The events celebrated during Holy Week are central to the Christian faith. Being the focal point of God's plan of redemption, they demonstrate his love for humanity and his desire to deliver us from enslavement to sin.

As Christians celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jews observe Passover, the feast commemorating God's deliverance of Israel from slavery and oppression in Egypt. It is no accident that Holy Week and Passover were, and very often continue to be, concurrent events in the Christian and Jewish calendars.

For Christians, the first Passover foreshadows a second: the crucifixion of Jesus, our Messiah. Exodus records the events of the first Passover. The plague killing all the first-born males in Egypt (both humans and cattle) was the last of 10 that had been pronounced against a defiant Pharaoh by Israel's leader, Moses. It resulted in the release of the children of Israel from more than 200 years of captivity.

In order for Jewish families to protect their own first-born males from the angel of death, Moses commanded each to take a lamb "without blemish," (Exodus 12:5) on the 10th of the month. They were to observe it for four days, presumably to ascertain that it was free from disease. On the 14th day, "the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight" (Exodus 12:6).

The blood was applied "on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses" (Exodus 12: 7). Then the family was to roast the carcass on an open fire and eat a hasty meal "with unleavened bread and bitter herbs" (Exodus 12:8).

At midnight, a great cry went up throughout all of Egypt as death spread from house to house beginning in Pharaoh's palace. There was no blood on the doorposts and lintels of Egyptian homes to protect them from the death angel. But in the Jewish settlement, all was quiet. They were protected by the blood, shed by an unblemished lamb. "The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:13).

Believing and acting on these words of God, spoken by Moses, saved Israel from destruction that night.

Approximately 12 centuries later, another great Jewish leader named Yeshua (Yeshua is the name Jesus was called when he walked the Earth) was introduced to the world by John the Baptist. When John saw Jesus approach, he exclaimed: "Behold! The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

For three years, this itinerant preacher walked through Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, proclaiming a message of love and redemption. But his real mission was much more than evangelism. He had been born for the express purpose of becoming the perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. The writer of Hebrews shares a portion of the quiet conversation Jesus had as a baby with his heavenly Father: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me" (Hebrews 10:25).

While Jesus often shared with the disciples his real mission here on Earth (see John 12: 32-33, for example), the Last Supper--Jesus' celebration of Passover with his disciples--afforded him the opportunity to demonstrate his upcoming death, burial, and resurrection within the context of Judaism.

Luke writes: " 'With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.' Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, 'Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.' And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'"

Alfred Edersheim, writing in "The Life and the Times of Jesus the Messiah" (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1976) explains that in this Passover meal, celebrated on the first Holy Thursday, Jesus symbolically offered himself and joined the old and new covenants in the sacrifice to come on the cross.

Craig Hartman, founder of the New York City-based Shalom Ministries, explains: "The one enduring truth that emerges from this Feast is that nobody can go to Heaven without a Passover. Just as the wrath of God was upon everyone in Egypt when God went about to slay the firstborn and God said 'if I see the blood, I will pass over you,' in the same way, when a person dies, the wrath of God is upon him. If God sees the blood of the Lamb applied to the doorposts of a person's soul, He will pass over that person and the wrath of God will not be upon them."

As Christians celebrate the events of Holy Week this year, let the celebration of Passover remind us to give thanks for our Jewish heritage while we reflect on the words of John the apostle, "Worthy is the lamb who was slain" (Revelation 5:12).

Original date of publication, Thursday April 17, 2003. Reproduced with permission of The Record (Bergen County, NJ).