What Easter did Christ celebrate? – Orthodox magazine “Thomas”

What is the Old Testament Passover?

This is the main Jewish holiday, which commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. In the Gospel of Matthew we read: On the first day of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus and said to Him, “Where do you tell us to prepare the Passover for You?” (Matthew 26:17 ). What is “the day of unleavened bread”? Let us turn to the Old Testament text: In the first month, on the fourteenth [day] of the month in the evening, the Passover of the Lord (Lev. 23 :5). That is, the Feast of Unleavened Bread - this is one of the names of the Jewish Passover - was supposed to be celebrated from the 14th to the 15th of the month of Nisan for seven to eight days. Nisan in the Jewish calendar is the first month of the biblical year. It roughly corresponds to our March-April period.

What is this story about Jews and Egypt?

According to biblical history, Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and the ancestor of the Jews, moved with his entire family to Egypt due to famine, where his descendants remained, gradually forming the Jewish people. Its numbers grew rapidly, so that one of the pharaohs began to fear an uprising. To weaken the Jews, he first ordered them to be involved in heavy construction work, which gradually turned them into slaves: “The Egyptians cruelly forced the children of Israel to work and made their life bitter from hard work in clay and bricks and from all the work of the field” (Exodus 1 :13–14), and then ordered to kill all their newborn babies. Only the future prophet Moses was saved. Later, God called him to go to Pharaoh and demand that the Jewish people be freed from slavery and released to the Promised Land.

Pharaoh did not want to do this for a long time. Then God sent ten disasters to his people - the so-called ten plagues of Egypt. After the last one, when the Angel killed all the firstborn of the Egyptian people (including the ruler’s son), Pharaoh finally released the Jews. However, when they had already reached the shores of the Red Sea, he sent an army after them to bring them back. Then, by the will of God, the sea parted and the Jews crossed along the bottom to the other shore, and when the Egyptian army rushed to catch up with them, the sea closed and all the soldiers died. This is how the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt took place.

What does the word "Easter" mean?

In fact, this holiday existed back in the days of the Old Testament. The word “Passover” translated from Hebrew means “exodus”. This is a Jewish holiday, established by the prophet Moses long before Christ came into the world. This is one of the ancient Old Testament prophets who completed the great mission of saving the Jews.

Moses came when the Jewish people were in distress in Egypt. They moved there during times of famine, Joseph, the son of Abraham, helped them with this. His brothers sold him into slavery because of envy - his father loved him more than the other eleven sons. But this sad event served the Jews well - Joseph became a respected person in Egypt. At the pharaoh's court, he was loved and respected due to his unique abilities and intelligence. Therefore, his family was received in Egypt with honors.

What are unleavened bread?

This is unleavened bread made without the use of leaven. It is prohibited to eat bread made from dough mixed with any grains and subjected to fermentation on the Jewish Passover: For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; from the very first day you shall destroy leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leaven from the first day until the seventh day, that soul will be cut off from among Israel (Exod. 12:15).

The night before, a ritual of searching for chametz, that is, everything leavened in the house, is performed. The Jews light a candle and, after reading a special prayer, begin to look for the remains of leavened bread and sweep them out of the house.

It is interesting that in Christian symbolism a person in the spiritual sense must become “unleavened bread,” that is, cleanse himself of all sinful impurities and fermentations, as the Apostle Paul writes: “Purge therefore the old leaven, so that you may be a new dough, since you are unleavened, for the Passover ours, Christ, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, not with the leaven of vice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth (1 Cor 5 :7-8).” After all, unleavened bread does not spoil or become moldy - it can only dry out.

New Testament Passover

According to the principle of the Bible, the contents of the Old Testament are prophecies and types of what the New Testament speaks of. If we look at the Old Testament Passover from this point of view, we will see an amazing and detailed picture of New Testament reality.

According to God's sovereignty, the Lord Jesus was killed precisely on the day of the Old Testament Passover (Matthew 27:15; John 18:28) so that this type would be fulfilled. It is He who is the actual Lamb who was sacrificed for us. Therefore, when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him, he said to all the people: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

This shows that from the point of view of the New Testament, the word “Easter” does not indicate some kind of religious event. Easter is a living Person. Therefore, the Apostle Paul said: “...Our Passover, Christ, was sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). Passover lamb in Exod. 12 is a type that is a description, explanation, and definition of what Christ is as a sacrifice for us. And the holiday of Passover itself in the Old Testament is a pre-image showing how Christ, our Passover, saves us from God's judgment and feeds us with what He is.

Everything that happened to God's people during the exodus from Egypt is not just historical events, “but these events occurred as examples [lit. “types”] for us…” (1 Cor. 10:6). The New Testament says that God has set a day on which He will judge the world (Acts 17:31), just as He judged Egypt, which in the Bible is a type of a godless world. But God in His mercy and love gives people a way of salvation. This way is Christ, who died for us.

If you accept Christ as the sacrifice made in your place, then He will become your Passover, thanks to which God's judgment on this world will pass by you. The blood He shed on the cross for your sins will become the blood “on the door of your house,” and He Himself will become your nourishment, satisfying your hunger and allowing you to emerge from “Egyptian slavery.”

To accept Jesus Christ and receive salvation from the judgment of this world, simply speak a few words from your heart to Him. Say, “Lord Jesus, I believe that You died for me. Thank You for having prepared salvation for me. You are the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Lord, I open myself to You and accept You as my Savior.”

Why does this holiday have such a name - Easter?

It is connected with the lamb (lamb), which was prepared for the festive meal: let them eat its meat this very night, baked on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Exodus 12 :8). Judging by the sources that have survived to this day, the blood of this lamb in the time of Christ was used to anoint the doorposts and, in fact, it was thanks to this action that the holiday received the name Easter.

After all, the word Passover comes from the Hebrew verb pasach, that is, “passed.” Who passed? The angel who, during the last plague of Egypt, killed all the firstborn, but did not enter (that is, passed by) those houses whose doorposts were anointed with the blood of the lamb: And Moses called all the elders [sons] of Israel and said to them: choose and take for yourself lambs according to your families and kill the passover; and take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the jar, and anoint the lintel and both doorposts with the blood that is in the jar; but you, no one, go out of the door of your house until the morning. And the Lord will go to smite Egypt, and he will see blood on the lintel and on both the doorposts, and the Lord will pass by the doors, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to destroy (Ex. 12:21–23).

Easter traditions

Almost all Easter traditions originated in worship. Even the scope of Easter folk festivities is associated with breaking the fast after Lent - a time of abstinence, when all holidays, including family ones, were transferred to the celebration of Easter. The symbols of Easter become everything that expresses Renewal (Easter streams), Light (Easter fire), Life (Easter cakes, eggs and hares).

