Did Jesus really foretell Jewish celebrations in Heaven? Yes, He did. Do you remember where? And the bonus question – why? After all, Jesus is the namesake of Christianity. So why will there be any Jewish celebrations, let alone one that Jesus is looking forward to?
The picture is such a huge clue that it’s almost the answer.
There are only three missing words, and you’ve got it.
Of course, there’s also the history behind them that explains why the title question is answered with a resounding yes.
Another reason for the history is for those who firmly believe the answer has to be no. Who can’t even imagine that something like this might happen?
I’ve known a handful of Christians who really don’t like, who even hate, Jewish people. Why” Because they killed Jesus. But that’s just such a wrong attitude to take. The simple reality is that every single one of us is responsible for Jesus’ death on the cross. All of us. Why” Because Jesus’ death was necessary to save us from our sins. The person who led the authorities to Jesus had a role to play, for certain. But let’s face it, even Judas’ role in this was necessary because of us.
Did Jesus really foretell Jewish celebrations in Heaven?
Yes, Jesus really did foretell Jewish celebrations in Heaven. One, at least. It’s almost an aside in the text. It’s easy to miss. Especially if we want to miss it. It feels odd for me to reveal the conclusion at the beginning. It’s not my normal style. But here it is:
The Last Supper – Luke
22:7-13 pp — Mt 26:17-19; Mk 14:12-16
22:17-20 pp — Mt 26:26-29; Mk 14:22-25; 1Co 11:23-25
22:21-23 pp — Mt 26:21-24; Mk 14:18-21; Jn 13:21-30
22:25-27 pp — Mt 20:25-28; Mk 10:42-45
22:33, 34 pp — Mt 26:33-35; Mk 14:29-31; Jn 13:37, 38
Lk 22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
Lk 22:9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.
Lk 22:10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
Lk 22:13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
Lk 22:14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
Lk 22:17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Lk 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Lk 22:20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” 23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.
Lk 22:24 Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. 28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29 And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Lk 22:31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Lk 22:33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”
Lk 22:34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”
Lk 22:35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.
Lk 22:36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 37 It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
Lk 22:38 The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”
“That is enough,” he replied.
The entire passage is there, so you can see the full context. Also, so you can see that a number of things were covered by Jesus in that one section. A section of verses that are grouped together, not by Luke, but by the people who translated the original text into English. In the original texts, there are no “sections”. Just what we’d call run on sentences.
All that stuff going on is one reason why it’s so easy to miss the two verses below:
5 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
You see, Christians tend to focus on the Passover preparations, like the fact that the large upper room was waiting under such strange circumstances. Miraculous. Or that our sacrament of communion was instituted at that time. And Jesus calling out Judas as the betrayer. Of course, there’s also the argument over who’s the greatest among the disciples. And finally that weird conversation about having a sword, which of course was needed to cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant.
That’s a whole lot of stuff. And, from my memory, we just don’t talk about the reality that Jesus said He’s been eagerly waiting to eat this Passover with His disciples, Or that Jesus says He’s going to eat it again when it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.
What religion is Jesus?
Have you noticed the Title lines for this site? It’s called God versus religion, to indicate a difference between religions set up by people versus what God really said about Himself. The subtitle is what religion is God? I Googled what religion is God and it came up with About 1,170,000,000 results (0.76 seconds). Obviously, it’s a question that lots of people write about. Presumably then, lots of people are also asking that question.
Next, I Googled what religion is Jesus. It only returned About 562,000,000 results (0.67 seconds). Does that mean not as many people ask? If so, is it because they know? Or because they’re so sure they know that they don’t try to verify it?
Anyway – hold that thought!
Celebrations in Heaven
Let’s get a really wide look at celebrations in Heaven? A look so wide that we can’t even imagine it. An infinite view.
How do we get the idea that God is infinite, let alone Jesus? One place is where God spoke to Moses at the burning bush.
