Jesus In The Feasts (Part 1) - Our Passover Lamb Foreshadowed

In Colossians 3, Pauls says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Paul, Jesus, and the other NT authors make the claim that the Old Testament was a shadow, mystery, or preparation of which Christ is the fulfillment. Jesus said that the Scriptures speak of him. While it would be fun to discuss all of the rich theology embedded in the Old Testament and how it applies to Christ, my purpose here is different.

Skeptics of Christianity seek to discredit the divine unity of the Bible in one of two ways. First, they allege that the apostles attempted to force a harmonization between the life of Jesus and the Old Testament, showing that he was the messiah. They accuse the apostles of reading something into the Old Testament that really isn’t in there. The second method of attack is to say the New Testament authors, knowing the foreshadowing of the Old Testament, made up many of the sayings and deeds of Jesus so that it would appear he is in fact the messiah.

Skeptics are forced to take one of these two routes. If the Old Testament really did foreshadow and prophesy of a Messiah and Jesus did in fact fit all those criteria, then we are left with a rather strong proof of his divine claims. In this article and the following three, I want to discuss the four spring feasts of Israel and how they point to Jesus (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost). They are a form of prophecy that in hindsight clearly foreshadows the work of Jesus AND many of the fulfillments couldn’t have been invented by Jesus’ followers. The conclusion, I am convinced, is that Jesus is the promised Messiah and this reality is forced upon us by the fulfillment that would be impossible without divine orchestration.

Many people, when they think of Biblical prophecy, expect some sort of clear one to one correspondence between prophecy and fulfillment. But the Biblical mode of prophecy is often somewhat cryptic so you can’t exactly predict who, when, and where; however, once the fulfillment has come to pass, you can look back and see with clarity what the prophecy was declaring. There are many reasons why this is actually to be expected, but I won’t address those at this point. So let’s look at the first of Israel’s major feasts/holidays, and show how upon reflection, it was a clear foreshadowing of Christ. What’s more, I want to show how the New Testament authors couldn’t have made up all the details that make this fulfillment possible.

Passover marks perhaps the most famous event in Israel’s history. Having been in bondage and slavery to the Egyptians for 400 years, God has finally decided to save his people and give them the promised land. To bring about this deliverance, God is going to bring judgement upon both Israel and Egypt. However, the Israelites who follow God’s Passover instructions (i.e. have faith in his provision of salvation), will be saved from this judgement.

In Exodus chapter 12, God gives the instructions for Passover. The Israelites were to take a firstborn lamb without spot or blemish. They were to kill this lamb, but not break its bones. The Passover was to be celebrated on the 14th day of the first month. During the first passover, the blood of the lamb was to be smeared on the wooden door posts in both a horizontal and vertical fashion. There were other instruction for the eating of the passover meal, but this will be covered in the next article on the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

A plain fact of history is that the Jews were expecting a Messiah. Jews attempted to take varying strands of messianic scriptures and place them into a coherent whole. These expectations (along with expectations for a new age) were for a king, rest with God, peace, forgiveness of sins, etc. There was even some sort of expectation for a new covenant as prophesied in Jeremiah. But up until the end of the Old Testament, this is left hanging with no resolution.

Now the clear conviction of the early church and the apostles is that Christ died for our sins. Paul refers to him as our passover lamb and Peter refers to him as the lamb without spot. John the Baptist says that he is the lamb of God sent to take away the sins of the world, and Jesus is recorded as making the claim that his death was for the sins of the world. Even from a skeptical point of view, this is the claim of the earliest of Christ followers.

Now let’s look at the events of Jesus life and death, and see how they square with Passover. Looking back, do we see a correlation, as Paul indicates? What I find interesting is that the New Testament authors don’t seem to expound upon these connections, but only mention them in passing. So you don’t get the impression that they are attempting to force a “fit” with Jesus and the passover. There is a natural flow as if they are expecting the events to be apparent to the reader.

Let’s take each of the main points of the passover ceremony and compare them with the life and death of Jesus.

Firstborn Lamb - Assuming the skeptic position, there is little controversy that Jesus was the firstborn of Joseph and Mary. Christian convictions are that Jesus was the Son of God, but by either standard, Jesus was a firstborn.

Without Spot or Blemish - Again, assuming the skeptic position, we can’t prove that Jesus was absolutely perfect. However, we can say that his followers had this belief, his critics found no legitimate fault in him, and he is commonly viewed around the world, by friend or foe alike, as one of the greatest moral figures of mankind. In fact, he is likely viewed by all as the greatest moral figure of all time. If there was ever a person to be without spot or blemish, Jesus must be at the top of the list.

An Innocent Killing - Jesus, by all accounts was killed at the hands of the Romans by the request of the Jews for blasphemy. Once again, skeptic and believer alike would nearly all says that Jesus’ death was unjust and a good example for us all. But at the very least, he was killed.

On Passover - Once again, the consensus of history is that Jesus was killed on passover. This is quite remarkable in terms of timing. If we are giving odds, it would be 1/365.

No Bones Broken - An interesting fact here is that prior to Jesus death, but sometime during his life, the Romans took judicial power away from the Jews. If the Jews wanted to execute someone, either the Romans had to do it, or the Jews needed permission. So before this judicial theft, it is likely that Jesus would have been killed by stoning, which would have resulted in broken bones. However, due to Roman judicial authority, he was killed by crucifixion. And due to his quick death, from a historical perspective, he likely did not have any bones broken.

Blood On The Posts - Jesus’ blood was literally smeared on the horizontal and vertical posts of the cross, in very similar fashion to the door posts of the Jewish homes.

It should also be noted, that Daniel 9 prophecies that an anointed one would come during the timeframe that Jesus came, and this person would be “cut off”, atonement for sins would happen, and the sacrificial system would be put to an end. It just so happens that less than 40 years after Jesus’ death, the temple was destroyed and the Jews haven’t offered sacrifices since.

So now we turn to the question of Paul’s statement that the feasts are a shadow of Jesus. Given that most of the facts listed above about the life and death of Jesus are fairly uncontroversial, it does seem that there is a very strong correlation between the death of Jesus and the passover celebration. Given that the synoptic Gospels don’t explicitly attempt to make this strong connection to the passover lends further credibility to our thesis.

At just this one point of the Old Testament, and there are scores of others, Jesus seems to fit with precision the fulfillment of passover. Just another random coincidence by the world’s most influential person, or divinely orchestrated love for humanity? You decide.