5.1. Easter service

Easter Matins in Little Russia

. Nikolay Pymonenko. 1891

On Easter, as the most important holiday of the church year, a particularly solemn service is held. It was formed in the first centuries of Christianity as baptismal. Most of the catechumens, after the preparatory fast, were baptized on this special day.

Since ancient times, the Church has developed a tradition of celebrating the Easter service at night; or in some countries (for example, Serbia) in the early morning - at dawn.

5.2. Easter greeting

Starting from Easter night and the next forty days (before Easter is celebrated), it is customary to christen, that is, greet each other with the words: “Christ is risen!” - “Truly he is risen!”, while kissing three times. This custom comes from apostolic times: “Greet one another with a holy kiss”

(Rom. 16:16), also 1 Pet. 5:14, 1 Cor. 16:20.

5.3. Easter fire

Easter bonfire. Brandenburg

The Easter fire plays a large role in worship, as well as in folk festivities. It symbolizes the Light of God, enlightening all nations after Christ's Resurrection. In Greece, as well as in large cities of Russia, in Orthodox churches, before the Easter service, believers wait for the Holy Fire from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. If the fire successfully arrives from Jerusalem, the priests solemnly distribute it to the temples of the city. Believers immediately light their candles from it. After the service, many take the lamp with the fire home, where they try to keep it going throughout the year.

Easter

In Catholic worship, before the start of the Easter service, Paschal is lit - a special Easter candle, the fire from which is distributed to all believers, after which the service begins. This candle is lit at all services of Easter week.

In pre-revolutionary times in Russia, and in the West to this day, a large fire was lit on the temple grounds. On the one hand, the meaning of the fire is the same as that of the Easter candle - fire is Light and Renewal. The Easter fire is also lit for the symbolic burning of Judas (Greece, Germany). On the other hand, those who left the temple or did not reach it can warm themselves near this fire, therefore it is also a symbol of the fire by which Peter warmed himself. In addition to the illumination of bonfires and fireworks, all sorts of firecrackers and “crackers” are used to celebrate the solemnity of the holiday.

Blessing of Easter cakes. Orthodox church. Lviv

Faberge egg. Moscow Kremlin

Easter eggs

5.4. Easter meal

During Holy Saturday and after the Easter service in churches, Easter cakes, Easter cottage cheese, eggs and everything that is prepared for the festive table for breaking the fast after Lent are blessed. Believers give Easter eggs to each other as a symbol of the miraculous birth - the Resurrection of Christ. According to Tradition, when Mary Magdalene presented an egg as a gift to Emperor Tiberius as a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ, the emperor, having doubts, said that just as an egg does not turn from white to red, so the dead do not rise. The egg immediately turned red. Although eggs are painted in different colors, the traditional one is red as the color of life and victory. In the iconographic tradition, the resurrected Christ, as well as at the Transfiguration, is surrounded by an oval-shaped radiance. This figure, similar in shape to an egg, among the Hellenes (Greeks) meant a miracle or a mystery, in contrast to a regular symmetrical circle.

In the Orthodox tradition, artos is blessed on Easter - leavened bread of special consecration. Those who could not receive communion on Easter could feel unity through eating common bread.

Now artos is distributed to believers to keep at home for a year, in emergency cases it is used as an antidor (literally (Greek) “instead of communion”), it is customary to eat it on an empty stomach in case of illness. The symbol of unity passed on to Easter cakes and Easter cakes (not to be confused with the name of the holiday “Easter”)

5.5. Easter procession

Immediately before Easter, Orthodox Christians gather in the church, from where a religious procession begins at midnight with loud singing of the stichera of the holiday. Then the procession approaches the doors of the temple and the service of Easter Matins begins.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the procession of the cross is also performed during the service of the eve of Easter, but not before the Liturgy, but after it. The Easter procession should not be confused with the service of the Way of the Cross, a special Catholic Lenten service in remembrance of the Passion of the Lord.

5.6. Easter bell

In Russia, as well as other Orthodox countries, after the silence of the bells during Holy Days, the gospel is especially solemnly rung on Easter itself. Throughout Bright Week, anyone can climb the bell tower and ring in honor of the Resurrection of Christ.

In Belgium, children are told that the bells are silent until Easter because they have gone to Rome and will return with a rabbit and eggs.

The soundtrack of the holiday also has an evangelical meaning. Thus, in some churches in Greece, as soon as the Gospel begins to read about the earthquake in Jerusalem, an unimaginable noise arises in the church. The parishioners, having waited, begin to hit the wooden stairs with sticks, and the elderly rattle the seats of the benches, while the chandelier-chandeliers sway from side to side. The man-made “earthquake” thus symbolizes the opening of the tomb at the resurrection of Christ.

5.7. Folk customs

“Christification” with Easter eggs

On Easter evening, folk festivities begin right in the churchyard. In Russia, folk festivals with round dances, games, swings lasted in different areas from one day to two or three weeks and were called Krasnaya Gorka.

In Bulgaria, hundreds of large and small clay pots made before the holiday, decorated with good wishes, are thrown from the upper floors to commemorate the Easter victory over evil. Any passerby can take a shard from a broken pot for good luck.

In Russia and Serbia, Easter eggs are “Christed” by breaking the different ends in order, just as people “Christ” three times on the cheeks. The kids have a "rolling game" to see who can roll the furthest egg. An Easter colored egg in Russian culture meant new life, rebirth. Easter eggs in Russia were rolled on the ground to make it fertile.[18]

Easter bunny family. Bremen

In some countries in Europe and North America, there is a custom on Easter morning to hide Easter eggs. When children wake up, they immediately rush to search the entire house. Since eggs come from nowhere, the kids eventually discover the Easter Bunny’s “nest” with many colorful eggs. The Easter Bunny, as a symbol of fertility and wealth, has been a symbol of Easter in Germany since the 16th century and has since spread throughout the world. Toys and sweets are made in the shape of bunnies, as well as souvenirs, which sometimes make up entire families or different professions.

Easter streams. Germany

Long before Easter, Easter fairs open in the main squares of European cities, where you can buy handmade things. Bridges and fountains are decorated with greenery and colorful eggs, symbolizing Easter streams - Renewal and Spring of Joy. In many courtyards you can see bushes and trees decorated with eggs and various characters, like a Christmas tree.

In Ukraine, on Easter Monday, boys pour water on girls, and girls take “revenge” on Tuesday. In France, wives can beat their husbands on Monday, and they can hit them back on Tuesday.

How was this holiday celebrated by Jews? What does it mean to “prepare Easter”?

It was a home, family holiday. A wide table was set up in the dining room, on which a bowl of salted water was placed - it symbolized the tears shed by the Jews during Egyptian slavery. It is interesting that it was in this cup that the Lord dipped unleavened bread, which he then gave to the traitor Judas (John 13:26–27).

