1 Corinthians 5:7 - Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Paul writes this letter to the Corinthians believers who were most likely familiar with the Exodus event of the Passover
To understand why Christ was referred to as the Passover by Paul, we need to understand the Exodus event better
Introduction to Passover:
The Passover, as you may be aware, has been celebrated by the Jews since their Exodus from Egypt.
Egypt was devastated by a series of nine plagues. But there was still one last plague, the most severe of all. With all (or at least most) of the previous plagues, Israel was exempted. Their cattle did not die (Ex. 9:6). Their crops were unharmed (Ex. 9:26). Even the was no continuous darkness in their land (Ex. 10:23). Not because they did something to avoid these other plagues, it was God who kept those plagues away from them.
The final plague was different. God announced that He was going to kill every firstborn son in Egypt (includes the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived) - from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. Exo 12:12. So this plague included everyone.
You may won why the firstborn of the Israelites were included?
Ezekiel 20:4–10 – Israelites worshipped the false gods of Egypt! God can’t simply ignore that sin.
Romans 3:10-12 - “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable
But the Israelites had a provision to escape final plague
Exo 12:13 - Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Here’s where the Passover comes in. God instructed the Israelites to slaughter an unblemished lamb and make a meal of it. They were to eat in a hurry, ready to get up and go, because the Lord was about to call them to move out of Egypt.
The Passover lamb and the celebrations were the shadow of Christ substitutional death for us. That was to show that Jesus would die one day as our Passover lamb.
Let’s see the instructions of the Passover:
1. 12:1 – 3 - Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.
The lamb was the animal chosen. Unlike other sacrifices where bulls and pigeons were allowed, for Passover, it was only the lamb.
It was symbolic of Jesus who would be the lamb slain for the sins of mankind
John 1:29 - The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world
2. 12:5 - Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.
- It was to be a male lamb without blemish
This represents Jesus who remained spotless and sinless
- 1 Peter 1:19 - But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot
3. 12:6 - now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.
The Passover lamb was to be chosen and set apart on the 10th day of the first month of Nissan.
Fulfillment: On the 10th day of Nissan, Jesus rode into Jerusalem where he was going to be arrested and crucified
The lamb was to be inspected for four days until the 14th day of the month for any spot or blemish that might disqualify it as the sacrificial lamb.
Fulfillment: Jesus openly taught in the synagogue until the 14th day of the month and they could find no no fault in Him.
At the appointed time, the Passover lambs were slain by the whole congregation of Israel.
Fulfillment: On the day of the Passover, Jesus was crucified just as the Passover lambs were being slaughtered.
4. Exodus 12:46 - None of its bones must be broken. This was also symbolic that none of Jesus’ bones were broken.
John 19:31-34 tells us that when the soldiers wanted to break His legs to hasten his death, they found that He was already dead, so a soldier pierced His side with a spear but did not break His legs.
Roman crucifixions were designed to produce maximum pain for a prolonged period — victims' feet and wrists were usually nailed to a wooden cross, which would hold them upright while they suffered a slow and agonizing death. As per researchers, this often takes several days for the victim to die. In most cases, crucified bodies were not even buried. Instead, the bodies were often left on the cross to rot or to be eaten by animals, but in some cases, they were removed and buried. To speed death, soldiers often broke the legs of their victims to give no chance of using their thigh muscles as support.
In the case of our Lord Jesus, since the next day was the high day Sabbath, the Jews did not want the bodies on the cross (that would be a defilement for the Jews). So, they requested that the bodies be taken away. This meant that the victims had to die. So, hasten the death, the soldiers broke the legs of the two criminals who were crucified with Jesus. However, when they came to break Jesus’ leg, they found that He was already dead.
John 19:31-34 - Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the high holy day of Passover, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
Jesus died within few hours on the cross. Victims usually do not die so soon. The Pilate, in fact, marveled that Jesus was already dead.
Mark 15:44 - Pilate marveled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time.
The timing of Jesus’ death was God ordained to fulfil the scriptures.
Jesus died on the same day when the Passover lamb was sacrificed. This event was not planned by the Jews or Romans that it should happen in Passover. Nor was it by accident. This was the divine plan so that Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb, who dies a substitutionary death on our behalf.
Jesus clearly mentioned that no one took His life from Him; He willingly gave it for us to be redeemed.
John 10:17-18 - “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
Just as the lamb was required to die for the firstborn to be saved from bondage, Jesus was required to die for all of us to be saved.
Isaiah 53:5 - 6 - “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
We must remember that Jesus died for all mankind, not just the Jews.
2 Corinthians 5:15 - and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
5. Let us not forget that there is one more condition for the Passover:
Exodus 12:7 - And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
Exodus 12:11-13 - "It is the LORD’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt."
The Israelites were to take some of the blood from the slaughtered lamb and mark the doorposts and lintels of their houses with the blood. This bloody mark at the entrance would spare the Israelites from the tenth plague because the Lord would see the mark and pass over their houses. Likewise, although Jesus died for everyone, only those covered under His blood through faith shall be saved from judgement.
But why are not all saved. It requires that only those covered under His blood through faith. We are all offered the free gift of being “passed over”—salvation. That gift is by faith in the shed blood of Jesus, our Passover Lamb.
6. Exodus 12:15 - Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
The Passover also required that there be no leaven in the houses. Just before the beginning of the Passover, all over Israel, everyone would be busy cleaning their homes to be ready for this most important celebration. Many women completely clean their kitchen and the entire house to ensure there is no leaven found anywhere in the house.
Paul compares the leaven to sin in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Yeast (or leaven) is a substance that people generally use in order to make bread, on adding a little yeast to the flour, it grows and spreads right through the flour.
Here, Paul used yeast to picture sin in a Christian’s life. Such sins will certainly spoil our relationship with God. God hates all sin
As Christians, we should be very careful to remove sin from their lives. We must examine every part of their own lives.
Just because Jesus died for our sins, doesn’t give us the liberty to keep sinning again.
Hebrews 6:4,5 - For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
We feel so bad when we look at Jesus being crucified. We wonder how merciless those people were who crucified Him. However, do we realize, that when we fall away from God to our old sinful always, we crucify Jesus again?
Today, let us thanks Christ for being our Passover Lamb and make a commitment to live a Holy life well-pleasing to our Savior.
