Passover and the New Covenant
FROM THE
PRESIDENT
Dear friend,
Shalom in our Messiah. I hope you will have a
wonderful Passover/Easter season and that this
newsletter will help prepare your heart for the
celebrations next month!
This is one of my favorite times of year as we
are surrounded by symbols and celebrations to
help us remember God’s faithfulness through
providing Jesus, the perfect Passover Lamb, to
die for our sins…and to rise from the dead!
My First Family Passover
after becoming a Believer
in Jesus
I remember my first Passover after coming to
faith in Jesus the Messiah. In November 1971,
I accepted Jesus as my Savior and Messiah in San
Francisco, California, and traveled back to the
East Coast to tell my parents about my newfound
faith. I knew it was not going to be easy, but
I never imagined it would be so difficult.
My parents were wonderful and tried to
understand me, but it was just too much of a
stretch to understand how their son, a nice
Jewish boy, could believe in Jesus. A few
months after I returned home, it came time for
my first Passover with my extended family.
I was under strict instructions not to say
anything to my relatives, especially my
grandparents, about my relationship with Jesus.
It was difficult. I sat quietly through the
2 The Chosen People | MARCH 2019
Passover Seder at my
grandparents’ home in
Brooklyn, but the parallels
between the New
Testament and the
traditional Passover
became so obvious to me.
I said nothing, but my
heart was bursting! And surprisingly, even to
me, the Passover made me feel so Jewish! I
realized that Passover pointed to a day of
greater redemption through the shed blood of
the Lamb of God, Jesus the Messiah. I
recognized that I did not need to give up my
Jewishness to believe in Jesus, since Jesus and
His disciples were all Jewish. In fact, my faith
was the fulfillment of all God had promised to
the Jewish people.
This is why Passover means so much to me. It is
a time when I feel joyously whole as a Jew who
believes Jesus is the Messiah. For me it all comes
together at Passover! Let me explain why.
Jesus, the Passover, and
Older Covenants
Jesus’ last meal with His disciples before going
to the cross was a Passover Seder. During that
last Seder, we know that Jesus took a cup and
said, “This cup which is poured out for you is
the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20).
This cup is traditionally called the Cup of
Redemption and is always taken after the meal.
He could have chosen any of the four cups, but
took the third cup as it would have the greatest
meaning for His Jewish disciples. The cup
pointed to the blood of the Passover Lamb, and
by taking this cup Jesus was declaring that He
was the true Lamb!
This event inaugurated the New Covenant
prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31–35. As I reflect
upon His statement, I wonder, “What is the New
Covenant?” What about this covenant is new?
The Greek word for new, kainos ,
generally translates the Hebrew term chadash
, and is a common word that means new
or renewed, allowing for a connection to the
past. The New Covenant is new, but is also built
upon the previous covenants God had made
with the Jewish people, particularly the
Abrahamic and Davidic covenants
(Genesis 12:1–3, 2 Samuel 7:27–29).
Two Types of Covenants
In the Hebrew, a covenant is never made—it is
cut. All covenants are cut and confirmed with
the shedding of blood. Additionally, we
understand that, in general, God makes two
types of covenants with His people—one is
conditional and the other unconditional. This
might very well reflect the various types of
covenants made in the Middle East at the time.
A Conditional Covenant
Covenants that are conditional demand the
obedience of the lesser party in order to receive
the good promised by the greater. In order to