Also on the Easter table they placed a dish with bitter herbs: onions, chicory, horseradish, garlic. During the meal, the Jews ate them until tears appeared in their eyes. This is how the terrible tragedy was commemorated when Pharaoh ordered all newborn Jewish babies to be drowned in the waters of the Nile (Exodus 1:22 ). In addition, a paste was prepared from dates, nuts and pomegranates. Its color was reminiscent of the clay from which enslaved Jews built cities for the pharaohs.

Unleavened bread was laid out on the table in three piles, with napkins placed between them. These three rows of unleavened bread symbolized that the three social levels of Jewish society - the rich, the middle-income people and the poor - were abolished on this solemn evening: any Jew, regardless of his income, age and gender, had to participate in the sacred meal: And Moses said: Let us go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our sheep and with our oxen, for we have a feast for the Lord [our God] (Exodus 10 :9). If the family was poor and could not afford to buy the Passover lamb, then they could celebrate the holiday by sharing with another family.

At the climax of the Passover meal, four cups of wine diluted with water were placed on the table, which symbolized the four promises given to the Jews by God during their exodus from Egypt: Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their slavery, and I will save you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments; And I will take you as My people and will be your God, and you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of Egypt (Exodus 6:6–7).

The head of the family took the first cup of wine and thanked God, saying: “Blessed is the Lord our God, the King of the world, who created the fruit of the vine!” After which the vessel was passed around, and everyone drank a little wine. Then the youngest of those present (during the Last Supper it was the Apostle John the Theologian) asked the oldest at the table a sacred question: “What does all this mean?”, and he was told the story of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. At the same time, they read or sang two psalms - the 113th and 114th, which related to these events, and ate bitter herbs.

After the second cup was passed around, the leader of the meal took one unleavened bread, broke it in half and said thanksgiving: “Blessed is our Lord, the King of the world, who brought forth bread from the earth.” After this, the bread was divided among all those present. Following this, it was the turn of the lamb, then they drank from the third cup, sang Psalms 114–117, and the fourth cup of wine ended the holiday.

After finishing the meal, everyone went outside. In Jerusalem they climbed the Mount of Olives, where they continued to celebrate together with other families.

In the light of biblical typology, the future is presented as a more perfect repetition of past experience; new exodus (Isa. 43:16-21), new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34), etc. Thus, what happened in the sacred history of the Old Testament with all its constituent elements (events, persons, institutions) was a shadow of the future, was a prototype of the events of the messianic period, a prototype of Christ and the New Testament. The Old Testament holidays, as the most important component of the religious life of ancient Israel, had a special typological significance. The typological connection between the feasts of the Old Testament and the period of the Messiah is fully revealed in the works of the Holy Fathers and in the liturgical Tradition of the Orthodox Church.

The most important Jewish holiday, Passover, had a unique typological meaning with its semantics and its ritual system. Nothing reveals the Christian meaning of the Passover holiday more than its connection with the Hebrew prototype. From the Gospel we know that Christ suffered precisely on the days of the Hebrew Passover, and this similarity - from the Gospel point of view - is not accidental.

On the holiday of Passover, the event of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt was remembered, and with this the election and birth of Israel into the people of God. The Passover lamb was sacrificed (see Ex. 12) and for 7 days the Jews had to eat unleavened bread in memory of the hasty exodus from Egypt.

The nature of the celebration of Easter in the era of Christ changes and becomes different from the ancient one. The lamb is no longer chosen 4 days before the holiday, goats are not used for slaughter, the Passover lamb is not eaten standing and with staffs in hands, and the doorposts of houses are not sprinkled with its blood, but wine is now accepted at the Passover supper[1].

The order of the Last Supper, which followed the Easter Supper, was developed long ago, quite complex, but well known to all devout Jews,[2] who flocked to Jerusalem in the thousands every year for Easter[3]. Jesus and His disciples did not and could not invent anything new here. A certain ritual was established for the Easter supper, which developed over the centuries and during the time of Jesus Christ received the final form that it still has among the Jews today[4]; from the Mishnah we know exactly how Christ’s contemporaries celebrated Passover[5]. This supper, called “seder” (סדר - order), consisted of a whole series of prayers, sacred rites and dishes. It has been suggested that the “script” for the Passover Seder was modeled after the Greco-Roman symposium[6]. Indeed, one cannot exclude some influence of the ancient feast on the Passover Seder (by the way, the meal included a boiled egg [7]), but a number of elements of the Seder apparently go back to ancient times, reflecting universal and archetypal ideas. According to the law, Easter should have been eaten standing, but later the custom of reclining was introduced[8]. Although the Law of Moses commanded that Passover should be eaten while standing, this rule did not apply to dinner. According to the Talmud, slaves were required to consume their food while standing, but free people were not required to observe this custom, indicating Israel's transition from slavery to independence[9]. In view of this, even the poorest had to have dinner while reclining, as a sign of safety, tranquility and freedom. The Seder was prescribed to be performed leaning on the left hand, as if reclining (as was practiced by free people in the Greco-Roman period)[10]. This is exactly how the father of the family or the leader often led the Seder, leaning on a special cushion (cf. John 13:23). Here they alternated between drinking wine mixed with water and eating bitter herbs, unleavened bread and, of course, the Passover lamb.

The Last Supper, performed by Christ together with his disciples, according to the external ritual, was the ancient Jewish Passover supper, for which members of each family gathered in Israel to eat the Passover lamb[11]. Most likely, the ritual of the Jewish Passover meal was performed by Christ quite consistently. But with unprecedented accents and additions. The meal began with a blessing, and in the middle of the meal there followed a haggada - a speech about the miraculous deliverance of Jews from slavery as a father’s answer to his son about the reason for celebrating Passover[12]. One of the cups, the third[13] from which everyone drank, was called the “Cup of Blessing” (cf. 1 Cor. 10:16). At the end of the meal at the Last Supper, Christ also “blesses the cup” (see: Matt. 26:26-27; Mark 14:23; Luke 22:20). During this supper, the Lord says the words: “Drink of it, all of you. This cup is My Blood of the New Testament, which is poured out for you and for many.”[14] Here the parallelism between the two Passovers is clear: Christ repeats the words of Moses: “This is the blood of the covenant that God has bequeathed to you” (Ex. 24:8). Christ speaks the same words on His Easter night about His blood. The blood of the lamb, which was shed at the conclusion of the Old Testament, is here related to the Blood of Christ, which is now shed; The Covenant with Moses is with the New Covenant; deliverance from Egyptian slavery - with the remission of sins.

Christ says: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19), because this Supper (Liturgy) will already be done in remembrance of Christ, and not of Moses. In that sense, the meaning of these words is contrary to Protestants, who say that the bread and wine in the Liturgy are not the true Body and Blood of Christ, but only remind of Him.

