Easter Exposed
Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover.?”  Matthew 26:17
Feast of Unleavened Bread – Today Christianity celebrates Easter as the day of the resurrection. Undoubtedly, you will too, or have done so in the past. You might even realize that Easter is a pagan festival imported into the Christian church very early, sometime around the fourth century. Of course, the pagan festival of Easter is much older, dating back to pre-Babylonian times. It has always been a celebration of a false god or goddess – until the Church brought this pagan festival inside the cathedral. If you want to see some of the background on this, click here.
Perhaps you’ve read the story dozens of times in Scripture, but you never noticed that all of the circumstances surrounding the death and resurrection of Yeshua are Jewish. In this verse in Matthew, we are specifically told that the beginning of these events was on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That reminds us of the prescribed feasts of the Lord. They’re not our holidays. They are His. We would do well to pay attention to the plan behind them. Each one is part of God’s progressive revelation of His redemptive acts.  Every year the feasts remind us that God is our God and He knows what He has been doing for a very long time.
It might seem as if this verse causes a problem with the prescribed sequence in Exodus 12 because the first day of the Feast is the day immediately following Passover, but we must understand that by the first century, the entire event – Passover and the Feast – was commonly referred to by a single name. Moreover, the details of preparation, the meal content and the time of the meal all fit the Jewish requirements of strangers in Jerusalem in the first century. A detailed explanation of this in relation to the Synoptics can be found in R. T. France’s, Matthew, in the NICNT series if you are really interested in the relationship between the New Testament accounts and actual Jewish practices. But this is all theological background.
So, what does this mean to us? Well, the first thing we confront is that Easter is thoroughly pagan. Proclaiming it as Christian does not make it so. The event of the death and resurrection occurs according to God’s calendar (the Jewish one), not our Roman calendar. Consequently, God’s timing for the death and resurrection follow and fulfill a pattern that was put in place with Moses. When we depart from this pattern, we do violence to God’s revelation of His eternal plan. We simply cannot declare another day to be God’s sacred day of atonement. In spite of all that you have probably been told, celebrating the resurrection on Easter means that you are technically worshipping a false god. (Ouch!)
Secondly, we learn that God’s plan developed over centuries and centuries so that the events of the Passion all have deep meaning within the life of the community that practiced these symbols from generation to generation. When we cut ourselves free of this pattern, we fail to see how connected it all is. We rob ourselves of its deeper magnificence.  We fail to honor the sovereignty of God.
Finally, because we have adopted pagan practices within Christian worship, we become victims of our own syncretism. Without realizing it, we slip away from God’s prescribed way of living, worshipping and celebrating. We become another version of the world’s system, conformed to the patterns of this world. Paul would turn over in his grave. Easter eggs, bunny rabbits and gift cards might be acceptable for fertility cult worshippers, but they hardly have any place in Christian worship. How can we make a difference if there is no difference?
I’m not trying to rain on your Easter parade . . . at least, not a lot. But I am concerned how blindly we follow the traditions without ever asking for the Biblical truth. When Matthew tells us that all of this happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and we have no idea what he is talking about, we are the losers here.  In spite of what you might have been told, the Christian practice of worshipping on Sunday has nothing to do with the resurrection (I know, I know – all of this is really difficult).
It’s time. It’s time to go back to God’s way – in everything, including our calendars. By the way, this year Passover was April 9, so the resurrection actually falls on the Jewish day that begins on April 11 after sundown and concludes on April 12, when Christians celebrate. We are almost aligned with God’s feasts, this year. But next year, Easter will be determined once more without regard to God’s plan. Next year you’ll have to decide which pattern you choose to follow.
Topical Index:Â Passover, Feasts, Unleavened Bread, calendar, Matthew 26:17, Easter, pagan
Your eggs must have been empty this morning. Skip, you need a little chocolate.
wow Skip- the next thing you know, you’ll be sayin’ Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas day! I agree though with what you have written concerning the G-d we know. Our Bible is thoroughly saturated with the Jewish roots of our shared faith. We (the goyim) know Him as the Jesus the Christ. My born-again Jewish brothers know Him as Yeshua/Messiah. He has a hundred other names as well as one not yet revealed to us (all). The unifying master-theme of our Book of books for both Jew and Gentile is “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Today as a result of the gift of our Father/Lover/G-d we celebrate together the death of death. Maybe soon we could hear a little more of Bikkurim? 🙂
Skip,
Thanks for telling it like it is!
My wife and I drove six hours in order to attend a Passover, and it was unbelievable!
This was our second year to keep the Passover, but this year we took the middle piece of unleavened bread that symbolizes Yeshua home and then partook of it Saturday evening in order to celebrate Yeshua rising from the tomb! And the Holy Spirit was pleased!
Yeshua is our First Fruit offering to Yahweh, and because He was accepted, we are accepted!
Now, our church and the rest of my family still keeps the pagan feasts, and of course we are called legalists, but that’s ok.
