Mosaic to Messianic Passover Series -Part 2 (2024)
“As you know, Pesach (Passover) is two days away, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be nailed to the execution stake.” Matthew 26:2 (CJB)
All four Gospels agree that the crucifixion was at the time of Passover, and that Jesus died around 3pm in the afternoon, Nisan14th a few hours before sunset. The 14th day of the month of Nisan (First Month) is in March or April in the USA. Yeshua/Jesus was placed in the tomb before the sun went down.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to know the exact date and time of your death! But Yeshua (Jesus) was fully aware that his crucifixion had already been set by the Father for the Appointed Time of the Passover Festival. For thousands of years Passover has been one of the most sacred holy days on the Jewish calendar. Passover, in Judaism, is the time God established to commemorate the Hebrews’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt and the “passing over” or being spare from the Angel of Death that took the lives of every firstborn in Egypt except the Israelites. The Hebrews were spared from physical death if they obey God’s instructions to kill a lamb and place its blood over their doors to protect them on the eve of the Exodus when the Lord “smote the land of Egypt.” Their covering and protection were provided by the blood of an innocent lamb. For generations to follow the Israelites would find their covering, protection, and forgiveness of sins in the blood of sacrificed animals. For thousands of years there were animal sacrifices at the Temple at Passover and throughout the year- the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins for the people of Israel. All dress rehearsals for the day that the final sacrifice, the Lamb of God would come, shed His blood and die once and for all, for the sins of mankind.
Yeshua /Jesus was so certain of the set time of Passover, that He taught it to His disciples. “As you know, Pesach (Passover) is two days away, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be nailed to the execution stake.” Matthew 26:2 (CJB). That night in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, Luke 22:42 tells us he prayed these words: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, let not my will but yours be done” (CJB). Luke 22:44 tells us the horror of Yeshua’s pending fate was so great that His sweat turned to blood. “and in great anguish he prayed more intensely, so that his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.”
The National Institute of Health says this is a rare human condition called Hematohidrosis. They define this way; “Hematohidrosis is a very rare condition in which an individual sweats blood. It may occur in an individual who is suffering from extreme levels of stress”. I say all this to demonstrate that Yeshua’s physically human body felt stress just you and I do. He faced the stress and anguish of what lied ahead for Him physically. And Yeshua was fully divine and full of the spirit which he had demonstrated many times and He had the power to walk silently to the cross for crucifixion in complete obedience to the Father. We know He also had the power to stop the crucifixion at any time!
After introducing the New Covenant that was promised to Israel by GOD in Jeremiah 31, on Passover, Nisan 14, Yeshua laid his life down as God’s sacrificial Passover Lamb. Surely all Israel would see and understand the signs that were revealed on Passover. His death and shed blood on the cross would provide salvation, deliverance from sin and death, for every person on earth who believed in Him and kept His Commandments. There were thousands of Jews and Gentiles that were already followers of Yeshua before the crucifixion. Today, 2.38 billion people on earth identify as followers of Yeshua (Jesus) according to the PEW Research Center in 2020.
The crucifixion at Passover has an exact date of Nisan 14th, that was set by Almighty God and cannot be ignored or substituted with “Easter on the Christian calendar.” God had been getting mankind ready for Yeshua, with dress rehearsals of Passover for thousands of years. It is almost impossible to ignore is the pattern Adonai had set for us to follow and the obvious signs we were to look for in HIS Passover Lamb. And the Father has commanded us in His Word to remember Yeshua at Passover and celebrate it forever!
Yeshua died on the cross at the exact time that the lambs were being sacrificed for the Passover Seder. How exact is that! According to Matthew, at the very moment Yeshua/Jesus “gave up his spirit, the veil or curtain to the Holy of Holies in the Temple, the place where the high priest met with God was torn from top to bottom” (Mat 27:50-51; Mark 15 and Luke 23). The inner room of the Temple or Holy of Holies was thought to be the actual dwelling place of the God of Israel. The through this curtain or veil to the Holy of Holies in the Temple was only way to enter the presence of God that dwelled only in the Holy of Holies. Now with Yeshua’s crucifixion it had been torn wide open. In the years to follow the Temple itself would be destroyed. So if God was not in the Holy of Holies and the Temple where He dwelled was gone; where was the God of Israel? Yeshua taught in essence, God would dwell in the hearts of men through the Holy Spirit. (John 1:1, 14; Matthew 1:23)
Chronology:
Afternoon on Nisan 14th
Yeshua died on the cross at the exact time that the lambs were being sacrificed for the Passover Seder. The animals were slain on the eve of Passover, on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, after the Tamid sacrifice had been slaughtered, i.e., at three o’clock, or, in case the eve of Passover fell on Friday, at two. The slaughtering took place in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem.
3pm on Nisan 14th Yeshua’s body is taken down from the cross and buried before sunset, which is the official start of Nisan 15th when the traditional Judean Passover Seder was to be eaten. Yeshua, the sinless and Lamb of God whose shed blood takes aways our sins has fulfilled the promises of the Passover Feast!
Sunset begins the day of Nisan 15th and the next 24 hours will be the Messiah’s first full day in the tomb.
Nisan 16th is the second day of Passover, and it begins the “Counting of the Omer”. We will see later in this series how Yeshua fulfilled this symbolic counting.
Yeshua Transforms Passover from Mosaic to Messianic