The Christian faith is the Easter faith. The observance of the Sacrament of the Eucharist arose neither from temple worship nor from synagogue worship. The latter influenced the “synaxis”, which later constituted the first part of the Christian Liturgy. The very observance of the Eucharist arose from the observance of the Jewish meals, more precisely from the observance of the Last Supper[15].

A lot of theologians' ink has been spent trying to explain how it happened that Christ celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples before the start of the Jewish Passover[16]. The opinion that Passover took place from the 13th to the 14th of Nisan should now be considered generally accepted and widespread. The order of events of the last days of the Lord Jesus Christ was such as indicated by the church services of the Orthodox Church during Holy Week. Thus, without any evidence yet, let us assume in advance that Christ was crucified on Friday morning; The Last Supper took place on the eve of this day, on the night from Thursday to Friday.

Christ suffered not just on the days of the Jewish Passover, but on the very day of the Jewish Passover (during the slaughter of the lambs in the Temple), and this, as we have already noted, was no coincidence. “On the Holy and Great Thursday, the fathers who did all the good in the Divine, received each other from the divine Apostles, and the sacred and divine Gospels, gave us... before the Jewish chamfer on the heel of the imash. But it is applied, to follow education and truth, in that reality and hedgehog for us the shepherd is sacrificed to Christ, having preceded our Lord Jesus Christ, as the divine fathers say, he acts with the disciples on the evening of the Thursday. That evening and Friday the whole day, one day, is imputed to the Jews: for this reason they count the term “no-day” with the verb “[17].

Like other holidays and institutions, the Old Testament Passover is a shadow, a type of the future (Col. 2: 15-17). In the Easter decrees, the Old Testament writers saw images of the future. They adopted names for the coming Messiah that were obviously borrowed from the Passover lamb. Yes, Rev. Isaiah and Jeremiah liken Him to a lamb (Isa. 53:7; Jer. 11:19), and in this likening the New Testament writers see a clear reference to Jesus Christ (Acts 8:32-35). In accordance with this, He is called the Lamb in the New Testament (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19), and St. ev. John the Theologian, telling that the soldiers did not break the legs of Christ, notes: “this happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: let not His bone be broken” (John 19:33-36; Exodus 12:10). The failure to break the bones of the Passover lamb prefigured the failure to break the legs of Christ on the cross (John 19:33-36).

Looking at Easter through the prism of the New Testament, through the already fulfilled prophecy in Christ, we note that the Passover lamb, as a sacrifice to God, typologically pointed to Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), who offered himself as a sacrifice for the redemption of all mankind from the slavery of sin and death (1 Cor. 5:7). The fathers and teachers of the Church reveal the educational significance of Easter in more detail. And first of all, as we have already noticed, the time of the slaughter coincided with the time of the crucifixion of Christ. St. Irenaeus of Lyons says: “He (Moses) knew the day of His suffering, and figuratively predicted it under the name of Easter. And on this very holiday the Lord suffered while celebrating Easter”[18]. “On the fourteenth day the Paschal lamb is slain in the image of the Lord crucified on the cross,” notes St. Ephraim the Syrian[19]. The sprinkling of the blood of the Paschal lamb is an image of our redemption by the blood of Christ (St. Cyril of Alexandria)[20]. “Eating unleavened bread,” in his words, “is an indication that those who have become partakers of Christ must feed their souls with unleavened, pure desires, accustoming themselves to a life free from deceit and free from depravity.”[21] In a mysterious sense, unleavened bread depicted the purity of spiritual life in Christ, that is, that Christians through Christ’s Passover will be cleansed from the old leaven of sin and must celebrate the new Passover in unleavened purity and truth (1 Cor. 5:7-8). Bitter herbs are an image of the suffering that we must endure out of love for the One who went to death for us[22].

The interpretation of one of the first apologists of the Church, St. much Justin the Philosopher, according to whom the very image of preparing the Paschal lamb “was a symbol of the suffering of the cross that Christ had to suffer. For when a lamb is roasted, it is placed in the likeness of a cross: one spit passes through it straight from the lower extremities to the head, and the other across the shoulder blades, on which the front legs of the lamb are supported.”[23]

Another very interesting coincidence: during the time of Christ, Passover and Unleavened Bread were experienced as one festival; Easter, in its ideological and historical significance, exceeds the festival of unleavened bread, and therefore its name is often transferred to the holiday following it[24]. According to the Law, on the 14th of Nisan they slaughtered the Passover lamb and ate the Passover, on the 15th of Nisan the first day of Unleavened Bread, also called Passover, was celebrated, and on the next day of the holiday (according to the tradition of the 16th of Nisan)[25] the first sheaf ('omer) of the harvest was brought (Lev. 23:10 -eleven). As we have already indicated, according to the tradition of the Church Fathers, the day of the slaughter of the Paschal lamb coincides with the day of the Passion and Death of the Messiah Christ (Friday). And the Resurrection of Christ occurred on the morning of the 16th of Nisan (Sunday), on the day of the offering of the omer, the firstfruits, to the Temple. And is this by chance? Isn't that what the apostle meant? Paul, when he said that Christ, when he rose from the dead, became the firstborn (α̉παρχή) of those who died (1 Cor. 15:20)? The firstborn, the firstfruits of all the redeemed is Christ, who, like the first sheaf, sanctifies the entire harvest (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:23; Col. 1:18)[26]. And these two days were perceived as festivals by the first Christians, but in another dimension, in the dimension of Christ, the first in response to Easter of the Cross (paschastaurosimon, paschacrucifixionis), and the other - to Easter of Sunday (paschaanastasimon, pascharesurrectionis) [27].

To see the messianic-prophetic significance of the Old Testament holiday of Passover, let us pay attention to the practice of later Judaism. We know that this is not biblical Judaism, but its practice does much to reveal the typological meaning of Passover. This practice embodies many ancient religious and messianic ideas that go back to ancient times; it reflects the meaning of the holiday for biblical Jews.

Undoubtedly, already at the time of Christ among the Jews, Easter acquired an eschatological connotation and acquired a messianic character. The holidays are associated with the expectation of the Messiah already in the post-exilic period; they are filled with this messianic content; this reaches particular intensity during the Maccabees. Holidays are no longer just a memory, but the memory comes in the function of anticipation. The exodus from Egypt is associated with the future event of the coming of the Messiah and liberation from the spiritual slavery of sin, from subordination to the laws of this world. The eschatological dimension of Easter opens. The holiday not only recalled the exodus from Egypt, but also became a foretaste of the coming messianic era. The final salvation (eschatological) is, as it were, a new creation (Isa. 65:17), an irreversible outcome (65:22), a complete victory over evil, a newly found paradise (65:25). This transformation of the world was to be fulfilled in the person of the Messiah (Isa. 11: 1-9), and on every Easter night the Jews awaited His coming.

The rituals of the cult Passover meal (seder) were considered as an anticipation of the “messianic feast”[28].

