This year, Passover begins the night before Palm Sunday and ends on the evening of Easter Sunday. Passover and Easter observances differ widely, but their dates often coincide—and that’s a good reason for us to be excited!
The biblical account of the Jewish feast of Passover foreshadowed our Christian celebration of Easter in several key aspects, intertwining these two wonderful holidays for believers in Jesus. Here are four common themes between Passover and Easter to prepare your heart to remember the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
1. Deliverance From Slavery
In Egypt, the children of Israel suffered as slaves under the brutal hand of the Pharaoh. He “made their lives bitter with hard bondage” (Exodus 1:14), requiring grueling, punishing work to build up his own empire. The Israelites could never escape the oppressive hand of Egypt on their own. But in His mercy, God intervened to provide an escape for His Chosen People. Through a series of 10 plagues and a miraculous elimination of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea, He freed the Israelites from slavery, setting them on the path to the land He promised them.
Likewise, everyone is born under sin’s cruel authority. Sin separates us from our heavenly Father, keeping us chained to evil and its consequences. But God directly supplied all of humanity with a way out of sin’s bondage. By sending His perfect Son, Jesus, to “proclaim liberty to the captives” (Luke 4:18) and give His life to pay our debt, He allowed us to be “set free from sin” (Romans 6:18).
2. Death of the Firstborn
When God afflicted Egypt, Pharaoh maintained a hard heart, refusing to free the Israelites after each of the first nine plagues. It wasn’t until God took his firstborn child—and the firstborn of every other Egyptian—that Pharaoh finally relented his grip on the Israelites and set them free.
The death of God’s firstborn, His one and only Son, Jesus, was also necessary to bring freedom to captives. On our own, we sinful humans can do nothing to pay the penalty due for our sins. Only the death of Jesus, “the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15), was sufficient to secure our deliverance.
3. Blood Sacrifice as Payment
On the night God struck dead all the firstborn in Egypt, He instituted a system to preserve the Israelites’ children. He instructed them to spread the blood of a lamb without blemish “on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses” where they ate the lamb (Exodus 12:7). God told them that the blood would be a sign for them: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt” (v. 13). Therefore, the blood sacrifice spared the Israelites from the same fate as the Egyptians, who mourned the death of their firstborn children.
By placing our faith in Christ and His perfect blood sacrifice, we are spared from eternal condemnation and death.
When Jesus was crucified, He took the place of the Passover lamb. Even greater than a spotless lamb, Jesus, though fully human, was a sinless sacrifice (2 Corinthians 5:21). Only He could remove our sin from us, settle the debt we owe God, and reconcile us to Him. By placing our faith in Christ and His perfect blood sacrifice, we are spared from eternal condemnation and death. Praise God for making a way for wicked, undeserving sinners like us to be “justified by faith” and “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
4. God Keeps His Promises
On the first Passover, the Israelites still yearned to make their home the land of Canaan that God had promised them. They had suffered under Egypt for generations, but God had not forgotten His covenant with Abraham, whom He told, “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). When God freed the Israelites, He set them on the path to receive this inheritance. Their rebellious, grumbling hearts cost them a 40-year wandering through the wilderness. But God indeed kept His promise when He aided their conquest of the land, where the Israelites enjoyed a prosperous kingdom and the coming of Jesus the Messiah, whom they will receive again when He returns to establish His Kingdom on Earth (Zechariah 14:4).
Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave and conquered death, crushing Satan’s head and reaffirming his inescapable fate of everlasting punishment.
Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled many of God’s prophetic promises (Psalm 16:10; 22:1–18; Isaiah 53), the first of which God made to the first man and woman He created. As God meted out punishment for Adam and Eve’s disobedience, spurred by the serpent’s temptation, He told Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). Satan may have thought he had victory over the Seed of the woman when Jesus died, but he merely bruised Jesus’ heel. Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave and conquered death, crushing Satan’s head and reaffirming his inescapable fate of everlasting punishment.
We are so blessed to serve a God who keeps His promises, assuring us that He will carry out all His plans exactly as He has told us in His Word. Let’s celebrate God’s wisdom and grace as we enjoy Passover and Easter this year, knowing He cares for us and sent Jesus to give His life so that we may enjoy life with Him forevermore.
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