Empty Tomb, But The Cross Is Full
One of the most significant disciplines we, as Christians or even just as humans, can do is reflection. It may look different for Christians and non-Christians, but it is important to slow down and meditate on our lives. In today’s culture, saying the words slow down concerning life is almost taboo because we are always busy. You ask someone how they are doing, and nine times out of ten, you will get the answer, busy. In our Western culture, we wear our busyness as a badge of honor; you are almost looked down upon if you are not overly busy. If we do not take time to reflect, we miss an excellent opportunity to connect with not only our souls but also our creator.
As we exit the Easter season, we should contemplate the meaning of Jesus on the cross. If you were in an Easter service, you no doubt celebrated that the tomb was empty. For us as Christians, this signals victory, atonement, or any other motif that is used theologically to describe Jesus on the cross. I am not here today to lay out all of the different theories of Christ’s work on the cross but to take a closer look at the significance of Passover and its place in the Easter lexicon in our Western culture.
The full scope of the Passover narrative can be found in the book of Exodus, chapters 11 through 13; it would be a significant part of your reflection to read the entire story. For the sake of brevity, we will summarize the essential aspects. Plus, as in all of the Hebrew scriptures, we will see how this story points to Jesus as he is the culminating point of all scripture.
The Israelite people were in bondage with the Egyptians for hundreds of years. God raised a leader for the people to help deliver them to their freedom. Moses and his brother Aaron went before the pharaoh to demand the release of the people, or God’s wrath would be upon the Egyptians. In a series of yes and no’s and nine plagues later, we get to the Passover. The tenth plague, or the plague of death as it is sometimes referenced, was to bring death to all the firstborns in Egypt, including the Israelites. But God provided a way for death to ‘pass over’ the Israelite people. They were to sacrifice to God in the form of a lamb.
Exodus 12.5: Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old-male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. (NRSV)
God gave instructions for how and when the lamb was to be killed, along with instructions for eating the lamb. Another important aspect was what was to happen with the blood of the lamb; it was to be spread on the door frames of the peoples’ houses so the angel of death would pass over their homes. (Exodus 12.7,13) At the appropriate time, God sent the angel over the land, killing all the firstborns in Egypt, but sparing the Israelites who went through with the sacrifice to God in the form of the spotless lamb. This night was to be remembered for all the people for all generations.
Exodus 12.42: This was for the Lord a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the Lord by all the Israelites throughout their generations. (NRSV)
Through this moment of liberation, the Passover celebration was created for the people to remember God’s favor towards his people.
If we fast-forward over a thousand years, we get to Jesus in the upper room with his disciples, celebrating the Passover meal. Jesus begins to show the disciples how He is the true Passover lamb, spotless and blameless, to be the once and for all freedom from sin.
Luke 22.19-20: He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this to remember me. After supper he took another cup of wineand said, “This is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
Jesus is greater than any spotless lamb that could be found for the sign of the covenant that Passover represented to the Israelite people. It is why he talks about his body being given and his blood sealing the new covenant; this is all language that this room of Jewish men would have readily understood. They knew the importance of the Passover for their people, and like most things in this world, Jesus came to turn them upside down. It is a little audacious to come into the Passover meal and claim that you are the perfect lamb, though your blood spilled will signify the new covenant between God and his people. So…everything that you grew up believing is now all changing because of what I am doing! It is difficult for us to phantom his statement as radical because we are not of that time, but it was yet another revolutionary statement from Jesus. Through it all, he was pointing the disciples toward the cross.
In this narrative, we see Jesus’ human and divine natures coming together to show that his human nature must break on the cross, but his divine nature will set things right between God and his people. He is the one who can be the forever sacrifice for the sins of humanity, that he can be the spotless lamb.
John 1.29: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sind of the world!”
1 Peter 1.19: It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
1 Corinthians 5.7: Gid rid of the old yeast by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed to us.
We have these great leaders of the early church who saw Jesus as the perfect Passover lamb; this thread of Jesus as the Passover lamb has continued today, but we do not celebrate the Passover in our Western culture.
Why do we not celebrate the Passover in our culture today?
I think this is a fair question to ask, given all that we have seen with Jesus’ connection to the Passover. Is it because it is a Jewish celebration and we are Christians? Have we lost touch with the early church history because we are so institutionalized with today’s culture? If you look around during the Easter season, you will see more bunnies and eggs than you do Passover elements. This change can be traced back to the year 325 AD when the council of Niccea declared that Easter should be observed the first Sunday following the first full moon of the spring equinox. (Hillerbrand 2023) The change in the date and calendar marked a shift away from the Passover, and in doing so, we have drifted farther away from a deeper understanding of Jesus’ story.
Freedom is found in the Lamb of God’s blood shed on the cross.
So, upon reflecting on Easter Sunday this year, let us be reminded of the significance of Jesus’ declaration during the Passover that he and he alone was the Lamb that was perfect and spotless. God would come to us in the flesh, and that flesh and blood would be broken and spilled so that we could have eternal life. I am not saying that we should move away from celebrating Easter in our churches. Still, we should not forget this important biblical narrative that threads itself throughout the entire bible, pointing us to Jesus and his work on the cross. It is Jesus and Jesus alone that saves.
References
Hillerbrand, Hans J. 2023. “Easter | Origin, History, Name, Facts, & Dates.” Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday.
Newsom, Carol A., Marc Z. Brettler, Michael D. Coogan, and Pheme Perkins, eds. 2018. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version. N.p.: Oxford University Press.
Tyndale, ed. 2012. Slimline Center Column Reference Bible-NLT. N.p.: Tyndale House Publishers. All verses are from the NLT unless otherwise stated.