Moses and the Burning Bush
…
Ex 3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Ex 3:12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Ex 3:13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
Ex 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Ex 3:15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
…
We see Moses having this discussion with God over why the people should listen to him (Moses). So, God tells Moses something about Himself. How Moses should answer the question. Notice all the underlined words. Not one of them is “eternal”. I must say though, there are places where this same Hebrew word is translated as eternal, or something similar.
Here’s the Hebrew word:
5769 עֹולָם [ʿowlam, ʿolam /o·lawm/] n m. From 5956; TWOT 1631a; GK 6409; 439 occurrences; AV translates as “ever” 272 times, “everlasting” 63 times, “old” 22 times, “perpetual” 22 times, “evermore” 15 times, “never” 13 times, “time” six times, “ancient” five times, “world” four times, “always” three times, “alway” twice, “long” twice, “more” twice, “never + 408” twice, and translated miscellaneously six times. 1 long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world. 1A ancient time, long time (of past). 1B (of future). 1B1 for ever, always. 1B2 continuous existence, perpetual. 1B3 everlasting, indefinite or unending future, eternity. 1Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.
And yes, we do read words like perpetual and eternity in there. However, that’s making a leap from the way the people back then knew the word, to get to where we are today. Let’s take a look at that leap, so we really understand what happened in between a Hebrew word that didn’t literally mean eternity and us reading it as eternity today. As we’ll see, the concept of eternity was there, but not in a word.
Eternity. Duration of time that cannot be measured.
The OT does not have a clearly worked out concept of time; it simply records sequences of events without struggling to understand the philosophical implications of that record. God has revealed himself within the historical realm, implying his control of history and leading to the understanding that there is a goal and purpose in the historical process. Out of this complex of ideas arose the necessity to express the endless duration of time commonly designated as eternity.
The OT does not have a single word corresponding to our English word “eternity.” The concept grows out of such expressions as “from generation to generation” and “from age to age.” The understanding of God as the Creator and controller of history very early led to the understanding of his endless life span. Thus God himself is designated by the adjective “eternal” (cf. Gn 21:33; Is 26:4; 40:28). The Hebrews simply understood that God is the God of the past and the God who will always be, in stark contrast to humans whose days on earth are specifically limited. Before the world was created God obviously was being the Creator. His purposes and promises for the future frequently include the word “forever.” 2Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Eternity. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, pp. 725–726). Baker Book House.
Interesting, isn’t it? One of the potential “problems” of becoming more “intelligent” is that we gain the ability to talk ourselves out of believing things that used to be just “known”. True, some of the old thoughts, such as a flat earth, were wrong. But I feel like we’ve taken our quest for knowledge in a direction that’s biased against the knowledge of the past. We try to prove that things are wrong, make speculations that can be unwarranted, and come up with “new truth”. Not surprisingly, we were warned against that kind of thing.
Proverbs – Prologue – Purpose and Theme
Prologue: Purpose and Theme
Pr 1:1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
Pr 1:2 for attaining wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words of insight;
Pr 1:3 for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life,
doing what is right and just and fair;
Pr 1:4 for giving prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—
Pr 1:5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—
Pr 1:6 for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.
Pr 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
It all fits. But the last verse really hits the nail on the head. Here are a couple things to check out for more on this thought.
The problem of “fear the Lord”
and
Can I trust what I think I know?
Let’s move on now, to find out about eternity in the New Testament. We’ll see how the concept was further understood when it comes to God being eternal.
The NT picked up these concepts from Judaism and the OT. In Greek the same root word is used to describe the ages of time and God’s agelessness. For example, the word “eternal” used in Romans 16:26 comes from the Greek root transliterated into English as “eon.” The God who rules the ages or eons is himself the ageless one who brings continuity and stability into the human life so severely bounded by this age. The clear understanding that time will come to an end, provided by NT revelation, added to the OT’s vivid understanding of creation, serves to underline and clarify the concept of an eternal God. God’s preexistence and postexistence is yet another way of expressing his eternal being.
