Christianity is the largest religion in the world, around a third of the Earth’s population, and since Easter is the most important day to Christians, this day could possibly be considered the most important day in the world!
The word “Easter” appears only once in the King James Bible, Acts 12:4. In every other place and in every other Bible translation the word used is “Passover.”
President Ronald Reagan stated April 2, 1983:
“This week Jewish families … have been celebrating Passover … Its observance reminds all of … the battle against oppression waged by the Jews since ancient times …
And Christians have been commemorating the last momentous days leading to the crucifixion of Jesus 1,950 years ago. Tomorrow, as morning spreads around the planet, we’ll celebrate the triumph of life over death, the Resurrection of Jesus.”
BELIEVE – An Inspiring Devotional of Scriptures & Quotations
Passover is the first of the seven major Feasts of Lord, as given to Israel in Leviticus 25. The feasts are in three groups:
In the Spring are the Feast of Passover; the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and the Feast of First Fruits.
Fifty days later is the Feast of Pentecost at the beginning of the harvest. “Pentecost” means 50th.
At the end of the summer harvest are celebrated the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Let us examine these feasts.
Passover was first observed around 1,400 BC, the night before the exodus from Egypt.
Egyptians had enslaved the Israelites. The Pharaoh had ordered their infant boys thrown into the Nile River.
In response, God sent ten plagues upon Egypt as judgments.
Similar to the Egyptian Pharaoh’s command to kill Hebrew infants, God’s final plague on Egypt was the angel of death sent to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians.
On the 15th day of the Hebrew month Nisan, each Israelite family was to kill a lamb and put its blood over the doorposts of their house so that the judgment of the angel of death would “pass over” their home, indicating their faith that the sacrificed lamb had taken the judgment in their place.
Exodus 12:8 gave instructions regarding the Passover lamb:
“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”
A Hebrew day began at sunset and lasted until the next sunset.
In 33 AD, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples in the evening and then in the morning he was crucified — on the day of Passover.
The Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 5:7: “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
The lamb is considered the most innocent of animals. John the Baptist saw Jesus and exclaimed: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!” John 1:29.
Justin Martyr, who live c.100 to 165 AD, described:
“That lamb … was commanded to be wholly roasted … a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb … is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb.”
Crucifixion was designed to stretch out the agony of death as long as possible. It was the most painful of Roman tortures, reserved for slaves and rebels.
Dr. Alexander Metherell, M.D., Ph.D. wrote:
“The pain was absolutely unbearable … In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word: ‘excruciating.’ Literally, excruciating means ‘out of the cross.’”
Cicero called crucifixion, “the most cruel and hideous of tortures.”
Historian Will Durant wrote that “even the Romans … pitied the victims.”
Isaiah chapter 53 prophetically foretold the Messiah’s suffering:
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed …
The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent …
He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished … Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer … The Lord makes his life an offering for sin …
My righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities … For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”
The next Jewish Feast after Passover was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Mark 14:1 “After two days was the feast of passover, and of unleavened bread.”
“Leaven” is another name for “yeast.” On this feast, Jews would get all the leaven or yeast out of their homes.
Leaven is symbolic of sinfulness.
Matthew 16:6 “Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees … Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
On the exact Feast of Unleavened Bread, when Jews were getting the leaven out of their homes, Jesus was in the tomb – He “who taketh away the sins of the world.”
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:6–8:
“Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven …
Let us keep the Feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Theologians have debated what Jesus may have experienced when He suffered. In Matthew 12, Jesus replied to those demanding a sign:
“None will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
The Book of Jonah recorded:
“Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly … out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight … the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever.”
Next is the Feast of First Fruits marking the earliest harvest of the spring, the winter barley, which is the first grain to ripen in Israel’s growing season.
As soon as it appeared above ground it was harvested and brought to the temple.
Leviticus 23:9-14: “When you enter the land … and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest … The priest … shall wave the sheaf before the Lord.”
Jesus rose from the dead on exact day of the Feast of First Fruits.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:20–23: “But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept … But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
Jonah declared: “Thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple … Salvation is of the Lord.’ So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
The fact that the Gospels have women being the first to testify of Christ’s resurrection is evidence that the disciples did not make up the story, as women were not accepted as witnesses at that time.
Josephus included in the Antiquities of the Jews this first century legal policy: “Let not the testimony of women be admitted.”
Anyone wanting to fabricate a story would certainly have had made it up with the most reputable men being the first witnesses, not uneducated fishermen and women.
