Easter has been described as the most important and significant festival of the Christian Church. It is a time when Christendom remembers the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is piously observed throughout the world by Protestants, Roman Catholics and the majority of Christian sects. One would expect that such a universally accepted institution would trace its origin to the Holy Scriptures. Indeed, it would be reasonable to assume that the Church's most important festival would have been inaugurated by divine decree. But the Bible doesn't even mention the word Easter. The Lord Jesus Christ never asked his disciples to celebrate his resurrection, and the Apostles neither kept Easter nor commanded their fellow Christians to observe Easter.
Let's have a look at the history of this festival and we'll just see how far our present Easter celebration has digressed from the true celebration that Christ ordained. As stated previously, Christ never commanded his disciples to celebrate his resurrection. He did however ask them to celebrate his death.
1 COR 11: 25,26 ".... This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes."
The occasion was the Last Supper on the evening before the crucifixion. The disciples were gathered together to eat the Passover meal. On the evening of the fourteenth day of Nisan, the Israelites sacrificed a lamb and roasted it over the fire. They ate the lamb that night together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It was instituted as a perpetual memorial of the night that the Lord passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt and delivered them from slavery.
EXODUS 12:14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
This was the setting on that celebrated night. Jesus knew that for hundreds of years the Passover ceremony had been kept in anticipation of this very day when the true Passover Lamb (John 1:29, 1 Cor. 5:7) would shed his blood for many for the remission of sin. But on that night the Lord didn't point out to his disciples that the sacrificed lamb was his "type". Instead, he substituted the unleavened bread as a symbol of his body and the wine as a symbol of his blood. By doing so he clearly indicated that the practice of animal sacrifice should cease, and that the Passover should continue, though not in the former way with the blood of a lamb to commemorate the deliverance from Egypt. Rather, the Passover was now to be held in the new way with the symbols of Christ's own blood commemorating his atoning death which has delivered us from sin and death. When Jesus asked his disciples to "do this in remembrance of me" he wasn't afraid that the disciples would forget about his death. No. He wanted to shift the emphasis of the Passover celebration from the deliverance from Egypt to his own sacrificial death that delivers us from sin. (of which the deliverance from Egypt is a "type") Let's read again the events of that Passover night.
LUKE 22:15-20 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
Notice from Matthew's account that the Lord made a promise that he would share this new Passover again with his disciples in the Kingdom of God.
MATTHEW 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.
And so every year at the time of Passover the disciples met together and shared the wine and the unleavened bread in memory of Christ's death. This ceremony commemorates both his death and our redemption, and anticipates the coming Kingdom of God and his promised return in glory.
There is no doubt about the fact that the Last Supper was actually a Passover meal. And there is no doubt that we share the sacrament of Communion in obedience to Christ's commands at that Last Supper. Was it merely a coincidence that Christ chose the Passover to initiate this ceremony? Nothing that God does is coincidental. Paul tells us that Christ became our Passover Lamb. 1 Cor. 5:7,8 says,
".... For Christ our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth."
Now if Christ is our Passover Lamb then we must keep the feast of the Passover. And we must do that by partaking of the sacrifice, that is the body of the Lamb Jesus Christ. Jesus said in the Gospel of John 6:54,
" Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life;"
Since Christ is our Passover lamb, it makes sense that partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ saves us. His body sacrificed for our sin and his dying in our place redeems us. Just as the blood of the paschal lamb painted on the doorposts of the Israelite houses and the body of the lamb eaten within the house saved the Israelite firstborn, so the Blood of the Lamb and his Body saves us, his firstborn.
Therefore we agree that the bread and the wine of the Lord's Supper symbolize the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. We know also that the body and blood of the old passover lambsymbolize the Body and Blood of our Passover Lamb, Christ Jesus. We know that we cannot have eternal life unless we "eat his flesh and drink his blood". Christians then are Passover keepers by virtue of the fact that we have a passover lamb and a scriptural command to keep the feast.
There are at least two schools of thought as to the manner in which the Lord's Supper should be kept. The most common states that the Lord's Supper has little to do with Passover except that Christ happened to introduce it on a Passover night. The church is then free to observe the Lord's Supper as often as it wishes.