The NT regularly spoke of the temporal sequences of God’s revelation in Christ in much the same way as the OT spoke of God’s self-revelation to Israel. The NT usage of prepositions with “eon” is particularly instructive: for example (translated literally) “out of the age” (Jn 9:32), “from the age” (Lk 1:70; Acts 3:21), “into the age” (Jude 13), “into the ages” (Jn 4:14). The first two phrases reflect an indefinite time preceding the present moment, and the last two point to a future indefinable time (often translated as “forever”).
The biblical concept of eternity stands in contrast to other cultures of the time, which often thought in cyclical terms. The Greek world particularly thought of time in the analogy of a circle—an ever-recurring sequence of events—and redemption was to find an exit from that vicious cycle, thus being freed from time in order to experience timelessness. The biblical concept pictures time as a line with beginning and end guaranteed by the eternal God. Thus for the Greeks salvation could not occur within a designated sequence; it only occurs in the experience of the individual and moves on to the historical consummation directed by the eternal God.
The contrast between the Greek and biblical ways of viewing time raises the question of the exact nature of eternity. Is it to be understood as merely unlimited time or, in direct contrast to present time, as timelessness? The biblical view seems to be that eternity is not timelessness and does not stand in contrast to present time as its opposite, since present time and eternity share basic qualities. 3Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Eternity. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 726). Baker Book House.
I’m not going to go into detail on the two included excerpts. Not here anyway. That’s going to come in a later article. For now though, I do believe it’s shown how we get eternal as an attribute of God, starting in the Old Testament through to the present day.
Inside Eternity
Now that we’ve established God as eternal, we can move forward. Actually, inward. Let’s look at something, from our point of view, that’s close to “eternity past”. And then something, again from our point of view, that’s in “eternity future”.
Eternity past
Let’s go back as far as we can. To “the beginning”. Not the beginning of God, but to the beginning of the universe we currently call our home.
The Beginning
Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
…
And there it is. The logic is so simple. Since God created the universe, He must have existed before the universe. We are told of other things that may have happened before or after the beginning of creation. But we have no way to know for sure exactly when. Two such things are the creation of the angels and the fall of Satan.
Keep in mind, all we’re doing here is looking for an event to narrow our scope down to the time of our “world”/universe.
Eternity future
Our event for “eternity, appropriately enough, is the end of our world. As kind of an added “bonus”, the passage below also tells us some things that will happen even after that.
The New Jerusalem
Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Rev 21:5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Rev 21:6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
…
For our look at “eternity future” for our world, here’s the key:
Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away
We also see some things about God being eternal in there.
I am the Alpha and the Omega – Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, Omega the last.
the Beginning and the End – very straightforward, no explanation needed.
Where are we with Jesus, Christians, and celebrations in Heaven?
Now that we’ve established some boundaries, or more like no boundaries for human history, let’s go a bit deeper.
Although there are plenty of references for showing Jesus was present “in the beginning” and at “the new beginning”, let’s just use one simple one. It comes from the book of Revelation.
Greetings and Doxology
Rev 1:4 John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Rev 1:7 Look, he is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.
So shall it be! Amen.
Rev 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Notice what Jesus said about Himself. Remember what was said about God earlier. Jesus is saying He and God are one. BTW, while not included here, the Holy Spirit is the third “person” of God.
So, we can now include Jesus with any celebration of God, new or old testament.
Did Jesus really foretell Jewish celebrations in Heaven?
Let’s now move into the Jewish celebration Jesus referred to.
The Passover
Here’s what the Old Testament says about The Passover in Exodus. Check out especially the underlined portions.
The Passover – Exodus
12:14-20 pp — Lev 23:4-8; Nu 28:16-25; Dt 16:1-8
Ex 12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’S Passover.
Ex 12:12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
Ex 12:14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.
Ex 12:17 “Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
Ex 12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
Ex 12:24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.
Ex 12:29 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
We several things.
- A lamb. Note however, there were options for those who couldn’t afford a lamb, goat, and on down to lesser cost animals. The sacrifice of a lamb originated with The Lord providing a lamb a a substitute for Isaac when God told Abraham to sacrifice his first-born son. That is, in reality, his first-born son as Abraham, not Abram – and with Sara, not Hagar.
