7 Reasons Christians Should Celebrate Passover

Happy spring everyone! Spring has sprung, gardens are being planted, flowers are blooming, pollen is in the air, and that can only mean one thing: it's time for the spring holidays!

Whether you're gearing up for Passover or Holy Week, whether you call it Easter or Resurrection Sunday or First Fruits, if you are a believer in Jesus, you are probably getting ready to celebrate His death and resurrection! Most Christians today celebrate some form of Easter, and some even go a little further back and celebrate Good Friday and Maundy Thursday. But have you ever celebrated Passover?

Passover is the Biblical feast which commemorates the "passing over" of the angel of death during the final plague on Egypt back in Exodus, when God's people were spared because they observed the very first Passover as an act of entering into what is called a threshold covenant with God (more on that in our next video teaching coming out in a few days!)

But really, Passover is so much more than that! Yes, it is the celebration of the exodus of God's people when He freed them from the bondage of slavery to the Egyptians, but as believers in Jesus, we also know that, since Jesus was our Passover Lamb, it is also a celebration of the massive exodus of all mankind, should they choose it, when God delivered His people from the bondage of slavery to sin!

We at Roots of Faith Ministries think Passover is very relevant to Christians today, so here's a short (non-exhaustive) list of reasons that we think Christians should still be celebrating Passover today!


1) It's Biblical
There are 7 holidays that God specifically tells us to celebrate (check out Leviticus 23) in the Bible, and Passover is the first one.  Although commonly referred to as the "Jewish holidays," the Bible makes it clear that these holy days belong to no one but God Himself.  He created them as yearly reminders of who He is, what He's done, and what He will do.  Celebrating these holidays that God custom made for us can draw us close to Him and show us aspects of His character that we may otherwise overlook.

2) It's Mind Blowing
Every year that we celebrate Passover, it seems like we have some new revelation or realization that just blows us away.  In our home, we do a semi-traditional Passover Seder (order of the service/dinner) that uses many Biblically based traditions that the Jewish people have been using for centuries.  Every year I am just floored by how much I see Jesus in these Jewish traditions!  And every year I discover a little more of the deep intricacy of the whole Passover story and how God designed it so that Jesus would fit the bill perfectly when the time came for Him to be our Passover sacrifice.  It's something that you think you already know until you really start learning about it.

3) The Feast of Unleavened Bread
Many people think that Passover and Unleavened Bread are one and the same, but this is not true.  If you've heard anyone say anything about "Passover week," then they were mistaken because Passover isn't even really a full day.  The Passover occurs "between the evenings" (between sundown and complete darkness) on the 14th day of Aviv (the first month on the Hebrew calendar).  Unleavened bread is actually a separate holiday that starts on the next day, although we do start eating unleavened bread at Passover.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread ties right into Passover, especially for believers in Jesus.  Right after we celebrate not only God bringing His people out of bondage in Egypt, but also Him later bringing His people out of the bondage of sin through Jesus' sacrifice, we then celebrate 7 days of abstaining from leaven and cleansing out bodies of it, symbolically cleansing our bodies of sin.  Not only are we reminded that, because of Jesus, we can do this cleansing, but we are also reminded that we have to do our part in turning from our sins in order to receive complete cleansing from them.

4) First Fruits
Passover is when we celebrate the death and sacrifice of Jesus, and First Fruits (a holiday that happens during the Feast of Unleavened Bread when the first fruits of the barley would be presented/given to God at the Tabernacle/Temple, and also when we start counting the omer -- the 50 days from First Fruits until Shavuot/Pentecost) is when we celebrate Him rising from the dead, therefore becoming the first fruits of the resurrected. You may call this Easter, and when it's put into its Biblical context, we can start to see the weight that Jesus' resurrection really holds. Not just for us today, but in the context of the history and future of the whole world!

First Fruits is celebrated on the day after the Sabbath (7th day of the week; a day of rest) after Unleavened Bread starts, so it's not always on the same day of the month, although it is always on the same day of the week every year.  In the year that Jesus was crucified on Passover, First Fruits fell on the 17th day of Aviv, which just happened to be the day that Jesus rose from the dead!  Coincidence? I think not.

5) God Told Us To
We are told several times throughout the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible, also known as the Pentateuch and/or God's instructions for how we should live our lives) that we are to celebrate Passover from generation to generation forever.  And that was back when it was only to commemorate Him leading His people out of Egypt.  How much more should we keep it now that we are also celebrating His Son dying a horrible and undeserved death to free us from the bondage of sin?

6) It's of God, Not of Men
I may be kind of repeating myself here, but it's a point that I feel can't be said enough.  In Deuteronomy 12, we are told not to worship God in the ways that others worship their false gods, and that we are to follow only the One True God in the way that He has prescribed for us to worship. We have these holidays that God actually gave us to celebrate and remember Him and all that He has done for us, and all that He will still do... but often we find that we've forgotten them.  Passover is God's holiday, and it's beautiful.  Too beautiful to be forgotten.

