It’s all about Jesus: Our Passover Lamb

“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”-1 Corinthians 5:6-7.

Without understanding the story of the Passover lamb it is hard to appreciate the statement Paul made here to the church in Corinth. The story of the Passover lamb was more than a bedtime story told to children. It was a legacy ingrained into the hearts and minds of every Israelite; so that when Paul referred to Jesus as “our Passover lamb” everyone understood clearly Paul’s inference.

So where did the idea of a Passover lamb originate? The Passover lamb was the animal that God instructed the Israelites to sacrifice, while they were in captivity in Egypt, on the night God struck down the first born sons of every household. This was the final plague that God used against Pharaoh that ultimately led to him releasing the Israelites from bondage. In the book of Exodus 12:5-13 we read how the Israelites were instructed by God to select a year-old male lamb without blemish or defect. At sunset they were to slaughter the lamb and apply the lamb’s blood to the door post and thresholds of their homes. If they obeyed God in this, He promised that He would cause the destroyer to pass over their homes. However, any home without the blood of the lamb would have their first born son struck down in the night. The lamb used in this sacrifice became known as the Passover lamb.

God instructed Israel to remember that night and observe the Passover feast as a lasting memorial:

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord-a lasting ordinance.”-Exodus 12:14.

Paul recognized that the Old Testament Passover lamb, although a reality in that time, was a mere foreshadowing of a better and final Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ. Paul wasn’t the only one to see this. John the Baptist, speaking of Jesus, declared “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”(John 1:29). Peter described Jesus as “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19). The Apostle John described him as “A Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.” (Revelation 5:6).

Jesus qualified to be our substitutionary sacrifice because he too was chosen at the prime of his life; without the spot or blemish of sin, to die for us. Through his sinless life and sacrificial death, Jesus became the perfect sacrifice giving people a way to escape death and the hope of  eternal life with God.

Just as the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their homes caused God’s judgment to pass over Israel; so Christ’s blood applied to the doorposts of our hearts causes God’s judgment to pass over us.

“How much more, then will the blood of Christ, who through the Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.”-Hebrews 9:14.

Just as the Passover feast was memorialized with a meal; so today we remember Christ’s sacrifice through the receiving of Holy Communion. When we receive the bread and the fruit of the vine we are receiving the Passover Lamb. Today truly is all about Jesus; so let us “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the World!”