By Joseph Shulam.
Passover Holiday is one of the most important holidays in the Jewish Calendar. It should not only be important to the Jewish Calendar, but it ought to be also the most important Holiday in the Christian Calendar. I will clarify this last statement for you down the line on this Jerusalem Prayer List. Passover is also one of the longest holidays in the Biblical Calendar. Passover and Sukkoth (feast of Tabernacles) are both eight full days of celebration. They are connected because they are associated with the Exodus from Egypt.
First, let me deal with the Passover in the New Testament and the explicit command not only for Jewish disciples to celebrate the Passover but also to the Church in Corinth. This congregation would have had a few Jewish brothers and sisters worshiping with the local Church, but it was predominantly Greek.
As an introduction to the general subject, I will bring Paul’s statement from Colossians 2:16 – 17. This text from the Apostle Paul is a key introduction to a predominantly Gentile church. Colossae was a critical church in an important city at a crossroads in today’s Turkey.
Colossians 2:16 – 19:
“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.”
Why does the Apostle Paul need to write such a comment to a church near the middle of today’s Turkey? Inside the community of the saints, there were problems of condemnation by some of the community concerning the biblical holidays. Some were celebrating the Biblical (Jewish) holidays, and others objected to the celebration of the Biblical holidays. So, the Apostle Paul must have heard about this controversy and is addressing it in this general epistle to the local Church in Colossae. In reality, this controversy about the Biblical and the pagan holidays is still a controversial issue.
The first thing that the Apostle Paul states is still very relevant for all Christians today: food or drink, festivals, new moons, and the Sabbath day. Paul follows with a very significant statement that is mostly still controversial and most often misunderstood by ignorance or on purpose. Verse 17:
“which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into things he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.”
Here are my comments on Paul’s statement:
1. Paul’s first point: Holidays, Sabbaths, our celebrations, and even our special foods and customs are all shadows of the future, which sounds strange, but it has significant meaning and importance for us, the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus). The holidays, the special foods that we eat, and the whole celebration in this world are always a form of reality that predicts the fullness of these events in the future in the Kingdom of God after the return of Yeshua (Jesus) to Jerusalem. At that time, we will celebrate these events together with our Lord. The holidays and even the customs around the Sabbaths and festivals are never perfected and fully grasped in our limited place, time, and circumstances in this world because they are limited. The Biblical holidays are shadows of the fulfillment of these historical celebrations with our Lord in the world to come.
In traditional Judaism, there is rich literature and stories about the fulfillment of these historical events that we celebrate, which will be perfected in the perfect world and the presence of God. 1 Corinthians 13:12 compliments this statement of Paul, which was written to calm down the controversies that existed in the first century and, in fact, still exist. The Church (all the Christian denominations without exception, including those who call themselves “messianic Jews” – are still a part of the same controversy that already existed in the time of the Apostle Paul.
2. Paul’s second and main point is that we stop judging each other on things that will be so clear and self-understood in the future. We are dividing the body of Christ, the sanctified community, and the Bride of Christ over things that are just shadows of the future that will be fulfilled in a new heaven and new Earth. This new place will not have wars and hate and will have access to the judge of all flesh with a raising of his hand, pierced by the Roman nails. Since these things have their fulfillment in the future, a future that we have not yet seen or experienced, it is wise not to fight or divide the Body of The Messiah now.
First Corinthians 13:12:
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”
We will know everything when Yeshua returns to Zion. Even in the best circumstances, we see through dark, dirty glasses.
Speaking about the Passover, there is a clear command, as clear and obligating as a command can be. The perfect command has three parts: The command, the why, and the how! As far as the Passover is concerned, we have the strongest positive obligatory command to celebrate the Passover Feast with all the precise details that point out what to do and why, how to do it, and keep the commandments concerning the feast:
“Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8 NKJV)
Notice the following point in this text written by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church: Paul is reminding them of something that they already know: clean the leaven from your lives and don’t forget that even a little leaven can spoil the whole lump, for making the Matzah Bread for Passover. Cleaning the whole house from any leaven is a significant task that almost all Jews in Israel do meticulously. I saw a very important Orthodox Rabbi on the evening before the day of Passover, with his hands and knees and a light in his hand, looking for any leaven in the house. The week before the Passover, our home is cleaned from top to bottom with water, soap, and other cleaning materials, even on top of our kitchen cabinets that house my old coffee cups handmade in Hebron, the city of the patriarchs. We use these cups and special dishes only on Passover. After Passover, we put them on top of the cabinets until next year’s Passover.
