How is passover related to easter

Back then, Easter was known as pascha Greek for Passover. This caused a rift between Christians who wished to commemorate Passover and pascha together and those who wished to distinguish the two holidays. Victor, Bishop of Rome, even went so far as to excommunicate anyone who observed pascha on Passover. When Emperor Constantine stopped the persecution of Christians in the fourth century, he declared that pascha would be officially celebrated on the Sunday after Passover.

Passover commemorates the night of the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt around 3, years ago. The Haggadah sets forth the order seder of the celebration. When Jesus observed the Last Supper with his disciples, it was a Passover seder. Jesus used elements of the seder — the unleavened bread matzah and wine — to commemorate his impending death the bread represents his body, the wine his blood.

That is why Christians take Communion today. For Christians the resurrection of Jesus is similarly central to the faith and promises the liberation of humanity from sin and death. Both holidays are joined at their core in finding us rejoicing in the defeat of death and the gift of life restored.

This theme of liberation expresses aspirations in both traditions that can only be called messianic. In Easter, of course, the messianic theme is clear and explicit.

In the Jewish celebration it is more hidden but present. The story of the ancient liberation is treated in the Seder as a prefiguration of the great liberation at the end of historical time. This is expressed by the repeated references in the Haggadah—the liturgical text employed in the Seder—to the prophet Elijah, who according to Jewish tradition will be sent to announce the arrival of the messiah.

Both holidays are also celebrations of rebirth. The theme of rebirth in the resurrection of Jesus is explicit. For Jews the moment of liberation of the Israelites and their return to their ancestral land represent the rebirth of a people made moribund by the oppressions of slavery. Rabbi Daniel F. Polish Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas—but they are cousins. Rebirth is also the human undertone that joins both these festivals in the most profound way.

One dimension, perhaps underappreciated, of both holidays is the human reaction to the rebirth of nature that is the very essence of spring. For Jews, the celebration of spring is articulated in the biblical injunctions that established Pesach and is made explicit in the Haggadah. The parsley and egg that the Haggadah requires on the Seder plate are placed there to remind us of spring and its promise of life renewed.

Pesach or Passover and Pascha or Easter , beneath their manifest historical and theological content, can be seen as the human reaction to the liberation from the harsh confinement of winter to the verdant restoration of life and promise that all of us feel as we experience the bursting buds and radiant colors, the soft air and beautiful scents that mark the beginning of the new season.

And more, both holidays are joined at their core in finding us rejoicing in the defeat of death and the gift of life restored. We celebrated by having our feet washed, along with our 11 y. One of the greatest joys for me and mortar to our proverbial bricks of our marriage was the development of our family haggadah used to bring together Jews and Christians and other people of good will to experience the transformative myth s of our God's role in our faith s.

So on one hand, I read your article like a member of the choir or MOT? On the other hand, I realize that there are still folks who see Jews or even other Christians as entirely alien to their origins and worship. Any way, I wanted to comment on your mention of parsley and egg on the seder plate. In many households that I have been too, the egg has been on the seder plate, but it does not get any commentary the way that the shank bone, karpas, charoset, marror or salt-water or matzah do.

On the seder plate this year, there was a place designated in Hebrew for both Karpas and Parsley which we replaced with salt-water. I was wondering if you might have insight for the "double karpas" or why the egg is given a place on the plate, but at least in some haggadah there is no commentary for the egg? Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more. Faith Faith in Focus. Polish March 30, Photo by Mari Helin-Tuominen on Unsplash. Related: 10 Powerful Books On Fasting.

In preparation for The Passover week, the Jewish people went about the task of a deep Spring cleaning. Leaven goes everywhere. Imagine baking in the kitchen. You pour your ingredients in the bowl, mixing the wet then adding the dry including the flour with yeast in it. As you mix a thin layer of dust rises from the bowl. By the time you are done mixing it has risen and fallen several feet all around. By the time you get to clean up the mess, you have lost track of all the flour.

God made a big deal about cleaning out the old leaven. So much so that the people of Israel involved everyone in the task of cleaning out any old leaven in the house. While the women cleaned in one part of the house, the men hid leavened bread and took the kids on a scavenger hunt through the house to find it all.

Shining a light on any they missed and making sure to sweep even the crumbs left behind. We know that God cares more about the condition of our hearts than sacrifice or religious rituals Hosea To celebrate The Passover, Israel had to be clean. The care they took of their house was symbolic of the need to be physically and spiritually clean.

They would have been practicing a time of fasting from anything unclean, sanctifying themselves to come before God in this time of remembrance. We see the importance of leaven clearly in the New Testament. God calls us to spend time examining our heart as well, to clean out the leaven.

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Is there any hidden sin in your heart? Just as the Israelites needed to be clean before celebrating the Passover, we should clean our hearts before celebrating Easter. What are the unclean things hidden in your heart? Often I am not sure. Sin creeps in unobserved while I am busy. While I am busy I rarely stop to examine my heart.

We can learn from the practice of the Jews preparing for Passover. We see Jesus in Passover as God will gladly be the loving Father shining His light all around the house of our heart to reveal the hidden sin.

As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Easter this year we should take time to examine our hearts through the light of God. Once God reveals sin, what do we do? Just as the Jews observed a fast it would benefit us to fast in preparation for Easter.