The First Easter Happened Long Before Calvary

The First Easter

Happened Long

Before the Cross

Have you ever considered the first Easter celebration actually happened long before Calvary? When the Hebrews sacrificed a lamb and put its blood on the doors of their houses in Egypt, they were acting out a dress rehearsal for Calvary. They simply trusted in the lamb's blood and the angel of Death passed over them. This literal metaphor pointed to the shed blood of the Perfect Lamb of God which washes away the sins of the world on the cross.

The Hebrews have eaten their Passover lamb every year since that historic day. When Jesus said to His followers in John Chapter Six that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, He was in effect saying to the Jews, "I AM your Passover Lamb." They didn't understand and most turned away, saying this teaching was too hard.

Jesus explained that metaphor to the apostles, saying "the flesh profits nothing." You don't eat flesh to have spiritual life. The manna which the Hebrews ate sustained only their fleshly bodies, which eventually died. "I am the true Bread from Heaven and My words are Spirit and life," John 6:63. "I am the Word made flesh.Whoever eats this bread (my words) will nourish the spirit, which leads to eternal life."

When we celebrate the Lord's supper by eating a wafer and drinking the juice, we are not taking eternal life into our fleshly bodies. We are "doing this in remembrance" of our Lord's body and blood which was shed to take away our sin. By trusting in that blood of the Perfect Lamb, we know that the angel of death must pass over us, just as he passed over the Hebrews on the First Passover.