The Jews had the following saying, attributed to the elders: “In every generation, a person is obliged to see himself as if he had come out of Egypt.” [29]. M'itzraim (מצרים), the Hebrew word for Egypt means “boundaries”, “clamps”; yetziatm 'itzrayim, “coming out of Egypt” is the desire to rise above everything that enslaves the human soul, determines it, the desire to free it from all physical, psychological or spiritual limitations caused by habits and nature[30]. Therefore, in the synagogue liturgy, Easter is called the holiday of freedom (hagha-herut)[31].

One of the limiting elements of the human condition is the phenomenon of time. Time swallows the past and separates us from the future, reducing our lives to a temporary particle of the present. But on the first evening of Easter, the boundaries of time are destroyed, a person is allowed to experience the Exodus, as if he himself had come out of Egypt. The Exodus is reconstructed in the mind, verbalized in the story of the Haggadah, and tasted in the form of unleavened bread and wine. The story becomes present and real.

Easter lasts eight days[32]. According to the rule in the Jewish Diaspora, the first two days and the final two days are holidays in the full sense (yom tov)[33]. While the theme of deliverance is the theme of the entire holiday, the first days of Passover refer back to the first deliverance, but the final days celebrate the final deliverance—the future era of Divine goodness and perfection ushered in by Meshiach. At the beginning of the holiday, a seder is performed, reminiscent of the deliverance from Egypt with all its rituals. On the seventh day of Easter, the Song of the Sea is read, containing an important allusion to the messianic era; on the eighth day, the haftarah (reading from the prophets) is read from Isaiah 10:32-12.6 - one of the exemplary prophecies for the future Deliverance. Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement[34], in the 18th century. established the custom of communion, participation in the “feast of Meshiach”, a reflection of the Seder with unleavened bread (m'atza) and 4 cups of wine, taking place after noon on the eighth day of Passover.[35]

With this custom, the Baal Shem Tov emphasized the connection between Deliverance and the Eighth Day of Passover[36]. Although this custom is recent, it embodies an idea that most likely has roots in ancient times: the connection of the time of the holiday in general, and especially Easter, with the time of the Messiah. Thus, on the last day of Passover, the pious Jew enters the world of the expected Meshiach, breaking down the wall of the future in order to taste unleavened bread (matzah) and the wine of final redemption[37]. A Jew prepares to participate in this “feast of Meshiach” during the entire Passover week: he does not eat leaven. In modern Hasidic terminology, kvass (chametz) depicts a dull sense of complacency. The removal of chametz on Passover represents the removal of arrogance and selfishness[38]. Having conquered his weaknesses, man now partook of the eschatological time of messianic deliverance; having tasted this, he began to enjoy life in serving God[39].

We see how, through the action of the Spirit, the Jews anticipated what would actually be fully given to Christians. They mystically anticipated the era of the Messiah, the time of the eighth non-evening day of the Lord, towards which, by the way, the entire history of the chosen people was directed (it is no coincidence that Easter was celebrated for eight days, and that on the eighth day the feast of Meshiach was celebrated, this is an icon of the future Kingdom). But this was all a type, and for the Jews it still remains so, since they did not recognize the Messiah. They seemed to be late with this: what for the Jews was (and is) only a symbol, for believers in Christ becomes a liturgical reality.

With the coming of Christ, the true Messiah, we are already living in the last, messianic times. With the Incarnation, Sacrifice, Resurrection, Glorification of Christ, with the whole work of His Salvation, the world has already been redeemed, and the hopes of Israel have been fulfilled. We Christians await the second coming of Christ, but the Kingdom has already been given. Although we are still in the seventh day of Creation, in historical time, God allows us to experience life on the eighth day and really anticipate the Kingdom. Every time we enter the sacred space of the first day of the week - Sunday, through the Liturgy we ascend into the Kingdom and partake of this life. And thus, Sunday actually becomes the eighth day, the icon of Eternity. This is fulfilled not only on Sunday, but also every time we serve the Liturgy, because the time of the Liturgy is the time of the Kingdom of Heaven. “Do this in remembrance of Me: as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim My death and confess My resurrection. We also remember, O Master, His saving suffering, the life-giving cross, the three-day burial, the resurrection from the dead, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at Your right hand of God and the Father, and His glorious and terrible second coming. Yours from Yours is offered to You for everyone and for everything.”[40] “All this remembrance is the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Christ repeated again and again (1 Cor. 11:26) - the experience of what happened in the past as real and present now”[41]. Not only remember the past, but also the future, and how can we remember the future when it has not yet happened? In the Liturgy we can already say this, because it truly happened, since we are in the eschaton; there is already the fullness of everything, everything has already been fulfilled, there is the fullness of time, there the past, present and future are not separated, they are all in one real liturgical “now”. In the Liturgy, the true Pascha, the Pascha of Christ, and a new, real dimension of the holiday, given by Him, are revealed.

“Liturgy,” says Archimandrite. Sophrony, - in its eternal reality there is the Passover of the Lord, always co-present with us. Before the coming of Christ, the Messiah, the Jewish Passover took place in remembrance of a historical event - the passage through the Red Sea of the Israeli people, delivered from Egyptian slavery, the prototype of all other slavery. Christian Easter is deliverance from slavery to sin and death; transition from particular and limited provisions to universal, divine ones; ascent from earthly forms of existence to heavenly ones, to immortality”[42]. And this, according to Father Sophrony, is a radical change in the nature of our Easter celebration (i.e. Liturgy). The entire Liturgy in its essential content is nothing more than a remembrance of Christ the Messiah, and not of any historical fact. “Remembrance”, understood as a living entry into the sphere of the Spirit of Christ, in His Divine and earthly dimensions. Christ is the meaning and light of Christian Easter. The eternal relevance of the Liturgy is also emphasized by the content of the prayer that all believers say before receiving the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ: “Thy Mystery Supper TODAY, O Son of God, accept me as a partaker.” In this “today” - NOW - there is neither past nor future, but only the present - completeness. And with this prayer we again ask to be accepted into the bosom of the eternal Divinity of the Holy Trinity[43].

We are given a real anticipation of this joyful life in the “feast of the Messiah,” in our Easter celebration, in the Liturgy, but this is only the beginning. When there is a second coming in history, when God will be all in all, then we will partake even more truly and more perfectly of this resurrection life, of God Himself.

[1] Ternovsky S.A. About the victims, 63rd reading // Biblical antiquity, VIII. St. Petersburg, 1900. P. 18.

[2] Therefore, in the New Testament, the evangelists do not say anything about the course of the traditional meal, which was taken for granted, but only report on an innovation: Christ filling the entire meal with a different content.

[3] At the end of the Second Temple era, the number of pilgrims flocking to Jerusalem for the Passover holiday was enormous. Josephus speaks of more than 250,000 lambs slain that day (Jewish War, VI, 9, 3, Minsk, 2004. P. 612.).

