A feast of the Lord
Passover
The feast in Israel
Passover stood at the head of Israel's sacred calendar because it marked the night the nation was born out of slavery. In Egypt, under the tenth and heaviest plague, every household that feared the Lord killed a lamb without blemish and put its blood on the doorposts and lintel. When the destroyer passed through the land at midnight, he passed over every house marked by that blood. The people ate the roasted lamb in haste, dressed for the road, ready to leave. So Passover meant a rescue that came at the cost of a substitute life. Death was real that night, but it fell on the lamb instead of on the firstborn. Israel was told to keep this day forever as the memorial of the God who redeemed them with a mighty hand.
“In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s passover.”Leviticus 23:5
How it was kept
Leviticus fixes Passover at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. Exodus gives the fuller pattern the day recalls. On the tenth day each household took a lamb of the first year, a male without blemish, and kept it until the fourteenth. They killed it at evening, struck its blood on the doorframes, and roasted its flesh with fire. None of it was to be eaten raw or boiled, and no bone was to be broken. They ate it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, ready to travel. Nothing was to be left until morning; whatever remained was burned.
How Christ fulfills it
Paul says it plainly: Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. The New Testament does not merely compare Jesus to the lamb; it names him as the Passover itself. He died at the season of the feast, a lamb without blemish, and John notes that not one of his bones was broken, just as the Passover lamb was to be kept whole. His blood, applied not to doorposts but to the heart by faith, is what turns judgment away from those who trust him. The rescue Israel remembered every spring pointed forward to a larger exodus, out of the slavery of sin and the sentence of death. What the lamb did for one nation in one night, Christ does for all who are covered by his blood. The substitute has come, and the destroyer passes over.
“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:”1 Corinthians 5:7
Why it matters
Passover tells us that God's answer to human sin was never cheap forgiveness but a life given in our place. It kills the idea that we save ourselves. On that first night no household was spared because it was better than the others; every home needed blood on the door. The same is true now. We are not covered because we have earned it but because a spotless substitute has died and we have trusted him. That is deeply humbling and deeply steadying. Your safety does not rest on the strength of your faith but on the worth of the Lamb your faith is looking to.
Questions people ask
Why is Jesus called the Passover lamb?
Because Paul directly calls him that in 1 Corinthians 5:7, and the details fit: he was without sin like the unblemished lamb, he died at Passover, and John notes none of his bones were broken, echoing the command over the lamb. His blood turns God's judgment away from those who trust him, just as the lamb's blood shielded Israel.
Did Jesus die on Passover?
The Gospels place his death at the Passover season, and the timing is part of the point. The New Testament sees no accident in it. As Israel killed the lamb at that feast, Jesus, the true Lamb, was offered at the same time, so that the yearly memorial of rescue found its meaning in him.