The fact that the Gospels record Jesus first appearing to women is evidence that the resurrection account was not a made up story.
Sir Lionel Luckhoo (1914-1997) was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as world’s most successful criminal attorney. He wrote:
“The bones of Muhammad are in Medina, the bones of Confucius are in Shantung, the cremated bones of Buddha are in Nepal. Thousands pay pilgrimages to worship at their tombs which contain their bones. …
But in Jerusalem there is a cave cut into the rock. This is the tomb of Jesus. IT IS EMPTY! YES, EMPTY! BECAUSE HE IS RISEN!
He died, physically and historically. He arose from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of God.”
President Donald J. Trump posted Truth Social @TrumpDailyPosts, 04/13/25 08:53 PM:
“This Holy Week, Christians around the World remember the Crucifixion of God’s Only Begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and, on Easter Sunday, we celebrate His Glorious Resurrection and proclaim, as Christians have done for nearly 2,000 years, ‘HE IS RISEN!’
Through the pain and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we saw God’s boundless Love and Devotion to all Humanity and, in that moment of His Resurrection, History was forever changed with the Promise of Everlasting Life.”
In closing, one last question needs to be answered. Why did the Lamb have to die?
To answer that, we must ask:
Why did God make us?
Out of everything God created, we are the only ones made in His image with a free will ability to love God back.
Secondly, God has to hide himself behind His creation for us to have a free will, because if He ever revealed Himself in all of overwhelming, omnipotent, universe creating power, your response would be involuntary. And for love to be love it must be voluntary!
Thirdly, God is just and therefore must judge every sin. If He does not judge a sin, His silence would be giving consent to sin.
Numbers 30 explains silence equals consent. This is seen in a wedding ceremony, where the minister asks if anyone objects they should speak now or forever hold their peace. By staying silent, those in attendance are giving their consent. In law, this is called “the rule of tacit admission.”
If God is silent and does not judge a sin, even the smallest, His silence would effectively be giving consent to the sin. And if God gives consent to one sin one time, He denies His just nature, He denies Himself. And 2 Timothy 2:13 declares “God cannot deny Himself.”
So He has to judge every sin.
In mathematical equations, there are constants and variables.
In the equation of redemption, the constant is God is just, forever was, is, and forever will be just. That will never change.
The variable is who takes the judgment – you or a substitute.
The Lamb is our substitute. The Lamb is God’s way to love you without having to judge you.
Charles Wesley wrote the hymn: “Amazing love! how can it be, That Thou, my God, should die for me!”
God is just in that He judges every sin, but God is love in that He provided the Lamb to take the judgment for our sins.
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.” John 3:16.
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45.
The sacrifice of the Lamb was foreshadowed by the coats of skins God made for Adam and Eve.
It was foreshadowed by the sacrifices made by Abel, Noah, and Abraham.
In Genesis 22:7-8:
“Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for burnt offering.”
It was foreshadowed in the Law of Moses with the Passover lamb, and on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest brought the blood of lamb into Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. The blood changed it from a “judgment” seat into a “mercy seat.”
It was foreshadowed by the sacrifices of David, Solomon, and Elijah.
Finally, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and declared: “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.”
Believers in the Old Testament had faith in the Lamb to come; believers in the New Testament have faith in the Lamb that came, but salvation is through the Lamb.
The Lamb of God took the judgment for all of your sins.
Another question is, how was Jesus’ sacrifice enough to pay for the sins of all mankind?
Jesus is divine and experienced judgment in a dimension we will never understand.
2 Peter 3:8 says “A day with the Lord is as a thousand years.” Jesus experienced the day on the cross as if it were a thousand years.
In God’s perfect justice:
the eternal Being, Jesus, who is innocent suffering for a finite–limited period of time
is equal to
all of us finite–limited beings who are guilty suffering for an eternal period of time.
Infinity times finite equals finite times infinity.
An unlimited Being suffering for a limited period of time equals all of us limited beings suffering for an unlimited period of time.
Jesus suffered the equivalent of eternal judgement in all or our places, and He is THE ONLY ONE who could have done it!
When someone believes the Gospel – that Jesus suffered in their place, that their sins have been taken away, and that they are accepted by God – they are filled with joy and gratefulness.
You experience the unconditional love of God which brings a change from the inside–out, a polarity change in the heart.
Instead of avoiding God, you are drawn to Him through Jesus the Son. John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Then, you are filled with Holy Spirit, who brings about a change in your behavior, drawing you to share the unconditional love of God with a lost and hurting world.
