The festival of Passover…
Leviticus 23:4, 5
“These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’S Passover.”
Exodus 12:3-6
“Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.”
The Passover lambs were killed on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan (also known as the day of preparation) which is the day before the Passover Sabbath. In order for Jesus (the “Passover Lamb” or the “Lamb of God”) to fulfill this prophecy He too must be killed on the day of preparation at the same time the lambs were being killed…
John 19:14
Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”
John 19:31
Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
After Jesus died He was taken down from the cross and buried that evening because the Passover Sabbath was about to begin...
Luke 23:50-54
And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
The festival of Unleavened Bread…
Leviticus 23:6-8
“Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.”
In Judaism leaven is symbolic of sin and unleavened bread is a symbol of Jesus who is without sin…
2 Corinthians 5:21
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
During the course of the Passover Seder the “Alfikomen” (a matzoh or piece of unleavened bread) is broken, wrapped in a linen cloth and then hidden for the children to find later - just as Jesus was broken, wrapped in a linen cloth and then hidden/buried in the earth to be “found” by the disciples after He had risen from the dead.
The festival of First Fruits…
Leviticus 23:9-11
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.’”
The feast of First Fruits begins the day after the sabbath where this particular sabbath is the regular weekly sabbath which goes from Friday evening to Saturday evening. And from the Good Wednesday not Good Friday post we know that Jesus was resurrected on Saturday evening just as the feast of First Fruits began…
1 Corinthians 15:20
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
In summary, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus fulfilled these three spring festivals - Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits - literally to the day and the hour.
For more on the Jewish holidays please click/tap on the following link…
Hebrew for Christians - The Jewish Holidays
Link courtesy of “Hebrew for Christians”: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hebrew-for-Christians/56347292809