- A lamb without defect.
- The lamb had to be taken care of for a time,
- The lamb had to be sacrificed at the allotted time.
- Some of the blood had to be put on proper places on the doorframe.
- They couldn’t leave the house that night.
- When God saw the lamb’s blood on the doorframe, He would pass over that house and not kill the first-born son.
All of this was about a new sacrifice that was coming later. Jesus, the perfect/sinless lamb of God.
Jesus – the Lamb of God
We have three passages to look at in the New Testament. They will tie all this together.
First – The lamb who took away the sins of the world – John
Jesus the Lamb of God
Jn 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Jn 1:32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”
We have the reference to Jesus as the Lamb of God. Notice John’s statement when he saw Jesus. Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! Of course, Jesus took away our sins through His sacrifice on the cross.
Second – Jesus as the Passover lamb – 1 Corinthians
Next, we turn to something Paul wrote. The context of this passage is a letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about a specific incident. However, within the explanation to the church of how to deal with the incident, Paul gave them some basic truths about Jesus and those of us who want to follow Jesus.
Expel the Immoral Brother!
1Co 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
1Co 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
1Co 5:9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
1Co 5:12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
The passage speaks to both the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread from the Exodus passage above.
Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
So we see something of yeast, which is a topic Jesus brought up in His time on earth. And we see the reference to Jesus as “our” Passover lamb. For Paul, who was a Jewish Pharisee before becoming a follower of Christ, it’s a distinction between when he was a Jewish Pharisee and now that he’s part of what was then known as “The Way”, today called Christianity.
Third – Jesus as the unblemished lamb – 1 Peter
Be Holy
1Pe 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1Pe 1:17 Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
1Pe 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
1Pe 1:25 but the word of the Lord stands forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you.
1Pe 2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
We now have a good series of passages to bring together The Passover from the Old Covenant and Jesus as the Passover Lamb of the New Covenant.
Conclusion – Did Jesus really foretell Jewish celebrations in Heaven?
I hope by now that we can see that most certainly, Jesus did foretell Passover being celebrated in Heaven. But beyond that, we also saw that Jesus was present before “our” time even began. He’ll be present forever after “our” time ends. We didn’t actually show it here, but it’s indisputable that Jesus was born Jewish. We also know that today’s Christianity stems from Jesus’ life and teachings.
So we have all these things, and many more that I didn’t include – after all this is plenty long enough already – to show the relationship between the Jewish Passover celebration and the Christian Communion celebration, initiated at what we now call The Last Supper. And we can see the relationship between the Passover lamb and Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God who died on the cross for our sins.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Passover will be celebrated in Heaven. In reality, both Passovers. Why do I say both? Because just as God passed over the firstborn who had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, we Christians also are, in essence, passed over for judgment and the second death because we accepted God’s offer of salvation through His Son, the sacrificed Lamb of God, Jesus.
Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay
Footnotes
- 1Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.
- 2Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Eternity. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, pp. 725–726). Baker Book House.
- 3Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Eternity. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 726). Baker Book House.
Great! Question: when keeping the Passover now, should I still kill a lamb, roasted on fire and eat it?
You asked – when keeping the Passover now, should I still kill a lamb, roasted on fire and eat it?
I say no, not based on what Jesus said. After all, Jesus death on the cross was the culmination and final sacrifice for humanity’s sins. Therefore, I don’t see any basis for killing a lamb now, since the lamb of God was already sacrificed. With the meal at Passover, Jesus made a transition for His followers from sacrificing a lamb (or some other animal if you couldn’t afford a lamb) to His own death and drinking wine and eating unleavened bread instead. How will we celebrate both events in Heaven? We aren’t told. We only have that statement on which to believe the Passover and His sacrifice will be celebrated – somehow. In any case, especially with the destruction of the temple, animal sacrifice is no longer the means for forgiveness for Jesus’ followers.
