1 Corinthians 5:7

CHRIST AND THE PASSOVER

‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.’

1 Corinthians 5:7

The Passover is perhaps the most interesting ceremony in the world on the sole ground of its continuous celebration by the Jews; but let us not forget that it has a further history in the Christian Church.

I. Our Saviour adopted the Passover, with the significance attached to it by the Jews of His day, as the symbol of His own sacrifice and of that New Covenant with His Father which He established. If certain critical conclusions were true, we should be forced to the conclusion that the significance of the most sacred Christian rite is itself based upon a fiction.

II. In the fact of our Lord having thus invested the ancient Passover with the supreme importance of its spiritual continuance in the Lord’s Supper, the Christian must see an overwhelming reason for accepting the interpretation of it which was evidently His own and that of His Apostles.

III. These solemn, ancient, and sacred associations cannot be overthrown by precarious guesses; and we may confidently adhere to the old belief that, as God graciously established the Passover as the perpetual symbol of His covenant with His people, and of His redemption of them from bondage, so our Saviour established the Lord’s Supper as the symbol of our redemption from a far heavier bondage, and of our admission to a far more precious covenant.

—Dean Wace.

Illustration

‘The Passover, to which St. Paul here compares the sacrifice of our Saviour, is perhaps the most interesting and important ceremony in the world. There is no dispute that part of it, at all events, the feast of unleavened bread, goes back to the very commencement of the national life of the Jewish people, or even further, and it is celebrated now by the Jews with the utmost reverence and care in accordance with what they believe to be the prescriptions of their fathers. To quote from Dr. Kalisch, a well-known Jewish commentator, those prescriptions are still observed by the Jewish people with scrupulous conscientiousness, “even by those who otherwise do not strictly adhere to the ritual injunctions of Mosaism, so that the celebration of Passover, even with the greatest sacrifices, has become a standing proverbial characteristic of the Hebrew nation.… Passover was always considered as pre-eminent among the national festivals of Israel, both on account of its political importance and its solemn religious character. It is considered second to no precept except circumcision; it has the significance of a sacrament; it was formerly the only expiatory sacrifice which every Israelite could offer personally without the mediation of the priest; thus the paschal lamb showed manifestly Israel as “a kingdom of priests”; it connected the individual with God, as a member of the chosen community, and with his brethren, as leading to the same Divine sovereignty. Those who neglected to pay this annual debt broke off their connection alike with God and with their fellow-citizens. Both the Israelites and their enemies were fully impressed with the paramount religious influence which a due observance of Passover, that corner-stone and basis of the national life of Israel, exercised upon the people. Hezekiah commenced his great religious reform with an invitation to all the tribes of Israel to repair to Jerusalem and to celebrate the festival of unleavened bread; and a perfect change in the religious aspect of the country was the almost immediate consequence” (Com. on Exod., p. 181).’