Torah: Shemot 33:12 — 34:26; Haftarah: Ezekiel 37:1-14
IS YOUR HEART READY FOR PASSOVER?
God gave us the commandment to observe the Passover on the 14 of Aviv, at nightfall. We now call this holiday, "The Festival of Freedom." But the Israelites were still slaves in Egypt on that night and, even though they left the next day, they got only as far as the desert. Not much freedom there either. Therefore, Passover has to have a deeper meaning because it seems that freedom from the world’s bondage it never ends. Indeed, we have seen its amplified meaning in the atoning sacrifice, the death and resurrection of Yeshua, and that is the real freedom, not the physical freedom but the spiritual one, the freedom from the slavery of sin. Without knowing Yeshua the Festival remains just a religious exercise void of its meaning.
The importance of Passover is amplified by a unique and surprisingly overlooked commandment of God found in Numbers 9:10-12: “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean because of a dead body, or is in a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. The fourteenth day of the second month at evening they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it to the morning, nor break any bone of it; according to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.”
If someone could not observe Passover on the first month of the Biblical year, the month of Aviv, God gives that person another chance on the second month, the month of Iyar, it is called Pesach Sheini, the Second Passover. This is the only Holiday that God made this kind of provision - giving people a second chance - signaling the importance of Passover which we, the Messianic believers, can understand because it symbolizes the substitutionary sacrifice of Yeshua on that Roman execution stake. This second Passover, Pesach Sheini, tells us once more that our God is a God of grace. He will not break off a battered reed and He will not put out a smoldering wick, but He will give you a second chance to believe in the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed by a terrible and agonizing death for you and me to receive forgiveness from our sins. On Passover God extends His grace and invites you to believe and receive His gift of freedom from the condemnation of sin, His gift of life and everlasting shalom. This is indeed the true meaning of the Festival of Freedom.
But Yeshua not only is inviting us to receive salvation, He is also asking us to remember Him through the observance of Passover.
"And when the hour had come He (Yeshua) reclined at the table and the Moshiach's Shluchim were with Him. And He said to them, "With great longing I have desired to eat this Pesach with you before I suffer. For I say to you that I may by no means eat it until it is fulfilled in the Malchut Hashem." And having taken the Cup of Redemption, having made the bracha, He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves, for I say to you that from now on by no means shall I drink from the pri hagefen until the Malchut Hashem comes." And having taken the Afikoman and having made the haMotzi, He broke the matzah and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body being given for you; this do in remembrance of Me." And He took the cup similarly after they ate, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, being shed for you" - Luke 22:14-20.
Yeshua said, 'Do this in memory of Me' and that “this” means partake of the elements of Passover - symbols of His body. He said, 'Until I come again observe the Passover in remembrance of Me,' because after He comes again, He will have fulfilled Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur - the Fall Holy Days, and then we will be observing the Festival of Sukkot to celebrate His presence among us. But until He comes again what we will do in remembrance of Him is to observe Passover, or the Lord's last Seder, because that is what He had fulfilled for us as the sacrificial Lamb of God.
But in order to prepare for the observance of Passover we have to search for "chometz," for leaven, in our hearts and to get it out of our lives. We have our hearts clean but maybe we overlook the little crumbs in dark corners. Leaven in Scripture is always symbolic of sin, but why is sin associated with leaven? Because just as a little leaven rises and leavens the whole lump of dough, so, too, a little sin can spread and ruin our lives, our fellowship with Him and with each other.
That was the case in Corinth, so Rav Shaul says in the first letter to the Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7: "Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened [in God's eyes]. For Messiah our Passover [Lamb] has been sacrificed." What he is saying to us is: clean out your heart. Then he continues in verse 8: "Let us therefore celebrate the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread [the matzah] of sincerity and truth."
Therefore, Yeshua asks us to proclaim His death through the Passover observance. Passover has such significance in the life of a Jewish person that God gives a warning: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (Passover), you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel” Exodus 12:18-19. If someone is not observing this Holidays he or she is being cut off, meaning that is removing himself or herself - not by God - from the congregation of Israel. That person becomes the fifth son, one that does not even know that he has a rich heritage from which he can gain a deeper relationship with God.
Eating Matzah and foods without leaven - being the symbols of a life without sin - during this Festival, are the only items required for this Holyday which should represent the way we live our lives, showing on the outside our transformed lives in Yeshua. We should also eat matzah throughout the year because Matzah is the symbol of the body of our Savior and, thus, remember what He did on our behalf.
Let's search for chometz in our lives, let's clean our hearts and be holy for He is Holy, and may this Passover feast be celebrated with a true Messianic spirit and joy.
Shabbat joy, peace, and blessings! Shabbat Shalom and Hag Pesah Sameah!