Hope to see you at that celebration, whatever it may be,
chris
The lamb eaten at Passover wasn’t a “sacrifice”. Every time sacrifices were made in the Old Testament with animals; they were NEVER eaten but considered burnt offerings. They were to be burned/roasted with fire— no one ever ate animals meant for a sacrificial Offering.
The Passover meal included eating lamb meat…. Now in the New Testament we learn the symbolism of Christ being the LAMB. We also learn that leavening symbolizes “sin” in the New Testament…. But no where does it say take that portion of eating lamb’s meat away from the Passover feast.
Now for the other Feasts, like Day of atonement, there’s no reason to actually “sacrifice” an animal, because Christ was the ultimate sacrifice for sins— but that doesn’t correlate to God appointing his people to specifically eat lamb’s meat for the Passover meal.
Since I’m not Jewish, I can’t speak to all the various ways the Passover meal may be celebrated today. Plus, maybe I kept my answer too short – but tried to sum up the various references from the OT to the NT in terms of them pointing to Jesus. So – my source for the Passover meal is
What Is a Seder (Passover Meal)?
If you, or anyone, does it differently, my apologies. This site includes the following for step 11 of the meal – as given at chabad.org:
The holiday dinner is now served. We begin the meal by eating the hard-boiled egg dipped into salt water. Traditionally associated with mourning, the egg reminding us that our meal lacks the sacrificial lamb.
Note: The zeroa (the leg of lamb or chicken leg or neck on the Seder plate), is not eaten at the Seder.
In Egypt, the Israelites “sacrificed”/killed and ate the lamb, burning any that was left over. Some of the blood was put on the sides and tops of doorframes.
There seems to be disagreement over whether or not Jews in Jesus’ time ate the lamb, just as there seems to be disagreement now over whether or not to eat the lamb. let alone “sacrifice”/kill and/or roast it themselves.
In either case, Jesus was sacrificed, the lamb of God for our sins.
Maybe I cut that too short and maybe still am cutting it too short. It’s likely we are using the word sacrifice differently – as in the difference between a lamb being sacrificed (killed) as opposed to being used as a sacrifice (for atonement).
In any case, the train of thought from Genesis 3:15 (the first foretelling of Jesus) through to His death on the cross plus what I read from chabad.org for previous research on another topic plus this (also from chabad.org) …
After the meal, the half-matzah that had been “hidden” and set aside for the afikoman (“dessert”) is taken out and eaten. It symbolizes the Paschal lamb, which our ancestors ate at the end of their Passover Seders.
… is why I don’t see a reason to kill a lamb and roast it today. Of course, that’s from a Christian point of view. I’m not even trying tell Jewish people what to do.
If someone has a different tradition from Judaism and they have a reason for doing something different, who am I to say differently? As I said, scholars disagree over what the Jewish people did in Jesus’ time. I’m sure there are different traditions today as well. Christians don’t even agree on everything.
Do I see a reason to “sacrifice”/kill a lamb today? No. Not as a Christian. For a Jew? That’s not my call.
If a Christian does want to celebrate the Passover and “sacrifice”/kill a lamb today and eat it, that’s their/your call. Ultimately, it’s between them/you and God. Of course, it is important, as you said, to realize that the “sacrifice”/killing of the lamb wasn’t for sins, but for the pass-over that night.
This is already way beyond what the original post is about. I’m still working on one that looks at the ties between the Jewish Passover and Christian events.
I’ll close by responding to But no where does it say take that portion of eating lamb’s meat away from the Passover feast.
The gospels tell us:
Mk 14:12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
However, I can find no evidence that Jesus and the disciples ate the lamb. Some scholars think the lack of lamb points to the Last Supper not even being the Passover meal. That seems unlikely, from what I’ve found so far. Others think that, according to tradition at the time, lamb wasn’t generally included as part of the meal to be eaten.
