being on the Thursday of that week according to our modern calendar. Jesus was crucified the morning of Friday, still the Day of Passover, and His body was taken down from the cross on that same day, leaving no evidence for the next day.

The manner in which the Passover lamb was to be killed resulted in the spilling of its blood, as I mentioned above. Leviticus 17:11 lays out the necessity for blood to be spilled in order to make atonement for the failures of another; "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’" When an innocent creature dies in the place of a guilty creature and it's blood is poured out, the penalty on the guilty party is covered "by reason of the (innocent) life" that was poured out through the pouring out of blood. A guilty party cannot cover the sins of another party, because their blood would only cover their own guilt; an aspect of capital punishment as instituted by God. The lamb of the Passover was innocent, so it's blood covered those in the houses. The Lamb of God was innocent, so His blood covers those who seek refuge under its covering.

In the case of the Passover lamb, that blood marked the entrance to the house with the spilled blood at the threshold, as well as the blood that was placed on the top and the sides of the doorway with a hyssop branch. The significance of this is that there are four places that bore the blood, which align with the blood of Jesus spilled from His head by the crown of thorns, both of His outstretched hands by the nails, and at the foot of the cross by the nail through His feet, as well as the blood that collected throughout the ordeal; the top (lintel), both sides (both posts) and the bottom (the basin).

There is also significance to the use of the hyssop branch to apply the blood to the doorways. In Leviticus 14 and Numbers 19, we read that hyssop was used in purification ceremonies; Hebrews 9:19 tells us that Moses sprinkled the book of the Law and the people with blood mixed with hyssop to consecrate them, stating that "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you", showing that "even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood"; and still today, hyssop is recognized for it's qualities of healing and cleansing. 

We have seen that there is a stipulation that the meat of the lamb was to be roasted with fire prior to being eaten. In no way was it acceptable to boil, bake or otherwise cook the lamb. Subjecting the lamb to the heat of flames is symbolic of the Lamb of God being subjected to God's judgment. This was the point of His coming; to take the judgment for our sins. Quoting from "Christ in the Passover"; "The prophet Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would bear the sins of many, be wounded for sins not His own, be stricken with God’s judgment and be numbered with the transgressors."

When we look at the consumption of the meat of the lamb on the Day of Passover, it was to be eaten along with bitter herbs. It is believed that this bitterness of the herbs is intended to point to the sorrow, weeping, and mourning that the Israelites had been subject to over the previous 400 years. Looking forward to the day of Jesus' death, we know that His followers felt the same bitterness at the sight of the One whom they had come to understand was their Messiah getting killed by the hands of men. They did not understand that this was necessary because they did not know what was yet to come.

Another very important aspect of the consumption of the meat was the regulation that not a single bone of the lamb was to be broken. At the time of the original Passover, this will not have made sense to the Israelites, but again in hindsight, we can see the significance and how this points to the Lamb of God. When Jesus was crucified, we are told that He died before the two thieves who were crucified with Him died. We know this because in John 19 these details are laid out for us, as well as the purpose for this. Verses 31-37 read, "Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; 33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. 36 For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.(Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20)” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.(Zechariah 12:10)”"

Note also that the above passage from John 19 also tells why the evidence of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God was not supposed to be left until the next day; it was not only the regular weekly Sabbath, but it was also a High Sabbath due to the Day of Passover. So we see at least a possible correlation to the regulation that nothing of the Passover lamb was to be left over, but all evidence of it was supposed to cleaned up before the next day.

This passage from John 19 also points us to something else that is a little more vague and not very well known about the Seder meal. We see John reference that fact that Jesus was pierced with a spear, and the result of this is that a mixture of blood and water burst forth from the wound. There are numerous aspects that one can see in this, but I will talk about just three things.

First, according to 1 John 5:5-9, Jesus came as one born of both water and blood. This was written to show that Jesus came as Divinity wrapped in human flesh. He had to clarify this because there were some in those days, as there are now, who claim that either Jesus was not divine or that He did not come in human flesh. Second, this detail medically shows that Jesus died from heart failure. This detail indicates to medical professionals that the lungs and the heart sack were pierced by the spear, and water and blood in the heart sack indicate heart failure. Given that He dies earlier than the thieves and that He had, just prior to His death, proclaimed His separation from the Father (“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”; Matthew 27:46), from whom He had never before been separated, one could claim that His heart literally broke due to His separation from God after having taken on the sins of the world. God could no longer be with Jesus because Jesus took on our sins and was unclean. If Jesus had died from the same cause as the two thieves, which is normally asphyxiation from the hanging, His legs would most likely have been broken at the same times as the thieves' legs in order to speed up His death, and His death would not follow earlier prophecies that point to Him.

The third thing that this points to brings us back to the Passover Seder. According to "Christ in the Passover", there were some new customs added to the Seder early in the first century. One of these new customs was to mix the wine of the meal with water. "From a passage in the Mishnah, (Pesahim 7:13) it would appear that the wine was warm because the water was heated. If this is true, then the wine also graphically represented the blood of the Passover Lamb." The wine mixed with warm water would mimic the blood and water that poured out from the wound in Jesus' side.

Now I know that this article is getting a little long already, but stick with me here. We are coming up to what I think is the biggest part of the Seder that is overlooked by all Jews since the death and the resurrection of Jesus, and it all revolves around the unleavened bread, or bread made without yeast.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the Day of Passover and lasts for seven days. Prior to the start of the feast, all yeast is to be removed from the house. There is even an elaborate custom that is supposed to be enacted to bring the importance of this to life for the children of the household. Due to time, I will not go into the details of this specific custom.