Paul’s following statement, his command, and instruction for the Church in Corinth are very interesting, and they have so many ramifications for us today that this prayer list is not able to contain this command and practice. In this text of 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul makes an analogy between eating the unleavened bread (Matzah) on Passover and ourselves becoming Matzah, unleavened bread. I don’t buy this idea, but it may be since the principle here is from the Apostle Paul. The principle can be true if we understand the text metaphorically. Leaven in the Bible can symbolize sin, and since the Messiah cleansed us from our sins, we are metaphorically by the sacrifice of the Messiah for our sins – we approach life, especially the feast of Passover, as the bread that we eat on Passover, the unleavened bread and that has no leaven.
Now comes the interesting part of Paul’s admonition to the brothers and sisters in the Church of Corinth. 1 Corinthians 5:8:
“Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Paul now commands in the most precise possible language to the Church in Corinth (predominantly gentile Church):
“Let us, the Jews and the Gentiles in the church, KEEP the feast by continually without old leaven, nor leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Dear brothers and sisters, there is no way to understand this text other than a clear command by the Apostle Paul that we, the disciples of the Messiah, at least ought to celebrate the feast of Passover. So many wonderful texts in the book of Exodus opened my eyes even when I was a very new disciple of Yeshua, still in high school in Jerusalem.
Many of my Christian brothers and sisters have not been receiving biblical teaching that stands and reports this New Testament teaching with an eye toward obedience and performance of God’s commands in the Bible. Yes, I have heard many sermons by good preachers and teachers about the wise builder who built his house on the rock and the foolish builder who built his house on the sand. There is nothing wrong with Yeshua’s teaching. What is terrible is preachers who are not teaching these words of the Apostle Paul. They are not a lesson in sophism or calligraphy. Paul intends them to be kept and practiced. God intended for us to be wise and not only hearers of the Word of God but doers of the Word of God.
The average Protestant Evangelical Church doesn’t keep any of the commands of the Lord or the apostles in the way it is commanded in the word of God. All I can say is this: Test me, and ask me why I am saying this in such harsh and judgmental language. My answer is simple: I love my brothers and sisters, and I love their communities (their churches), and I am concerned that they keep pagan holidays like Christmas, Halloween, and St. Valentine’s Day, but don’t keep a single biblical holiday, even those that are clearly commanded.
The celebration of the Passover is mentioned four times in the apostolic writings and exemplified even elaborately in the New Testament. Yeshua commanded his apostles, “Follow me!” The apostles commanded the Gentile brothers four simple commands in Acts 15. I don’t know a church that teaches its members to keep those commandments from Genesis chapter 9. They were commanded long before the Jews walked on the face of God’s Earth.
Churches all over the Western world are in decline. They are sacrificing their youth to the world and secularism. The Passover celebration is for your children. These are just a few verses:
“And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, “What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, “It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’” So, the people bowed their heads and worshiped.“
(Exodus 12:24-27 NKJV)
Similar texts also point to the celebration of the Passover for the children and future generations of disciples of the Messiah. Still, this prayer list is becoming very long, and it is already 2:34 A.M. in Jerusalem. So, with this note, I wish you all not to stop the restoration of the New Testament Church. The Lord’s Church started in Jerusalem and continues to spread good news from Jerusalem to the ends of the Earth.
Stand with us and pray for us, especially for Marcia’s health and for my health. We are both in bad shape and need your prayers and your help. There are a few more days for the celebration of Passover. At least have one meal with Matzoh bread.
Please remember that the Apostle Paul said that all the feasts of the Lord have at least one prophetic element for our future.
God bless you. Celebrate God’s commands to the early Church in 1 Corinthians 5:6 – 8.
Meditate and pray for wisdom and enlightenment from heaven!
Shabbat Shalom.