[4] Of course, the celebration of the Passover supper in the time of Christ and now in modern Judaism differs in form, but the content, idea and conceptuality still remain.

[5] Rebić Adalbert.Biblijskestarine. Zagreb, 1983. P. 204.

[6] Nosenko E. ...These are the holidays of God.... Moscow, 2001. P. 176.

[7] In particular, the egg was widely used during spring holidays among many peoples of the world as a symbol of fertility and at the same time as a symbol of the rebirth of life, as well as in rituals of the cult of the dead, which often accompanied these holidays. In my opinion, this is the root of the widespread custom among Christians of giving colored eggs for Easter - a symbol of life that has risen from the tomb of the Risen Christ.

[8] Slaves usually eat standing, but now they eat while reclining to show that they have emerged from slavery to freedom. - cit. according to Interpret the Bible, Lopukhin A.P. T.3. SPb., S. 410.

[9] Tristram G.V. Eastern customs in biblical countries. St. Petersburg, 1900. P. 41.

[10] The Greeks borrowed reclining from the Persians. The Romans borrowed this custom from the Greeks. Only the Cretans dined while sitting (Cyprian (Kern), Archimandrite Eucharist. M., 1999. pp. 20-21.).

[11] Hilarion (Alfeev), bishop. The mystery of faith. Klin, 2005. P. 160.

[12] Kuraev Andrey, deacon. Protestants about Orthodoxy. Moscow, 1997. P. 184.

[13] according to Lopukhin’s Explanatory Bible. T.11, St. Petersburg, 1911-1913. P. 73.

[14] What cup served to establish the Sacrament of the Blood of Christ? Some (Lightfoot, Shegg, Schantz, Laurent, Skene, Lilley, Pőlzl) mean the third “cup of blessing”, others (Bickell Cornely) - the fourth, and some (cf. Langen) - even the fifth, which was consumed after supper and not completely and not obligatory for everyone (Nikolai Glubokovsky. The Easter Supper of Christ and about the relationship of contemporary Jewry to the Lord. St. Petersburg, 1893. P. 37.).

[15] More details on this issue in the works of Archimandrite. Cyprian Kern Eucharist, M., 1999. P. 28 et al. Nikolai Afanasyev. The Lord's Table. Kyiv, 2003. pp. 69-75.

[16] Many articles and writings appeared about the “last Easter supper of Christ” in Russian (Archpriest Gorsky, Archpriest Bogdashevsky, Khvolson, Glubokovsky, Troitsky, etc.). Khvolson (and Glubokovsky) believe that the Passover lamb was slaughtered and eaten that year on the 13th and 14th of Nisan. They agree that Christ created Easter on the 13th of Nisan, but according to Khvolson, it was illegal, since for everyone the 14th of Nisan was a legal day, although Christ performed it according to the approved ritual in the spirit of Moses. Khvolson continues further and finds a way to correct Mt. 26, 17. Therefore he says that unleavened bread was not consumed, but leavened bread. Glubokovsky says that that year, both the 13th and 14th of Nisan was the legal Passover. In the popular speech (Flavius. Jewish Antiquities II, 15, 1) the first day of Unleavened Bread and Passover (when the lamb was slain) are identified. Christ, according to Glubokovsky, following the law, ate unleavened bread (see Nikolai Glubokovsky. The Easter Supper of Christ and about the relationship of contemporary Jewry to the Lord. St. Petersburg, 1893). Ep. Cassian (Bezobrazov), in his book Christ and the First Christian Generation (Paris, 1950, pp. 89-91), believes that the Last Supper was the Passover meal of Christ, and proposes a hypothesis for coordinating the information of the weather forecasters and John. Archim. Cyprian (Kern) also believes that the Savior performed it on the lawful day and hour (cf. Luke 22:14) (Eucharist. M., 1999, p. 18). Prot. Nikolai Afanasyev is inclined to believe that the Last Supper was not Easter, but, nevertheless, the proximity of the Easter meal, which Christ could not celebrate with His disciples, gave it a particularly solemn character (The Lord's Table. Kyiv, 2003. P. 71). The Serbian biblical scholar Glumats believes that Christ celebrated Easter before all others, as described in St. John (Glumac Dusan, etc. Biblical Archaeology. Beograd-Srbije, 1999. P. 128).

[17] Synaxar on Maundy Thursday.

[18] cit. by: Lopukhin A.P. Explanatory Bible. T.1. St. Petersburg, 1904 – 1907. P. 312.

[19] Ephraim the Syrian, St., Creations, T.6, Moscow, 1995, p. 360

[20] cit. by: Lopukhin A.P. Explanatory Bible. T.1. St. Petersburg, 1904 – 1907. P. 312.

[21] Cyril of Alexandria, St. Creations. Book 2. M., 2001. P. 270.

[22] Lopukhin A.P. Explanatory Bible. T.1. St. Petersburg, 1904 – 1907. P. 312.

[23] Conversation with Tryphon the Jew, ch. 40, https://aleteia.narod.ru/just/tryph.htm.

[24] Shivarov Nikolay, prof. prot. Biblical archaeology. Sofia, 1992. P. 506.

[25] Glumats Dusan, etc. Biblical archaeology. Beograd-Srbije, 1999. P. 128.

[26] Vikhlyantsev V.P. Bible dictionary. Moscow-Koptevo, 1984-1994.

https://www.bible-center.ru/dict/vpvdict, P. 173.

[28] Men A. Easter / Biblical holidays // Dictionary of bibliology.

https://www.agape-biblia.org/books/Book04/.

[29] cit. by: Tauber Yanki.RememberingtheFuture. https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1985/jewish/Remembering-the-Future.htm.

[30] Ibid.

[31] Passover https://www.eleven.co.il/categ/1309.

[32] According to the Law, Passover is celebrated for 7 days, but when the Jews were in exile, a problem arose regarding the exact time of celebration of the holidays. To solve the problem of adjusting the Jewish calendar in the Diaspora, the Jews added an extra day to each holiday, and it was converted into a holy day. The Eight Day of Pesach - The Feast of Mashiach. https://www.sichosinenglish.org/cgi-bin/calendar?holiday=pesach10456.

[33] Passover https://www.eleven.co.il/categ/1309.

[34] Hasidim (hāsid - pious) - a movement in Judaism that arose in the 1st third of the 2nd century. BC. They most strictly observed the Law, especially the rules of ritual purity, regulations regarding food, the Sabbath (Nikolai Shivarov, Prof. Archaeologist Biblical Archeology. Sofia, 1992. P. 528.). Apparently, as some researchers argue, the Hasidic movement split into several branches, from which came the Essenes and Pharisees. In the 18th century members of one of the mystical sects in Judaism began to be called Hasidim (Men A. Dictionary of Bibliology. https://www.agape-biblia.org/books/Book04/), and it is they who are now being discussed.