Thankfully, Yah meets us where we are and then He brings us up to the truth if we are open to it. I pray that they will get to the place where they are open to it, because they are missing a blessing!
Thanks
Skip,
Thank you for this wake-up call. I have read a number of things that seem to agree with your statements. In the past 30 years, I have never once been able to persuade a church leader that we might want to change the way we do church, in order to line up with God’s instructions. It looks to me like any group of believers that operated according to the plan laid out by God, would be so blessed, that it would be obvious, and they would stand out from the crowd.
Something I find to be a bit of irony – if there was ever any proof of EVOLUTION, it is in the practice of the Christian religion. Just look at how the Body of Christ has changed since it became the dominant belief system.
Next year you have to decide? Today you choose life or death. YHWH is a God of seperation. We are commanded not to mix the worship of Him with the practices of worshiping other gods (as if there were any).
Maybe some of you don’t know that Easter is the name of the goddess of fertility and that babbies were offered as sacrafices to her and the eggs died in the blood of those children. Please look up the origin of Easter as it is very easy with the internet now. We are without excuse. Even Judah tried to incorporate the worship of Baal and YHWH said they are guilty (Jeremiah 2:22-37) Can it be any clearer than 1 Corinthians 10:21. “You cannot drink the cup of YHWH and the cup of devils, you cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and the table of devils.” Psalms 107 says the children of Isreal were mingled among the heathen and learned their works and because of this they were defiled with their own works and the wrath of the Lord was kindled insomuch that He abhorred his own inheritance. I don’t know about you but I do not want my father to think such of me. I love Him and He said to keep the FEASTS of YHWH, not the traditions of men that are steeped in idol worship. My prayer for those of you who think it is ok to drink from two cups, “Save us Lord our God, gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Thy holy name, and to triumph in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Isreal from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen’. Praise ye the Lord.”
To the dear sister that thinks Jesus was born on Christmas, let me be the one to tell you he was not. I discovered this when I did a history of Christmas as a project for my class as a teacher. I was amazed at the traditions all the way down to the tinsel on the tree that we have allowed in to our worship YHWH. Jesus was actually a fulfillment of the feast of tabernacles which is why he was born in a manger and this feast is in the fall. It is the rainy season in December in Bethlehem and there would have been no shepherds watching over their sheep. The sheep were all put up out of the rain. When I discovered this I was disgusted and angry that I had been decieved all these years. When the first Christmas tree appeared here in the new world the true believers were so offended they would not enter the door of the church. Christmas was not even accepted in this country until 1836 in Alabama. It just goes to show that a little leaven does spoil the whole lump. ( what a testimony for today the feast of unleavened bread 🙂 )That holiday is strictly from pagan sun god worship, which is why it is on the winter solstice, why they have evergreens which the spirits were to have gone into, till the pagans cried and the sun “came back closer to the earth”. It is all there if you want to search out the truth about how you are worshiping the true Elohim. If you want to celebrate the birth of Yeshua, celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, the feasts YHWH has said belong to Him and that we ARE to celebrate.
Right on!!!
Only point I might add is that the timing and pattern of the death and resurrection of Messiah was shown in the original Passover through Moses, yet that timing and pattern were established in Gen 1:14 when the Almighty put the luminaries in the heavens to be for times and SEASONS- ‘moedim’- the LORD’s appointed times!
Thank you Skip!!!!!
Thanks Tom. Once again we are blessed by your insights and illuminations.
Skip
Because their is no Messianic community in the area of Canada, that I live, I have been following Bob Gorelik’s teachings on the passover. I really miss fellowship in a congregation. But maybe this is where I am suppose to be right now.
Apparently the Pharisees celebrated passover one day later then the Sadducees in Yeshua’s time.
I have noticed that this difference is still persistent in different Messianic congregations It is very confusing for those of us just beginning this journey. It all has to do with how we interpret “twilight”
(Is that the evening which begins the fourteenth – which is actually the end of the 13th)
Lev 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’S Passover.
6’Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the (F)Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
How do you all figure this out?
Sister,
Most of us in the process of coming out of Babylon find we are frequently by ourselves. It is a blessing to have a small group of like minded believers, yet we know the Almighty is sovreign and has a purpose for having us so scattered. Personally I believe that by having us spread out, He is creating a network of believers that can teach others to walk in His ways. You will become a resource for other fellow Christian brethren at the right time… a time that I believe is rapidly approaching.
My understanding of “twilight” or ‘between the evenings’ as it is phrased in Hebrew, is that it is the closing of the day prior to the sun setting. Therefore on twilight of the 14th the Pesach is sacrificed and then roasted so that we have lamb with our unleavened bread as the Feast of Unleavened Bread starts after sunset starting the 15th of Aviv/Nissan.
By eating unleavened bread for seven days (signifying a completeness of time) we demonstrate our response to accepting the blood of the Lamb… that we are now called to get the leaven of sin out of our lives. Sometimes we learn spiritual lessons when we find and/or eat leavened foods at home or the work place. Then we see that our Heavenly Father has given us a teaching tool of how easy it is to fall back into sin if we are not diligent! 😉
I have believed this as well and I don’t think there’s a group of believers that believe AND practise this way for a couple hundred miles in any direction.
