After the temple the Passover lamb could only be slain in Jerusalem. The Priest would bind the lamb to the altar on the 14th of Nissan at 9AM. At the same time outside the city, Jesus the Christ was both tied and nailed to the cross. For 6 hours, both awaited death. The lamb was to be slain "in the evening" -- the Hebrew meaning being "between the evenings" or 3PM. At 3PM the High Priest ascended the altar in the Temple, took his knife and killed the lamb pronouncing the words, "It is finished." This is the term that the priest in the temple would say with the conclusion of the daily peace offering as well as the various special festival offerings. At exactly the same moment Jesus the Christ gave up His Spirit with the same words and died.

Many teach that originally, prior to the temple, each father acting as priest and killing the lamb for their own house symbolized Israel as a kingdom of priests. This was later altered by Israel's sinfulness resulting in the institution of the Aaronic priesthood by God. The Lord's Supper, as taught in the New Testament, demonstrates the return of the "kingdom of priests."

There was only one real Passover -- the first one. All others were a celebration of the first. Because conditions changed after both the deliverance from Pharaoh's hand and the temple, the rules for subsequent Passovers changed. Blood was no longer applied to the side and top door posts; it was handled according to temple rules. Although certainly remembered, the rules regarding shoes on the feet, staff in hand, loins girded, eating in haste and not leaving the house were also relaxed.

Scriptures related to the Passover not only clearly typify the plan of salvation and sacrifice of the Christ, they also show the nature and character of God and Christ via commanding Israel to humbly remember the conditions that led to the exodus and by demanding kindness to strangers, orphans, widows, and the downtrodden. Also, gentiles were able to partake of the protections of the Passover through faith demonstrated by obedience.

In the 6-week period preceding Pesach, there are 5 special Sabbaths. Four are entitled after the special Torah reading of that Sabbath. The fifth takes on luster because of it's proximity to the holiday itself.

Passover represents the crucifixion of Jesus. He died on Preparation Day, the day before the special Sabbath (Mark 15:24). He became our Paschal Lamb and was sacrificed on Passover. The Christian communion service commonly called the Lord's Supper is, in fact, a Passover celebration meal [Seder] celebrated with its full revelation and meaning revealed.

During the Passover time, a sign hung on each lamb's neck, bearing the name of the owner of the lamb. Jesus was crucified with a sign hung over His head with the name of His Father. Studies have shown the Tetragrammaton [the Hebrew unpronounceable name of God] probably appeared over Jesus when He hung on the cross. During Bible times, messages were commonly written with the first letter of each word. An example in English: UPS, stands for United Parcel Service. The phrase "Jesus of Nazareth and King of the Jews" was written in three languages on a sign above Jesus as He hung on the cross (John 19:19). The Hebrew initials for "Jesus of Nazareth and King of the Jews" was YHWH. That is why the priest asked Pilate to change the writing.

Jesus died at 3PM. They hurried to place Him in the tomb by sunset at which time [Nisan 15] the next festival -- Unleavened Bread begins. John 19:31-42 Nisan 15 is the day Israel ate the Passover lamb with matzo and bitter herbs. During this feast God not only commands Israel to eat matzo, He also demands they eat no leavened bread, that leaven not be found or even seen in their homes or even in their territories for those seven days (Exodus 13:3-10). To prepare for this Passover feast, the home is cleaned from all leaven. (Spiritually, there must be a cleansing from sin in the individual as taught by Paul regarding the Lord 's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:24-32) That is why Nisan 14 is called Preparation Day. All bread, cakes, pasta, cookies and dry cereal are removed. Liquor is also removed because it is made from grain and could possible constitute a form of leaven. The house is cleaned of all crumbs. Sometimes leaven would be hidden and a game would be made of finding it and getting completely rid of it before the deadline. This feast also typifies sanctification and purity. Spring cleaning started 13 days before the feast. The preparations included a ceremony called Bedikat Hametz -- the search for leaven. The Search for Leaven was conducted in the dark and utilized a large wooden spoon, a long white feather, a candle, and an envelope for the burning of the leaven. Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the innermost parts of his being. Every nook and cranny of the house would be searched by the "light of the Lord". When leaven was found it would be brushed by the white feather [Holy Spirit] onto the wooden spoon [the Cross], placed in the envelope [the grave] and later burned showing it was never to return. These leavened items should be burned and there is a special ceremony to do this, but since this might prove to be a financial hardship for some, they are permitted to remove it from the home and "sell" it to a Gentile friend for the duration of Passover. Then it may be bought back. Certain pets that ate grain based foods could be temporarily sold to a non-Jewish friend and bought back after the holiday.