[35] Tauber Yankee. Remembering the Future. https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1985/jewish/Remembering-the-Future.htm.

[36] https://www.sichosinenglish.org/cgi-bin/calendar?holiday=pesach10456.

[37] https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1985/jewish/Remembering-the-Future.htm.

[38] https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/673479/jewish/Addicted-to-Chametz.htm.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Prayer anamnesis of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great.

[41] Paul, Archbishop of Finland. Feast of Faith. Kyiv, 2005. P. 75.

[42] Sophrony (Sakharov), archimandrite. See God as He is. Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, St. John the Baptist Monastery, 2006. pp. 281-282.

[43] Ibid. P. 282.

Why was the Last Supper called “mystery”?

Zion Upper Room

She was a “mystery” for the enemies of Christ. The fact is that Judas even then - before the Passover meal - entered into an agreement with the high priests, as they were looking for an opportune moment to seize Christ. The student did not know where exactly the festive evening would be, but he knew for certain that the Teacher would then go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where, under the cover of darkness, without unnecessary witnesses, it would be possible to arrest Him, avoiding popular indignation. That's why Judas left the supper early to lead the soldiers to the right place.

Easter in the church year

Easter written in runes

Regarding Easter, all moving holidays are celebrated in the sequence of Gospel events:

Lazarus Saturday;
The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem - a week before Easter;
Holy Week - the week before Easter;
Easter - Holy Resurrection of Christ;
Easter week (Antipascha in Orthodoxy, Octave of Easter in Catholicism) - the appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples on the 8th day of Easter and the belief of Thomas;
Ascension of the Lord - the fortieth day after Easter;
Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Easter;

What is special about the Last Supper?

The fact is that after the entire sequence of the Easter meal has been completed, Christ, completely unexpectedly for the disciples, adds something new to it. Let me quote St. Innocent of Kherson: “The time has come to talk no longer in words, but in deeds; the last hour of the Old Testament had struck, the New Testament had to be begun not with a lamb from the flock, but with His body and blood... He (that is, Christ. - Ed.) takes the bread that lay before Him, blesses it, breaks it into pieces, according to the number of disciples, and distributes it to them. Already from this blessing it was clear that this was not done according to the custom of the Easter supper (the so-called blessed bread had already been consumed), but for a different reason and for a different purpose.”

“Take,” the Lord says to the disciples, “eat: this is My Body.” And after the apostles in silence ate this new Bread - the Body of their Teacher and God, Christ took the cup of wine in his hands and, giving it to them, said: Drink from it, all of you, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many in remission of sins (Matt. 26:26–28).

Thus, in one evening, the final transition from Old Testament worship to New Testament worship takes place. From now on, the bloody sacrifices of ancient Israel were abolished by God Himself. Instead, at every liturgy during the Eucharist, a bloodless Sacrifice is offered, which every believer partakes of.

The Old Testament Passover was a prototype of the New Testament liturgy, which was established and celebrated by Christ Himself in the Upper Room of Zion (in the room where the Last Supper took place) a few hours before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. About this, Blessed Jerome of Stridon writes the following: “After the Passover, which has the meaning of a prototype, was celebrated, and after eating the flesh of the lamb together with the apostles, He took bread, which strengthens the human heart, and makes the transition to the true sacred rite of Passover, so that present Your true Body and Your Blood.”

At the same time, it is very important to understand that the Holy Fathers insist that there is only one Divine Liturgy, performed by Christ at the Last Supper. And when believers come to church today for the liturgy, they become participants in the events of that very Supper - and not symbolically, but really.

Passover in the Old Testament: A Priest's Commentary

A description of the Old Testament Easter is given by Archimandrite Nikifor Bazhanov, a famous clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church of the 19th century (1832-1895):

Old Testament Easter (from the Hebrew verb passah - to pass) (Deut. XVI, 2-6, Exod. XII, 3-20, Lev. XXIII, 5-8, Num. XXVIII, 16-25) - the most important holiday among Jews , connected with the Feast of Unleavened Bread and placed in the middle of the first month (Aviv, or Nizan, corresponding to the second half of our March and the first half of April).

This holiday was established by the Lord before the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt at the very time when Pharaoh, despite the previous plagues sent by God on the Egyptian people, would not let the Israelites go into the desert, and the Lord announced the last and most severe execution - the death of the firstborn from the firstborn of the pharaoh to the firstborn of the slave. and all the firstlings of livestock.

And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Let this month be the beginning of months for you; let him be the first among you between the months of the year. On the tenth day of this month they shall each take one lamb according to their families, one lamb per family. Your lamb must be without blemish, male, and one year old; take it from sheep or goats. And let them take some of his blood and put it on both the doorposts and on the lintel of the doors in the houses where they will eat it.

Let them eat his meat this very night, baked on the fire; let them eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not leave him until the morning (and do not crush his bones); but what remains of it you shall burn in the fire until the morning. So eat it this way: let your loins be girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands, and eat it with haste; This is the Passover of the Lord. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; From the very first day, destroy leaven from your houses. Keep this as a law for yourself and for your sons forever.

When you enter the land that the Lord is giving you, as He says, observe this service. And when your children say to you, “What kind of service is this?” You will say: this is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed by the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he defeated the Egyptians, and delivered our houses (Ex. XII, 2-27). The respect for the Jewish Passover holiday from the pagans was so great that it became a custom on the Passover holiday to release one prisoner at the direction of the people (Matthew XXVII, 15).

The Lord Jesus Christ celebrated the Old Testament Passover for the last time before His suffering. The disciples asked the Lord: where do you want us to prepare Easter for you? He said to them: go into the city; there you will meet a man with a jug of water, and you follow him, and where he enters, tell the owner of that house: The Teacher asks, where is the upper room in which He would eat Passover with His disciples? And he will show you a large and furnished upper room; in it and prepare Easter for us.

When evening came, Jesus himself went to Jerusalem, and in the upper room prepared according to His instructions, he lay down with the apostles at a meal. And he said to them: I greatly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering. For I tell you that I will not eat it until it is completed in the kingdom of God (Luke XXII, 8-16).

During the supper, Jesus stood up from the table, took off His outer garment, took a towel and girded Himself; then he poured water into the washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. By this He showed them an example of the deepest humility and at the same time that among His disciples one was unclean, for He knew his betrayer (John XIII, 11).

During the ongoing supper, the Lord revealed to the disciples which one of them would betray Him - this is the one to whom He, having dipped it, gave a piece of bread - Judas Simon Iscariot, after which Judas immediately left. However, the Son of man comes, said the Lord, as it is written about Him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed; It would have been better for this man not to have been born (Matt. XXVI, 24).