I didn’t go to church today.
I was thinking that there is so much that I don’t understand and I don’t know where to even begin when it comes to understanding some of these things that ‘you guys’ are saying. I am still struggling with whether or not God even cares about me because my life is filled with such pain. And now I have think Jewish too? I don’t know if I can go forward if I haven’t embraced the basics.
Sister,
I want to encourage you in your current moment of doubt. Of course He cares about you. He shed His blood for you! He paid for your transgression- boom, DONE! o/o/o/ In His ressurection is the promise we have of eterntiy with Him. He loves you enough to go after you to show you His ways- written in the Torah and lived by Messiah. He loves you enough to reveal these to you so that you may walk in blessings and not curses. 🙂
He may allow you to be tested for a season, but that too is for your future benefit. Trust in the LORD and walk in His ways and He will give you the desires of your heart! Remember, this life is a journey and not a race. 😉
May you feel the countenance of the Holy One smiling upon you,
and may it give you grace and shalom!
I have believed this as well and I don’t think there’s a group of believers that believe AND practise this way for a couple hundred miles in any direction.
I didn’t go to church today.
I was thinking that there is so much that I don’t understand and I don’t know where to even begin when it comes to understanding some of these things that ‘you guys’ are saying. I am still struggling with whether or not God even cares about me because my life is filled with such pain. And now I have think Jewish too? I don’t know if I can go forward if I haven’t embraced the basics.
The Lord brought this issue of “holidays” to my attention many years ago when I was raising my daughter and wanted to train her up rightly. I wanted her to know about the centrality of Jesus as our purpose of celebration and we did not entertain the ideas of Santa and the Easter Bunny in our home. Many, including my Pastor and the “pillars” of our church consider me to be the “odd one” and I have felt the outsider’s sting of rejection. A battle of great intensity continues as I struggle to break free, surrounded by a culture steeped in tradition and religious history, however, those traditions appear to have originated with some lack in proper interpretation of the Scriptures. I look back now and see I was groping in the darkness of ignorance, not able to do away with the tree or the egg hunts because all the other kids were participating. I look back now and wonder whether I brought more confusion than glory to God. I thank Him for His longsuffering as He continues to call me to come closer!
Yet as a moth drawn to the light, journeying with an undeniable attraction to the lifestyle of a follower, disciple and worshipper of The Light of the world, I know the Holy Spirit is calling to a new level of consecration and sanctification.
Skip,
Thank you for your faithfulness in presenting this post. I taught today on the pagin origin of Easter and presented a portion of your post today as support. Consistent with my practice lately, I ended 10-15 minutes early and gave the congregation an opportunity to ask me questions or disagree. Most were very glad that they had been told the truth. In fact some wanted more information on the other Jewish festivals and holidays. Keep the truth coming!
Brother Barry,
If you are a pastor and you spoke that to your congregation, I applaud you. o/o/ That was gutsy! Most pastors I know would be too afraid of losing their jobs and pensions to be so bold in the truth. [Must be Skip rubbing off on you 😉 ] Praise Yah that you had the courage of your convictions and that they took it well. HalleluYah! o/o/o/
Consider emphasizing that these are not just festivals for the Jews, but that the Almighty calls them His appointed times and He Himself sanctified them. Therefore the ‘Feasts of the LORD’ are for ALL of GOD’s people! o/o/ Calling them “Jewish festivals” makes them too easy to trivialize as ‘interesting but not relevant’ to Christians.
Brother Tom,
Yes, I am the senior pastor of a church in Virginia Beach. The turn from a Greek worldview to a Hebraic worldview has been gradual. I began taking classes from Master’s and met Skip several years ago. His influence has been very heavy. In addition, I have addressed our church board and congregation to tell them that in my opinion we are celebrating on the wrong day and we should be meeting on the Sabbath. It is a journey that we are on to be more Biblical in our walk wherever that leads us. Thanks again for your kind remarks.
Blessings,
Barry
Hey Barry,
I applaud as well, and am honored to know someone who is willing to stand for the truth in spite of the tradition.
See you soon, Lord willing.
Skip
Thanks for the message I was just reading and trying to decifer when the resurection actually took place and notice that Passover took place on Apr. 9 this year, I have felt uncomfortable with all the Easter worship, ie eggs, bunnies etc. for quite awhile but have kept quite about my thoughts. I do believe that the body of Christ has for to long ignored the feast and thier importance of the salvation shadow they represent. I for one would like to see more teaching on these. Also I talked with one of my elders yesterday about the lack of sermons on the words of Jesus upon his return with Mary about not touching him because He had not assended to the Father yet. But then after 8 days he appears to Thomas and the desiples and lets them touch his hands and the place where he was speared. Have you taught on this I am of the understanding that Jesus went to Heaven to place his blood as an attonement on the Mercy seat, during this interlude of time. Any thoughts Skip?