7) Coconut Macaroons 
Okay, homemade coconut macaroons have got to be one of my favorite things to eat (and I make pretty good ones, if I do say so myself), but it's not just the macaroons that make Passover great, it's more the principle of them (and if you're allergic to coconut, I'm deeply sorry for your loss).  In case you're wondering, coconut macaroons are somewhat of a Passover tradition, since they're unleavened cookies, and we don't eat leavened things on Passover.  It's kind of hard to do desserts on Passover since most desserts have some sort of leaven in them, so coconut macaroons are quite popular (probably because they're so yummy!).  Anyway, back to the point.  Every Passover is so special and unique, such an enriching and powerful experience, that, like the macaroons, I long for it and look forward to it every year.  It's hard for me to imagine why anyone would not want to celebrate it, because I always get so much out of it.  It's definitely a time to draw near to our Creator and Savior, and in my opinion, it's something that everyone who believes in Jesus should do.

So there you have it, these are some of the reasons why we highly recommend Passover to any believer in Jesus. We sincerely hope that you will consider engaging in this experience of Passover, as a way to prepare your heart to celebrate the resurrection of our King and Savior!

A great resource for celebrating it, especially if you've never done it before, is this Christian Passover guide written by our friend Dave Wilbur. It's the one we'll be using this year. Happy Passover!

Shema: Listen, Hear, and Obey

You may or may not be familiar with the term "shema."  If you have any knowledge whatsoever of Judaism, I'm sure you have heard of it.  And if you have read the Bible, you have also heard of it (whether or not you recognize it). 

So, what is it?  What does it mean?  Is it important?
Well, Jesus sure seemed to think so.
Let me explain:

The word shema is a Hebrew word, Hebrew being the language of the Old Testament.  It is a single word, yes, but like most Hebrew words, it can't really be summed up in one English word.  It really needs a phrase to do it justice.  Usually, in our modern day English translations of the Bible, this word is translated as "hear" and sometimes "listen" (depending on the version).  You may recognize it from the common passage in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 , which is the text that the Hebrew prayer called The Shema comes from.

“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." 
-- Deut. 6:4 HCSB

This was a command given by God through Moses to His covenant people that He had just made His covenant with.  It is right after the 10 Commandments, when the people heard directly from God and were afraid, so they sent Moses to get all the instructions on their behalf and relay them back.  It is later referred to by Jesus as the greatest commandment (but we will talk about that in a minute).  In this translation of the Bible, the word "listen" is used.  A more accurate translation, however, would be "Listen, hear, and obey."

But aren't listen and hear the same thing?
Depends on who you ask.  The concept is different, because shema is a whole process of how we are to respond to God.

First we listen when He speaks to us.  This in and of itself is hard enough, because that requires us to get out of our own heads for a minute and focus only on God and what He is saying to us without projecting what we want for ourselves.  To listen is to get rid of the ideas that we have of what we want to hear, and to just listen for God to speak, remember that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, and let Him be the dominant one in the room.

This is when hear comes in, or we could use the word acknowledge or even understand.  Because you can totally listen without hearing, acknowledging, or understanding.  Basically, don't let it go in one ear and out the other.  This isn't geometry class.

And then that paves the way for obey.  We can't just listen to God and hear what He has to say; we have to follow through and obey.  If we don't, we may as well not have heard Him.

So, this word shema is used at the beginning of this verse because what comes after it is very important.  Important enough that Moses says to the people, "Listen up guys, hear what God has to say, because this is something you're going to want to do."

He then continues with this bold statement: "The Lord your God, the Lord is one."  This could also be phrased "The Lord is our God, and He is the only God."  Wow.  That was quite the statement to make when they were coming out of a culture where multiple gods were worshiped, especially because basically everyone else in the world would still be polytheistic. 

Then he says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."  So not only is He the only God you are going to acknowledge, but literally everything you have in you is going to go into worshiping, loving, and serving Him.  Now that is some hard core dedication.

Later on, Jesus refers back to this verse when he is asked what the greatest commandment is, and He even goes as far to say that it is what the whole law and prophets hang on, so if you are loving God with all your heart, soul, and strength, you will be living out the law and the prophets.  So everything you do, needs to be done in love.

So, you see why shema is so important?  It was used to draw the people's attention to a very important, everlasting commandment that sets the tone for how we respond to God through the ages, and still today.  It inspired a prayer that is still said daily by practicing Jews, and many Christians, all over the world to remind themselves that we are to relate to God on His terms, and if we are not doing it out of love, we may as well not be doing it at all.

Shema can teach us how to pray, how to act, and how to worship.  We are to be still and listen to God, hear what He is saying to us, and obey what He tells us to do.

We should keep this in mind always.
When we pray.
When we read the Bible.
When we are out and about.
When we are at home.

Are you going to shema today?  I hope so.