In the Bible, yeast, or leaven, is often used to depict sin in one's life, and the putting away of the leaven signifies the putting away of one's sin. According to "Christ in the Passover", “The ancient Hebrew women used the sourdough method of leavening their bread. Before forming the dough into loaves ready for baking, they would pull off a chunk of the raw dough and set it aside in a cool, moist place. When it was time to bake another batch of bread, they brought out the reserved lump and mixed it into the fresh batch of flour and water to leaven the next loaves (again setting aside a small lump of the newly mixed dough). Each “new generation” of bread was organically linked by the common yeast spores to the previous loaves of bread. The human race bears this same kind of link to the sin nature of our first father, Adam.”

In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul refers to this practice when he writes, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump (a new person), as ye are unleavened (cleansed). For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” So the unleavened bread that is used in the Passover Seder is connected to the sins that one has in their life, and the Passover meal points to Christ who takes away the sins of the world. But there is more to this bread.

Since the bread is made without yeast, it is not supposed to rise and it is to remain a flat bread. When you bake dough that is supposed to remain flat, it tends to develop bubbles of air inside it, which defeats the desired final product. To stop this from happening, the baker pierces the dough over and over again so that the air can escape and the bread bakes flat. We see this with modern soda crackers. Additionally, these piercings tend to cause the matzo to brown unevenly. The result is bread that is both pierced and striped, which points us to Isaiah 53:5 and Zechariah 12:10.

Remember how I said that Isaiah 53 points Jewish readers to Jesus as their Messiah? Isaiah 53:5 says, "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging (whipping) we are healed." The King James version says, "with his stripes we are healed." Zechariah 12:10, speaking of the Messiah, says, "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn." And Peter brings it together in his first epistle; 1 Peter 2:24 (KJV); "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." The bread of the Passover meal points to the body of Christ, that was striped by the whip and pierced by the spear because of our sins. 

 

Furthermore, at the last supper, Jesus tells His disciples to practice the rite of communion as a remembrance to Him, where He told them that the bread signifies His body that was going to be broken, and the wine signifies His blood that was going to be spilled. For centuries, the Jews have been commemorating the sacrifice of the Lamb of God and they didn't even know it. But there's still more.

 

As part of the original ritual of the Passover meal, three pieces of matzo bread, are to be placed either in a white cloth bag with three separate compartments, or stacked one on top of another on a plate with a cloth napkin separating each of them, and then covered with another napkin. During the course of the meal, the leader is to take the middle piece of matzo, break it in half, place one half back with the other pieces and hide the other half to be found later by the children of the meal. There is no Jewish tradition that explains the purpose of this act, but the Messianic Jew recognizes what it is.

 

Deuteronomy 6:4 says “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” The original Hebrew word used here is echad which means a composite oneness, not an absolute number one. The three pieces of matzo signify the trinity of the the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, which Orthodox Jews do not recognize as they do not acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God. It is the middle piece, signifying Jesus, that is removed from the presence of the other two for a short time. It is broken with part of it abiding with the other two parts and another being hidden away for a time.

 

Jesus’ body was broken for our sins and was hidden away for a time in the tomb. The women first, and then the disciples searched for Jesus but could not find Him, but when he was revealed there was much rejoicing among his followers. The same happens when the matzo bread is broken, hidden away, then searched for and found by the children. There is much celebration and everyone takes part in the eating of the matzo after the pieces are reunited. Orthodox Jews do not grasp the significance of this important part of their own Passover meal ritual.

A newer aspect of this was added at some point after Jesus’ death and resurrection. This change involved calling the hidden part of the matzo the 'aphikomen'. Taken from a Greek word, aphikomen means “that which comes after”. It is believed that food that is consumed when the hunger has been satisfied is more savoured than that which came before. What remains hidden to the Jews is that the new covenant is better and more desirable than the old covenant which they refuse to abandon.

The aphikomen is the larger half of the matzah that is broken earlier in the Seder meal. This larger piece, after it is broken off, is wrapped in a cloth and hidden away from sight, in the same way that Jesus' body was wrapped in cloth as put in a tomb, away from sight. Some families encourage their children to seek the aphikomen in it’s hiding place, and if it is found, they are to take it and hide it away themselves. If these Jews would only recognize that we are to search for the Christ, and when we find Him, we should hide the knowledge of Him away within ourselves, their eyes could be opened. The step of the Seder when the aphikoman is eaten is aptly called Tzafun, which means "hidden, which is appropriate since the meaning of this practice is still hidden from the understanding of the Jews who practice this.

Jesus instituted a new memorial at the Last Supper. After the Passover meal had been eaten is when He broke the bread and served the wine, instituting the act of communion. His sacrifice was to become the final sacrifice; to die once, for all. The Passover celebration points to Jesus as the Messiah in numerous ways, yet those who celebrate the Passover Seder remain blinded to the Truths that are hidden within the meal itself. Some day their eyes will be opened and their hearts will be broken, when they, "will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn." At this time, they will see that Jesus is their Messiah, that He is the only way to the Father, and that all the things that they do to try to earn Heaven are worthless; that the only way to Heaven is through relationship with their Messiah, Jesus the Christ. We should be praying for Israel to see Him before that great and terrible Day of the Lord.