While both Evangelical Christians and Messianic Believers honor the crucifixion and resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus) and all that our Lamb of God has done for us, we express that celebration differently. As I write this, the vast majority of the traditional Christian world is celebrating Easter Sunday. Many in Southwestern Idaho where I live, have attended a dawn service in the nearby hills, welcoming in Easter and the anniversary of the resurrection with the rising of the Sun. Conversely, Messianics celebrated the Messiah as the Lamb of God during a Passover service, held either last Wednesday or Thursday evenings (the evening of Passover or the first full day of Passover).
I suppose Messianics could be considered somewhat grim in celebrating the death but not the life, at least from an Evangelical viewpoint. Why don’t we have an occasion where we celebrate the resurrection? Actually, we do. Both the sacrifice and the risen Lord can be seen in the Passover rendition in the Gospels; you just have to know where to look.
The following is taken from my response to comments made regarding my Why Don’t Christians Count the Omer blog post of April 10th. It establishes some of the Biblical “groundwork” for the Messianic view of the death and rising of the Lamb.
Actually, the crucifixion likely would have occurred on a Wednesday, the 14th of Nissan, the day when the sacrifices of the Passover lambs were made in the Temple in preparation for the Passover meal to be held at sundown. He died about 3 p.m. when the second lamb of the continual burnt offering was placed on the altar and would have been buried right before sundown when the Passover meal was to take place.
Mark 15:42-43 states, “Since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Passover meal), as evening approached, Yosef of Ramatayim (Joseph of Aramathea), a prominent member of the Sanhedrin who himself was also looking forward to the Kingdom of God…”
Luke 23:53-56 records, “He (Yosef of Ramatayim) took it (the body of Jesus) down, wrapped it in a linen sheet, and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, that had never been used. It was Preparation Day, and a Shabbat was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from the Galil followed; they saw the tomb and how his body was placed in it. Then they went back home to prepare spices and ointments. On Shabbat (in this case, Passover), the women rested in obedience of the commandment.”
John 19;40-42 says, “They took Jesus’ body and wrapped it up in linen sheets with the spices, in keeping with the Judean burial practice. In the vicinity of where he had been executed was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been buried. So, because it was Preparation Day for the Judeans, and because the tomb was close by, that is where they buried Jesus.”
All three accounts state that Jesus was buried on Preparation Day, right before a Shabbat, which would have been Passover. Matthew 28:1 says that the body of Jesus was discovered missing from the tomb after “Shabbats” (most Bibles express this in the singular but it’s plural in the Greek) towards dawn on Sunday (the first day of the week, though the Greek actually says “towards the first of the week” and not “towards dawn”, so it could have been anytime after sundown on Saturday). The discovery of the missing body of Jesus very early on the first day of the week is supported in Mark 16:1-2, Luke 24:1-2, and John 20:1.
Actually, this Passover was a perfect picture of the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection. Imagine Jesus hanging on the cross on Wednesday, from about 9 a.m and dying at about 3 p.m. Sometime before sundown, his body is taken off the execution stake on the day of preparation for the Passover meal. He had to be buried before the actual Passover began at sundown. This year (2009), Passover began at sundown on Wednesday, April 8th.
Now count ahead three days, the number of days Jesus said he would be buried. We arrive at Saturday, April 11th at sundown; 72 hours later. Once sundown occurs on Saturday, it’s the first day of the week. While most accounts state that the body of Jesus wasn’t discovered missing until sometime before dawn on Sunday, he could have risen at any point after sundown Saturday; the Third Day.
I did something a little unusual this past Shabbat; I recorded my teaching. The Shabbat for Saturday the 11th was called Pesach Shabbat Chol HaMoed, which is a special Saturday Shabbat that occurs during the week of unleavened bread. Since this was a special Shabbat and a special teaching, I thought it had something to offer a wider audience.
On the first day shall be a holy convocation and on the seventh day shall be a holy convocation for you, no work may be done on them, except for what must be eaten for any person; only that may be done for you. You shall safeguard the matzot, for on this very day I will have taken your legions out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree. In this first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening shall you eat matzot, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. For seven days, leaven may not be found in your houses…” -Exodus 12:16-19
On the first day there shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall do no laborious work. You shall bring a fire-offering to Hashem for a seven-day period; on the seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. – Leviticus 23:7-8
Outside of Israel, the Week of Unleavened Bread goes for eight days, rather than seven. This custom was adopted since outside of Israel in ancient times, people could not be certain if their local calendars fully conformed to practice of the temple at Jerusalem. The extra day was added to allow for this uncertainty and is still practiced among Diaspora Jews today.
Since yesterday was a special Shabbat and this is a special week for Evangelical Christians, Messianic Believers, and the Jewish people, I wanted to try and communicate to a wider audience how the Torah, the Prophets, and the Gospels are all interconnected and provide a single lens through which we can view and understand the Word of God, His intent in our lives, and the meaning of the Lamb of God for all of us.
Rather than trying to express all of that in a blog post, I thought it might be helpful to let you listen to the teaching, by providing a link to the mp3 recording of the class discussion. Please keep in mind that the teaching is almost two hours long, so if you’d like to listen to it, reserve enough time to enjoy the entire session.
Pesach Shabbat Chol HaMoed Teaching
I don’t teach by reciting a monologue. The teaching is a “guided discussion” based on a set of notes I prepare, with the Biblical references used as the basis for the teaching, and commentary on those references. Everyone in the class has a turn to read the references, and everyone is free to ask questions and make statements about the teaching. This usually results in a far more interesting class than if I just read from my notes while everyone listened. “Disagreements” are not only allowed but encouraged, as long as they’re respectful. If a person makes a statement (including the teacher), they have to be able to show the Biblical reference that backs up their comment. The Bible is always the final Word in any teaching, not the opinions or even the theologies of people.
I prepare a set of notes in PDF format for each week’s teaching, that the students can download and review ahead of the class. I’m providing a link to the notes for last Shabbat’s class here for your review.
Pesach Shabbat Chol HaMoed Notes.
Hopefully, the class successfully communicates that the story of the Passover and the Lamb of God is told describing the crucifixion and the resurrection and in fact, to the ascension and the long-awaited second coming. It’s my desire that by presenting this material here, you will find an illustration of the Messiah that you may not be accustomed to, but one that has always been in the Bible, just waiting for us to have the eyes to see it.
As always, please feel free to post comments regarding what you read and listen to here. Your feedback is welcome and I hope that what I’ve written and what our congregation’s teaching has offered, provides some illumination. Blessings.