If you have a reliable source to say otherwise, I’d love to see it, so it can be included.
thanks,
chris
I agree we are using the word sacrifice differently. The lamb for Passover was killed or SLAUGHTERED; which is a better term because sacrificed animals were never eaten but slaughtered animals can be eaten. When we say a lamb or turtledove was sacrificed for atonement they were offerings to God to remit sin. We no longer have to do that.
For Passover God specifically says to eat the flesh in Exodus 12. It’s an ordinance forever for all generations… yet Jesus was the only generation that didn’t eat the flesh as his father commanded? Why would people even question that? Mark 14:12 said they KILLED the Passover. Luke 22 says the Passover MUST be killed. What did they kill? They killed unleavened bread? They killed bitter herbs? They killed a boiled egg like the Jewish article mentioned? Nope. they killed a lamb/goat of the first year. And that same chapter said they ate the Passover. The Passover is the lamb. Lamb meat IS the meal.
So I don’t believe my question goes away from your post. Are we supposed to keep the Passover now? Yes. How do you keep it unless reading how it was kept in the Old Testament and how it was kept in the New Testament. Knowing his disciples “killed” the Passover and ate the Passover (which is the lamb) are we to do the same? Absolutely. We’re not taking away Christ’s ultimate sacrifice for our sins by slaughtering the lamb. We’re doing something that was to be done forever. Unless forever no longer means forever.
I’m sorry but your argument, and sounds like anger, shouldn’t be directed at me. What I put out was based on scholarly research done by people whose life work is to study these things. As such, Jesus’ generation is NOT the only one that didn’t eat the lamb. I suggest you read what I wrote and follow up with the links I included. You should also pay attention the reality that I said not all Jews agree on the question of whether or not to eat the lamb. Also, the link I provided on how some Jews eat the Passover meal – not all.
I don’t know where you are coming from – with things like killing herbs and all that. Assuming you are Christian, your issue is not with me. Your issue is with God. As I implied, as long as we’re not taking away from Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, there’s seemingly no issue with celebrating the Passover meal. However, as the New Testament points out, it’s also not necessary to essentially become Jewish to be a Christ follower.
As for your statement that the Bible says Jesus and the followers ate the lamb? It most certainly does NOT say that. I’m sorry if it bothers you, but the simple reality is that there is no reference in the Bible that they ate the lamb at the Last Supper. There is historical evidence that Jewish families had already stopped eating lamb in Jesus’ time. And as chabad.org shows clearly, there are meal plans and event plans that show Jewish families celebrating with the hidden bread to remind them of the lamb.
If you don’t/won’t accept that, there’s nothing else to say.
What a convoluted way to deny that Jesus is the only “way”, only “truth”, and only “life”. Anything else is adding to the Word. Of course the people of Israel will continue to celebrate their coming lamb, they have not accepted the Messiah and will not until He removes the Holy Spirit and Church at the beginning of the 7-year tribulation.
I think you missed the point. Both the title and the content are about whether or not the Passover would be celebrated in Heaven. Period.
As to the Passover, Jesus clearly did say He would celebrate it in Heaven. Sorry – but that is God’s word. To go one step further, here’s a Jewish view (from a Messianic Jew) of Luke 22:16 where Jesus said that:
Given its full meaning, Greek plêrôsai, sometimes translated figuratively as “fulfilled”; but see Mt 5:17N. Yeshua at this meal, the “Last Supper,” added considerably to the familiar symbolism of Pesach (vv. 17–20&NN). The final and fullest meaning for Pesach will be revealed after the return of Yeshua the Messiah to rule in glory. (Stern, D. H. (1996). Jewish New Testament Commentary: a companion volume to the Jewish New Testament (electronic ed., Lk 22:16). Jewish New Testament Publications.)
We have yet to be told or to see for ourselves exactly what that means. Any other view of it assumes we know more than God does – or that we know His mind even though He hasn’t told us.
As is always the case, my goal is to get people to think – not to tell you what to believe. You are free to believe what you want about God’s word (that freedom was given by God) and also believe what you want about what I wrote. However, ultimately, God is God and can save whoever He wants to save. As Paul pointed out:
Ro 9:14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.