The Jewish feast of Passover commemorates God’s great deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. In the book of Exodus, God commanded the people of Israel to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread every year to remember His faithfulness: “Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance” (Exod 12:14).[1]
Passover not only expresses God’s miraculous rescue of His people from slavery in Egypt, it also powerfully points to the redemption attained through Jesus (Yeshua). In this article, we will focus on three Passover symbols signaling messianic salvation: the Passover lamb, the unleavened bread (matzah), and the wine.
The Passover Lamb
In the instructions for Passover, God commanded the Israelites to take an unblemished, male lamb into their homes on the tenth day of the first month, which is later called Nisan in the Hebrew calendar (Exodus 12:3–5; cf. Esther 3:7). Then, on the fourteenth day of the first month, they were to sacrifice that lamb (Exod 12:6).
God also instructed His people to dip hyssop branches into the lamb’s blood and put it on the doorposts and lintels of their homes. The angel of death would then “pass over” their homes, striking only the firstborn, whether Israelite or Egyptian, in the homes lacking the lamb’s blood (Exod 12:21–37). The blood on the doorposts protected the Israelites, and others in their homes, from death and pointed to the reality of Messiah’s future sacrifice, which saves humankind from death due to sin.
The prophet Isaiah foretold about the suffering of the Messiah, the Lamb of God: “Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth . . . . Because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressor” (Isa 53:7; 12). In the New Testament, John the Baptist (Yochanan the Immerser) said of Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
It is no coincidence Yeshua was crucified at Passover. The Messiah of Israel was the ultimate Passover sacrifice, taking our sins upon Himself to redeem us from our sin and therefore save us from the consequence of sin—death. This is why the apostle Paul (Sha’ul) said, “Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The Unleavened Bread (Matzah)
At Jesus’ last supper, a Passover Seder, He lifted up the unleavened bread and said to His disciples, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). Just as the disciples were to recall the Exodus and all God had saved them from in Egypt, so now the matza was to remind them of his body, which was soon to be broken on the cross for a new kind of salvation for them.
The matzah resembles Jesus’ body in three significant ways. First, just as the bread is unleavened, Jesus was without “leaven,” which is a picture of sin in the Bible (Matthew 16:6, 12). Second, the bread is pierced during the baking process, just as Jesus was “pierced through for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5; Matt 27:26). Third, the bread is striped, just as Jesus’ body bore the stripes from the scourging of the Roman soldiers. This fulfills what the prophet Isaiah wrote: “And by His scourging we are healed” (Isa 53:5).
Another Jewish tradition with the matzah takes place at every Passover Seder, which can powerfully symbolize the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Traditionally, the host of the Seder will take the second (middle) piece of matzah out of a three-part matzah bag. The host will then break it in half, wrap it, and hide it. Then, after dinner, the children will go on a hunt to find the hidden piece of matzah, called the afikomen. The host must redeem the afikomen from the child who found it with a prize; afterward, the host breaks the afikomen into little pieces for everyone to eat. Similarly, the body of Yeshua—the second person of the triune God—was broken, wrapped, and buried, and came back to life for our redemption. While not understood this way among non-Messianic Jewish people, this tradition can be a powerful picture of the gospel!
The Wine
The Passover Seder is structured around four cups of wine. We know this tradition was in effect at the time of Jesus’ last supper. Its earliest mention is found in the Mishnah, the first work of rabbinic literature compiled around 200 CE. This collection of writings contains disagreements about the four Passover cups between Hillel and Shammai, two famous rabbis who existed in the first century BCE (before the time of Jesus).[2]
Two cups of wine come before dinner, and two cups come after dinner. We know it was the third cup of wine Jesus referred to when He said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20) because the text says it was lifted up after dinner. The third cup of wine at Passover is the “cup of redemption.” Jesus chose this symbol of Israel’s redemption from slavery to reveal a new covenant marked by redemption from sin through His blood (Jeremiah 31:31–33).
Conclusion
The celebration of Passover causes us to reflect on how its symbols—the lamb, unleavened bread, and wine—powerfully point to the redemption from sin through the blood of the ultimate Passover Lamb, Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, and how this redemption delivers us from spiritual death. Just as the first Passover displayed God’s redeeming the Israelites from physical bondage, so Jesus’ last Passover unveiled God’s ultimate redemption from spiritual bondage for the Jewish people and all humankind.
by Jennifer Miles
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[1] The Jewish people celebrate Passover on the first night, followed by the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread. Together, these feasts are commonly referred to as “Passover.”
[2] Zhava Glaser, “Passover in Rabbinic Writings,” in Messiah in the Passover, eds. Darrell L. Bock and Mitch Glaser, (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2017) 160.
