One of the really cool things about visiting modern-day Israel is how it can bring Scripture to life in a way that simply reading it can never come close. I remember my first time in Israel while the Sabbath was closing in for the weekend and witnessing virtually everything come to a stop. Businesses closed, the streets cleared, all became a lot quieter and I couldn’t find a cup of coffee to save my life! It was one of those moments where, suddenly, the Sabbath wasn’t just a concept I’d learned about but became a reality.

Passover is still like that today in Israel, too. It isn’t just an event that happened “once upon a time,” but it is still one of the mainstays of Jewish culture this time of year. For those of you not familiar, the Passover is the event in Exodus 12 where God commanded the captive Jews in Egypt to slaughter a lamb and smear the top of their doors with its blood as a marker of a house belonging to Yahweh so God would “pass over” the house and the first-born of the family wouldn’t be killed while God was delivering the Jewish people from Egyptian rule. Admittedly, it’s kind of a weird story and you should go and read it in its entirety if interested. But for the people of Israel this was an identity marker. This was the moment that signified Israel’s transition from captivity in Egypt to service of Yahweh. A moment that assured them God had their backs.

We may find all this very odd especially given the fact that God, apparently, wasn’t satisfied simply knowing which houses were Israelite and which were not in the first place. I mean, it’s God, why would he need to identify houses based on blood on the door? Shouldn’t he already know who lives where? That’s fair, but that’s not the point of the story. Instead, he says it is “a sign for you” in Exodus 12:13. They are marking themselves, setting themselves apart. This wasn’t just for God, it was for the Jewish people, and it is a story that they are to continue to embody today. All that is well and great, but why does it matter to Christians?

Passover matters for Christians because of two reasons:

1. It is significant that Jesus was also crucified during the time of the yearly celebration of Passover and the “Last Supper” that we often read about the night before Jesus’ death was actually a Passover meal. In a way, Christians also celebrate a form of Passover when we take communion as Jesus commanded at that same meal, “do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). So, Passover matters because it mattered to Jesus.
2. It is also significant for Christians that the death of Jesus is like a Passover lamb’s death. This is something that the New Testament writers pointed out and applied to Jesus after he went to the cross. As followers of Jesus, we are “marked” by the blood of Christ, just like the door of the Israelites were marked and that sets us apart from all of the destruction, plagues, and oppression of the world (1 Peter 1:18-19).

It is a story from captivity to freedom in which we are still taking part today. And this time of year, it is good to remember that so that we can continue to write the story, not just on our doors, but on our hearts.