Passover and Jesus

The Messiah in the Passover, Edited by Darrell Bock and Mitch Glaser

Why should Christians celebrate and remember the Passover?  This is a striking question that needs to be understood as well as the historical and theological context of the Passover.  However obscure we sometimes view the Old Testament, there is some significant reasons why we should reach back and study the Passover.  Mitch Glaser in the Introduction states, “When Christians celebrate the Passover, they grow in their understanding of the Old Testament, affirm the Jewishness of the Gospel, deepen our understanding of the Lord’s Supper, and build community with fellow Christians…” (20).  This book is answer to why celebrate the Passover but even more importantly an answer to what the Passover is and what it signifies to us today.  The various contributors of this book, Messiah in the Passover, bring a wealth of ministry experience in relating the Jewishness of both Jesus and the Old Testament to their Christian faith.

Any good understanding of the Passover will inevitably be an examination of the first five books of the Bible, particularly the narrative in Exodus.  Robert Walter zeroes on some key concepts about Exodus 6 by looking at the concept of promise in the passage.  He writes, “The third promise is that God will redeem Israel.  The Hebrew verb ga’al used here can carry the sense of repurchasing something that once belonged to you.  It points to a transaction between two parties where the purchaser pays a price, and as a result takes ownership.  Likewise, through the Passover, God will pay a price (Lamb)to repurchase Israel, his firstborn from slavery, taking ownership and possession of his people and bringing them into the Land.” (35)  The buying back of that which was lost and now is one’s own is particularly powerful because it points to a God who is not willing to discard something that sinned, no matter how bad the action.  Further, the promise points to an overarching theme of the Passover, that God will make good on his promises, even at great cost to Him.

Brilliantly, Walter continues in his examination of the biblical material to draw significant parallels between Joseph and Jesus.  He writes, “Joseph’s words of hope find fulfillment through the blood of the lamb at Passover as Israel is set free from Egypt…The New Testament’s words of hope find fulfillment through the blood of Yeshua our Passover Lamb…”  These poignant connections between Joseph and Jesus give us confidence that God is working for his people in most extraordinary ways (Joseph from barely alive to leader of a nation, Jesus from despised and suffering servant to victor).  These words of hope are not vain wishful thinking but rooted in God’s historical actions, and this is accounted for both in Exodus and in the New Testament.

This was a very good book relating the Passover to the present day Christians, helping us with a fuller understanding of the importance of Passover.

Thanks to Kregel Publications for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.