Exodus 12:15-20 NASB: (15) 'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. (16) 'On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you. (17) 'You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance. (18) 'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. (19) 'Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. (20) 'You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.'

Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread (Matzo) of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry..."' (John 6:35)

Luke 24:30-32 states this after the resurrection: 'Now while He was with them at table, He took the matzo and said the blessing; then He broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; but He had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"'

Luke 24:35 They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

John, a Jew who walked with Jesus recalls Jesus declaring: '...If you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood you will not have Life in you. Anyone who does eat My Flesh and drink My Blood has Eternal Life, and I shall raise him up on the Last Day' (John 6:53-54). At the Passover before His Death, Jesus told His followers that the matzo represented His Body. Matthew 26:26 records this: 'Now as they were eating, Jesus took some matzo, and when He had said the blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples. "Take it and eat," He said, "this is My Body."

· The day after Passover, the 15th of the month of Nissan, starts the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The purging of all leaven had taken place on Preparation Day and unleavened bread must be eaten for the length of the feast - 7 days. Jesus was buried on Preparation Day and is depicted as both the Passover lamb and the matzo. This day is when Israel eats the Passover meal with matzo and bitter herbs. Why bitter herbs? One Rabbi puts it this way:

At the Seder we say: "In every generation they rise against us to annihilate us." The Egyptians broke our backs and our spirits. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple and rivers of Jewish blood flowed. And so it was in every generation: Crusades, Inquisitions, Pogroms, Holocaust, Arab terrorism. Intense and irrational hatred has stalked our people to every corner of the globe. Why the hatred? The Talmud says the Hebrew word for "hatred" (sinah) is related to the word "Sinai." At Mount Sinai, the Jewish people acquired the legacy of morality and justice -- a message that evil cannot tolerate. We taught the world "to beat their swords into plowshares." We taught the world "to love your neighbor as yourself." We taught the world equality before justice, and that admiration belongs not to the rich and powerful -- but to the good, the wise, and the kind. Hitler said: "The Jews have inflicted two wounds on mankind -- circumcision on the body, and conscience on the soul." How right he was and how much more work we have to do. Throughout the generations, the forces of darkness have sought to extinguish our flame. But the Jews have somehow prevailed. We have God's promise that we will be the eternal nation. For without our message, the world would revert to utter chaos. At the Seder, we eat the bitter herbs -- in combination with matzah -- to underscore that God is present not only during our periods of freedom (symbolized by the matzah), but during our bitter periods of exile as well. He will never forsake us.

Leaven is symbolic of sin. It is that which gets inside and alters what it enters by puffing up. The Hebrew for leaven is "chametz" which means decay, corruption and sour" and in the Bible leaven is used symbolically of sin, slavery and corrupted doctrine. Eating unleavened bread symbolized a life of holiness.

The brown spots in matzo are called bruises. 'The LORD God of Israel, speaking through His Prophet Isaiah declares about the Messiah: 'And yet ours was the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But we, we thought of him as someone punished struck by God and afflicted. Yet, he was pierced through for our stubbornness, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his stripes we were healed' (Isaiah 53:4-5). Notice all the stripes and holes in the flat matzo. From the very beginning, matzo has had to be pierced so that the heat won't cause it to have air bubbles. Isaiah speaks of our Messiah as being pierced. In the New Covenant we see that Jesus had His Hands, Feet and Side pierced through at His Death. God goes on to say that the Messiah would be 'crushed for our sins.' The matzo, at one time came from whole kernels. These had to be crushed into fine flour, mixed with water and placed in an oven. Biblical matzo was made with flour, water, salt and olive oil representing the sinless body, cleansing, preserving and the Holy Spirit. The crucifixion was the furnace that crushed and 'baked' Him. 'But it pleased the LORD to crush him...' Is. 53:10.

The Pesach Seder [Passover meal] involved 4 cups of wine which symbolized the 4 promises given to Moses from God in Exodus 6:6-7. This was a rabbinical decree from Mishna Pesachim 10:1. The rules of leavening apply to food prepared out of any of the five kinds of grain; barley, wheat, rye, oats, and spelt. Although wine is fermented, it doesn't enter into the category of leaven because it's not made from one of these five types. Some reports indicated that possibly unfermented "raisin-wine" was the only acceptable beverage for Passover. Today only kosher wine is used for Passover. During the Seder, each participant drinks four cups of wine to recall the four expressions of redemption mentioned in the Bible (Ex. 6:6-7). God tells Moses to tell the people of Israel, "I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you from under their bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments: and I will take you to Me for a people and I will be to you a God." The four cups at the Seder represent the four expressions of redemption--bring, deliver, redeem and take. The first cup is called the cup of sanctification; the second, the cup of judgment; the third, the cup of redemption; and the fourth, the cup of the kingdom. When Jesus said, "This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins" in Matthew 26:28, he had picked up the third cup -- the cup of redemption.

