When I met with my friend, Ruth (name changed), this week, I wished her “Happy Pesach” – and should have known before I said it just how she would react.

Ruth, as you might have guessed, is one of our secular Jewish friends who has thrown away everything Orthodox or traditional or based on Jewish faith of any denomination. She’s crossed over to a broader way of thinking where the Universe is one great power she acknowledges. She’s wide open spiritually and always updating me on yet another mystical practice of some type that she believes is making her into a better person.

What’s interesting here though, is that Ruth has no interest in the Passover tradition of her own people. Even while many more Christians are discovering the deep spiritual meaning of the Passover to them even if they’re not Jewish, it’s shocking to realize that for my Jewish friend Passover means nothing.

Because I’ve been fortunate enough to glean so many deep treasures and changes of perspective from the Jewish culture Yeshua knew so well, I’m sad that Ruth is losing out on this profound Feast, its history and deeper meaning.  

I’m proud to claim Yeshua as my Pesach Lamb or Passover Sacrifice, in fact. And what I’ve learned from Jewish friends about this tradition adds immensely more depth and perspective to how I look at my salvation.

• Jesus wasn’t a Gentile; He was and is Jewish.
• The night He served bread and wine to His disciples it was the Feast of Passover; He Himself had given instructions as to where His men were to prepare the Seder.
• The day that He died on the cross wasn’t just another day on the calendar; it was the day – even the exact time – Jewish families would have slaughtered their own lamb as God commanded.

Yeshua had grown up celebrating Passover every year in Jerusalem (see Luke 2:40). So the event many now call “The Lord’s Supper” or “Communion” was important to Yeshua – but maybe not for the reasons we think. He knew – had known all along actually – where His life was leading Him. In His mind there was no question that He was headed for the cross.

This Man, the same One who said “”I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” to His followers (Luke 22:15) … ALSO foretold His own death earlier when He said: “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (John 10:18) And “ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3:14)

He knew He was going to die. He knew He was the Passover Lamb.

At this time of year, our deepest wish for our Jewish friends isn’t just another “Happy Pesach.” What we really wish for them, what we’re really praying for, is that maybe this year they understand Yeshua’s Jewishness, realize possibly for the first time possibly that He planned to die and cause the angel of death to “pass over” all of us.

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

(Isaiah 53:4-6)

Chag Pesach Sameach!  Happy Passover!