DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Saint Luke 21:37-22:8
(12/9-12/22) Friday of
the Twenty-ninth Week after Pentecost
Paschal Origins: Saint Luke 21:37-22:8, especially vs.
1: “Now the Feast of Unleavened
Bread drew near, which is called Passover.” The
Jewish Passover and our Orthodox Christian Pascha
share historical roots. The
Passover meal included a lamb, began with the breaking of bread, and closed
with a cup of blessing. Our Lord
deliberately reframed these acts for the Divine Liturgy (Lk.
22:19-20), associating His sacrificial death with the sacrifice of lambs for
the Passover meal (Lk. 22:7). Passover is the ‘type’ or
foreshadowing of Pascha, for during the ancient
festival, the Lord Jesus was betrayed, “...or, rather, gave Himself up
for the life of the world.”
Jewish scholars freely acknowledge that the Lord
Jesus’ Passover meal stems from what we Orthodox Christians call
‘the Mystical Supper,’ even though they do not accept the
revelation of its saving significance in His death. But delve into the rich interconnections
between Passover and Pascha and heighten your
appreciation of the mystical wonder of “...the Pascha
of the Lord.”
First, the very word ‘Pascha’
is simply the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew ‘Pesach,’
‘Passover.’ Pascha is the most appropriate title for our Christian
Feast of the Resurrection rather than ‘Easter,’ a name derived from
the festival of a pagan Germanic fertility goddess, Eastre.
Pesach falls in a month that the Jews call Nisan or Abib. It is
reckoned as the first month of the year, following Moses’ command:
“This month shall be your beginning of months: it shall be the first
month of the year to you” (Ex. 12:2). For Orthodox Christians, Pascha marks a new, year-long cycle of readings through
Holy Scripture, not ever to be confused with Indiction,
the Ecclesiastical New Year on September First, a date
of Imperial Roman origin.
It was in the age of the last Jewish Temple that Christ
kept Pesach with His disciples. The
sacrifice of lambs was the central Passover event, taking place on the
fourteenth of Nisan: “...the congregation of Israel shall kill it at
twilight” (Ex. 12:6). The
slaughter was done in the Temple, then the lamb was
eaten as a memorial of the first Passover meal of the ancient People of God in
Egypt at the time of their liberation (Ex. 12:1-11).
Pilgrims came to Jerusalem in family groups (Lk. 2:41,42), or households. The Exodus account explains: “If
there be too few in a household, let him and his neighbor next to his house
take it according to the number of souls...” (Ex. 12:4). The throngs in
Jerusalem were immense in the first century. Agrippa I, King of Judea (41-44 AD),
estimating from kidneys of the sacrificial lambs, reported over 600,000
people. Josephus estimated as many
as 3,000,000, while other recent research suggests that the crowds numbered
about 30,000.
Starting around noon on the Fourteenth of Nisan, the throng
was divided into three groups. One
group at a time entered the forecourt of the Temple. Its doors were shut, and the shofar was blown - a trumpet made from a ram’s horn,
having a musical range of an octave.
Each Israelite family then slaughtered their lamb, a yearling without
blemish. The Jewish priests caught
the blood in gold or silver bowls, and these vessels were passed to other
priests near the altar who then sprinkled the blood against the base of the
altar.
In reading of Passover in Exodus, as well as in sharing the
Mystical Supper, understand the slaughter of the lambs as a type of the
blood-sacrifice of “...Christ, our Passover...” (1 Cor. 5:7),
“The Lamb of God...” (Jn. 1:29). Thus, in the Divine Liturgy, we
celebrate the Lord’s saving from eternal death, offering a
“...rational and bloodless worship...” of thanksgiving because
Christ unites us to Himself once in Baptism and again in Communion of the Holy
Gifts.
Glory to Thee, O sinless Lamb, Whom Isaiah didst preach;
for Thou camest to voluntary slaughter, wast condemned to die; and didst endure all willingly to
grant resurrection to all.
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