Intro
Easter has just passed us by. During this time we remember His death and resurrection. We remember that, much like the sacrifices of the Old Testament were made to pay for sin, Jesus’ sacrifice was made to pay for our sin. In this, I remember John the Baptist calling Jesus “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). And this fits with the idea of Jesus being a sacrifice like the sacrifices that the Jews were required to do. But this begs the question: Why a lamb? Why not a bull or any of the other animals? As my title kind of indicates, it all has to do with a particular Jewish holiday. So today I’m going to show the parallels between Passover and the Crucifixion and show how Jesus is the ultimate Passover Lamb.
Passover Summary
Before I dive into the parallels, I’m going to give a quick summary of the start of Passover found in Exodus 12. That’ll give a clearer picture of why Jesus is the ultimate Passover lamb. The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and after a handful of generations of oppression, God raised up Moses to lead them out. But Pharaoh was stubborn and refused. Consequently, God sent a series of plagues. After the first 9, God sent a warning to the Israelites. Unlike the other 9 plagues, the 10th – the death of the firstborn – would sweep through both the Egyptian and Israelite households. However, in His great mercy, God provided a way for His people to avoid the final plague. They were to take a lamb, kill it, and spread its blood on the doorposts of their homes and the angel of death would pass over their house.
Parallels
Just by reading my summary, I’m sure you can draw a pretty obvious parallel in that in both scenarios you’ve got guilty people (Israelites who were no saints and then all of humanity who are also terrible sinners) who are under a penalty and yet God provides a means of salvation because of His great love and mercy. So, that snippet alone demonstrates an important aspect to Jesus being the Passover lamb for all of humanity. But there is so much more. Let’s dive in.
Mature Male
According to Exodus, the lamb must be a 1 year old male. For a lamb, this is the age of maturity.
The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
Exodus 12:5 (NIV)
Likewise, Jesus was born as a man and was fully mature when He was crucified – Luke records Jesus was about 30 when He started (Luke 3:23) and had a ministry of about 3.5 years, which made Him about 33.5 years of age when He died.
No Broken Bones
As soon as you read this heading, you’re probably thinking of how you know none of Jesus’ bones were broken. That’s a pretty common thing to hear when talking about the crucifixion.
These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”
John 19:36 (NIV)
But did you know that the Passover lamb also could not have any of its bones broken?
Do not break any of the bones.
Exodus 12:46b (NIV)
Admittedly this is one I forgot about. What’s great is the specificity God used and then He ensured that Jesus fulfilled all that specificity.
Spotless
If you reference Exodus 12:5 again (I have it above under “Mature Male”), you’ll see that it also states the lamb must be “without defect”. A couple other very common ways to describe this is “without blemish” or “spotless”. God required perfection for the Passover lamb. And not just for this one instance, but every year when the Jews celebrate it. It represented salvation.
What about Jesus? Based on that paragraph you can say that Jesus’ sacrifice was for salvation. And we’ve also heard all the time that He was a sinless, perfect human being.
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
1 Peter 2:22 (NIV)
To take this parallel even further, the priests were required to carefully examine every single lamb brought into the temple for the sacrifices. And what happened to Jesus before His crucifixion? Pilate and Herod both examined Jesus and found no cause for Him to be sentenced to death.
Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
Luke 23:4 (NIV)
Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”
Luke 23:13-16 (NIV)
For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”
Luke 23:22 (NIV)
And this is just Luke’s account. Matthew’s account in Matthew 27 records that Pilate washed his hands declaring that he was innocent of Jesus’ blood. Jesus clearly fulfilled the requirement that the Passover lamb be perfect.
Substitution
In the story of the first Passover, the Israelites killed the lamb as a substitute for the lives of their firstborn. Jesus died as a substitute for us. We all deserve death and separation from God for eternity. But Jesus took that punishment upon Himself when He died on that Cross.
The Blood on the Doorposts
Even the placement of the blood on the doorposts has a parallel.
Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.
Exodus 12:22 (NIV)
Applying the blood to the top and sides of the door frame forms the sign of the cross. And not only that, but you also get the sign of the cross when the blood is dripping from the top and down the sides.
An additional thing found in this verse is the hyssop plant. Look at what John says in his gospel.
A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.
John 19:29 (NIV)
Even the plant used to apply the blood to the doorposts had a parallel in the crucifixion!
Freedom From Slavery
The death of the firstborn convinced Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. That first Passover led to their freedom from physical enslavement. Likewise, Jesus death leads to our freedom from spiritual enslavement.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:1-2 (NIV)
Timing
As if all this wasn’t enough, do you know when Jesus died? During the time that the lambs were slaughtered for Passover. Talk about divine timing! In addition, he entered Jerusalem on the donkey the same day that the lambs were brought into the city in preparation for the Passover. For Passover, the Jews brought the lamb into their home for a few days before killing it. Likewise, Jesus entered the city a few days before His death. On the same day. Crazy right?
Wrapping Up
This is a little bit of a shorter post, but it’s a powerful one. There are so many parallels between the Passover and Jesus’ Crucifixion. It just goes to show how much thought God put into it all and how much He wants His chosen people to see all the parallels and recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah – the conquering King, yes, but more importantly, the ultimate Passover Lamb – the one who saves from sin and sets us free for all eternity.
So today – though Easter is over – let us remember Jesus’ sacrifice as the ultimate Passover Lamb.
Outro
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