Only His disciples remained with Christ. And the Lord institutes the highest New Testament sacrament of St. Eucharist. While the disciples were still eating, He took bread and, having blessed it, broke it and distributing it to the disciples, said: Take, eat: this is My body. And he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, and said, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Do this in remembrance of Me” (Matthew XXVI, 26–28, Luke XXII, 19).

This is how the Lord established the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, or Communion. Then the Lord revealed to the disciples that He would not be with them for long, and gave them a new commandment about love - to love one another, as He Himself loved the disciples, and gave them new instructions about humility; predicted to Peter that he would deny Him three times; strengthened them in faith and calmed them in separation from Himself with the highest hopes and promises. The supper ended with the singing of psalms (Matthew XXVI, 30-35, Mark XIV, 26-31, Luke XXII, 31-38, John XIII, 33-38 and XIV-XVII).

Why do you need to eat the Flesh and Blood of Christ? Is faith alone not enough?

The fact is that the Lord calls the whole person to salvation - both his body and his soul. Since Christ is God and Man at the same time, a Christian who eats His Blood and Flesh becomes a partaker of the Divine by grace. The most important call of Christianity is that both the body and soul of a person must be saved and deified. Therefore, Communion brings complete healing to both the physical and spiritual life of a person. A Christian must not only profess faith, but also perform some sacred actions, as St. Augustine writes: “When the water of baptism touches our body, it cleanses our soul.” I repeat once again: a person must be saved not just at the level of some abstractions - like some kind of spiritual being, but only holistically - both body and soul.

Any sacrament is connected to some substance. For example, the sacrament of Baptism is with water, the sacrament of Confirmation is with oil. The substance of Confession is the sins of a person that he actually committed (thoughts, words or deeds) and for which he repents. The substance of the Eucharist is bread and wine, which are transformed into the true Body and true Blood of the Savior.

Thus, the fact that the sacrament includes some substance sanctified by God makes it not something abstract, but, on the contrary, concrete, and this concreteness is very important. Both spiritual and physical transformation of a person occurs.

EASTER - PESACHA

Today we will look at the theme of Easter in a simpler way by one of the brothers in Christ.

Passover in Hebrew is "Pesach", which means to pass by.

You can talk a lot about Easter, but it’s better to read about it in the Bible. Here we will present briefly, simply, specific facts: what Easter is and what it is eaten with (literally), because, as you know, it is really eaten!

Let's begin! A long time ago, we will not start from the very beginning.

Easter history

When the Israelites settled in a country called Egypt, the indigenous Egyptian people, and especially the Pharaoh, did not like it. And the Egyptians decided to make the Israelites slaves.

Detailed material has already been published in this article: Easter, and the spiritual comparison was also studied here: Paschal lamb, a type of Christ.

A slave is one who carries out the orders of his master. The Israelites did not like this either and they “cryed out” to God for help. God heard them and about 30-40 years later gave them a leader, Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery.

This exit is marked by the Easter holiday.

When the Egyptians began to oppress the people of Israel (the Jews) and made them slaves and subjects of the Egyptians, the Israelis began to cry and began to pray to God for help, salvation, from the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptian people. God heard their prayers and cries.

This is because Pharaoh issued a decree for birth control on the part of the people of Israel - all male babies must be killed.

In one Israeli family, a boy was born, who had to be hidden for some time, and then secretly released to the will of fate.

The parents put the baby Moses in a basket and let him float down the Nile to the will of fate. At this time, the daughter of Pharaoh went out to wash herself on the Nile River and saw a floating basket. Looking into it, she saw a baby and decided to adopt him.

Moses and the overseer

Easter and everything connected with it
Time passed, Moses grew up, he became an adult and decided to establish “communication” with his brothers, with his people.

One day he saw an Egyptian overseer beating an Israelite, he became angry with the Egyptian and killed him. Pharaoh became aware of this, and he, in turn, also became angry, only at Moses, and ordered him to be executed.

Moses was afraid of punishment and fled from Egypt to the land of Midian.

Moses lived there for some time, got married, had children...

One day, while tending his father-in-law's flocks, he saw a burning bush that was burning but not consumed. From this bush he heard the voice of God, telling him what he needed to do next in his life.

God Told him that Moses should return to Egypt and lead the people of God (Israel) out of this land. After meeting and talking with God, Moses returned to Egypt and came to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Moses told Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go for a few days' journey into the desert, with all their belongings, belongings, livestock... so that they could worship God and make sacrifices to Him. Of course, Pharaoh did not believe this and became stubborn. And for this, God carried out many executions on the Egyptians, as they are now commonly called “Egyptian executions.”

Pharaoh resisted for a long time, but in the end, after the last execution, he decided to release the people of Israel to worship God.

The last plague is a prototype of Easter

The last plague includes a prototype of Easter. What happened there?

The time has come for the last execution of the Egyptians. Pharaoh had resisted for a long time before this, but God knew and told Moses that this time Pharaoh the king of Egypt would let My people leave this land. And so it happened. But first Moses was told that the children of Israel should be prepared for the exodus from Egypt.

Easter and everything connected with it

They had to get ready, boil the lamb, prepare bitter herbs, anoint the doorposts in their homes with this blood (lamb-lamb), be dressed and collected, eat the lamb at night, and at dawn, when everything is over and Pharaoh lets the people of Israel go, let him (the people) will beg various items from the Egyptian neighbors and thus rob them.

And then he will quickly leave Egypt. Everything was done that way, everything happened as we described here and as described in the Bible.

Here you need to turn your attention to important points regarding Easter:

this is the last execution;
lamb (lamb);
exodus from Egypt

These three concepts are directly related to such concepts as “Easter”, and even the modern “Easter”.

The detailed history of the Passover holiday from the Old Testament is described in the book of Exodus from chapters 1 to 12.

The meaning of Easter

Let's start with the execution. The meaning of the execution was that:

firstly , the people of Israel and Egypt had to see the power of God (Who founded the heavens and the earth),
secondly , all the firstborn, from man to beast, had to die in all the land of Egypt,
thirdly , so that one of the firstborn would not die, it was necessary to anoint the lintel and doorposts of their homes with blood,
fourthly , it was necessary to eat a lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread (unleavened bread) that night and not leave the house until the morning,
fifthly , after all this, hastily leave Egypt.

This was the meaning of Easter.

Namely, the symbol of Easter is the lamb (lamb) and its blood.

Easter and everything connected with it

Passover is the lamb that gets eaten!

Jews smear the blood of this lamb on their doorposts. The power of God was revealed through an Angel who, seeing blood on the door frame, passed by the house. Where the door was not anointed with the blood of a lamb, the firstborn died.

The events described were commanded to the Israelites to remember and observe every year.

Celebration of liberation from Egyptian slavery!

Symbols that were on the table of every Jewish family: unleavened bread, grape juice and roast lamb with bitter herbs.

This is where the Easter holiday came into being.