A fifth cup was later added by rabbis, called the cup of Elijah. The custom of filling a fifth cup of wine for Elijah the Prophet at the seder table is relatively recent. Some families set a place at the table for Elijah and pour into a goblet called "Elijah's cup" to symbolize Elijah would be a welcome guest at the seder. Another custom is to open the door during the seder for Elijah, symbolizing bringing the Messianic age into their lives.

At regular holidays and Sabbath meals two loaves of unleavened bread are placed on the table as reminders of the shewbreads displayed in two rows by the priest in the temple. On this particular feast a third matzo is added for the ceremony of the Three Matzot, the three pieces of unleavened bread. They are either placed under a napkin or in a Matzo Pouch, a single pouch with 3 compartments called the Unity Bag. The middle piece of matzo will be taken out and broken in half in a ceremony called "yachatz" meaning "to break.". One half will be placed back inside the pouch's middle compartment between the other two pieces of matzo, and the other half will be wrapped inside a napkin and buried in a part of the house. The buried broken matzo in Greek is called "afikomen" meaning 'that which comes last' or possibly, "he will come again." It is also called the bread of affliction or the bread of redemption. The Hebrew for the matzo returned to the middle pouch is called Lechem Oni [the Bread of Poverty]. After the meal, the children will be released to try and find the buried matzo. Nothing can continue till the buried matzo is found. The one who finds it brings it to the father and is rewarded a silver piece or something of that nature. The host will then raise the matzo and declare, 'All who are hungry and afflicted, come to this table and eat.' He then lifts the matzo up, blesses God for redeeming Israel from Egyptian slavery and passes the matzo around for all to eat of it. The best that Rabbis that still reject their Messiah can decipher from this is that they either represent Abraham, Issac and Jacob or the three layers of society in ancient Israel; the Aaronic Priesthood, the Levitical Priesthood and the rest of Israel. But why then is either "Issac" or the "Levitical Priesthood" broken? Second, why hide the middle matzo? And third, why reward the child with a piece of silver for bringing the hidden matzo? The Three Matzot represent the Triunity of the Godhead -- 3 separate but one just like the pouch. That is why the pouch is known as the "Unity bag." The three matzot are covered by a napkin or placed in the pouch. Either way, they cannot be seen. And neither can we see God. The ceremony of the Three Matzot represents the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah of the world. The removal of the matzo depicts the revealing of the Christ - the word made flesh. The breaking of the matzo is the breaking or crucifixion of the Son of God, the middle Person of the Godhead. The wrapping of the matzo in a napkin depicts the wrapping and burial of the Christ while the other half placed back into the middle of the pouch depicts Jesus' continued status as Godhead. The child bringing the hidden matzo into view again declares the resurrection of the Christ. Silver is the metal symbolic of redemption (Exodus 30:11-16). The buried matzo is called "He will come again or last," the bread of affliction or the bread of redemption and the matzo returned to the pouch is called the Bread Of Poverty showing Jesus "emptied" himself. Phillipians 2:5-8 (NASB) "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

The matzo of Passover is a graphic picture of the crucified body of the Messiah - the piercing, the crushing and the bruises in addition to the matzo having no leaven symbolizing no sin. This is why the LORD commanded that matzo be the bread of Passover - so that Jesus could inject Himself into the meaning of the matzo 1450 years after the Exodus out of Egyptian slavery. And Jesus is the Matza that has come down from Heaven that gives us Life and True Freedom.

Jesus is called the "Bread of Life" and in Hebrew Bethlehem where he was born means "House of Bread." 1Corinthians 5:6-8 (NASB) Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 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. In Jacobs time Bethlehem was also called "fruitful," and David was anointed King by Saul in Bethlehem which is why it was called the City of David in Luke 2:4,11

This may not mean a lot to anyone else, but it means a lot to me,but most of all remember that a empty tomb was found in Jerusalem and he is alive and he is coming back!

This comes from a study of the similarities of the Passover and the life death and resurrection of Jesus! I hope it will bless you as it has me.

Sources include bits from sermons and teachings by John Hagee, Perry Stone, John Gavin and Richard Garganta. Also Rabbi Eckstien and various Jewish sources.