The second school of thought acknowledges the fact that Christ is our Passover Lamb and as such is "partaken of" by the bread and wine that Christ substituted to symbolize his body and blood upon the eve of his death. Just as the old passover lamb and its blood were symbols pointing to his sacrificed body, so the bread and wine are also symbols of his body and blood. Therefore we should partake of the bread and wine once a year (on the 14th of Nisan) and in the same manner as the Israelites partook of the paschal lamb. That is to say, as commemorative symbols of Christ only not as the actual body and blood. The bread and wine are the substituted emblems in the Christian Passover that take the place of the animal sacrifice.
So why did Christ make this substitution? It was because he intended the Passover ceremony to be carried on until he comes again to share it with us in the Kingdom of God. Had he not made that substitution, the Passover ceremony would have ceased along with the other sacrifices.
Initially the early church did keep the Passover using the bread and the wine just as the Apostles had taught them. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is believed to have been written shortly after the Passover around the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. (1 - COR 16:8) This would certainly account for Paul's use of Passover imagery in Corinthians 5:7,8. It would also account for Paul's timely concern about the flippant manner in which the Lord's Supper was being kept. (1 Cor 11:17-30) Which he undoubtedly had knowledge of by recent reports. (1 Cor 1:11)
Ample historical evidence proves that for many centuries a large number of Christian churches kept the Lord's Supper on the date of Passover. These included the seven churches mentioned in the Revelation. Soon after all the twelve disciples died, some churches including the church in Rome began to keep the Sunday after passover as their day on which the Lord's Supper should be held each year. This came into being because it was the habit in those churches to fast before the Passover. It did not seem appropriate that they should end their fast on the anniversary of the eve of Christ's death as did the other churches. They chose rather to hold the feast on Sunday which they believed to be more suited to the breaking of the fast. But Christ did not command us to fast before Passover. Hecommanded us to commemorate his death not his resurrection. Therefore the Church of Rome was in error. Let us remember Saul who, rather than fully obey the Lord's command, spared the best of the Amalekite's livestock to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord. Good intentions? Maybe but it cost him his throne. God said to him, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king." 1 Samuel 15:23.
Those churches who kept Passover on the 14th of Nisan (Quartodecimani as they were known) were forced to comply with the practice of the church of Rome by the decree of the Council of Nicea 325 and by the authority of a letter written by the Roman Emperor Constantine.
The Lord's Supper's was thus removed from it's Old Testament origins. This was the deliberate intention of the Emperor Constantine who detested every association with the Jews. In a letter to the churches Constantine wrote, "Concerning the most holy day of Passover, it was decreed by common consent to be expedient, that this festival should be celebrated on the same day by all,......... Let us then have nothing to in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews." In the Britain during the 8th century, the name "Easter" was adopted for the paschal season and its link with Passover was further obscured. "Eostur" was the heathen festival of the goddess of spring which was traditionally celebrated at this time.
And so Easter came into being with all its pagan trappings. Eggs, Rabbits, Easter buns etc. are all derived from spring festivals and the worship of heathen dieties. Refer to any good encyclopaedia and study for yourself the pagan origins of Easter festivities. Is this the way that the Lord would have us worship?
EZEKIEL 11:12 "And ye shall know that I am the LORD: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you."
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." -- 1 Corinthians 11:25
How often should we commemorate the Lord's death by partaking of the Lord's Supper? In Christ's own words he answers the question, "This do as often as you drink it". "It" refers to the cup. Now "the cup" referred to here was a very special cup. If the cup is not special then we have been commanded by Christ to celebrate the Lord's Supper every time we drink the fruit of the vine. That would make it difficult to properly undergo a self examination as Paul teaches in 1 Cor 11:28. It is clear that this special cup was the wine that was traditionally drunk with the Passover meal. It follows then that when Christ said "as often as you drink it" he virtually said that the ceremony commemorating his death should be celebrated annually on the 14th of Nisan. He wished to shift the emphasis of the passoverritual from the sacrifice of a lamb to the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
The cup of wine traditionally consumed at Passover was never given any special ceremonial significance in the Old Testament. However, one cannot eat bitter herbs and unleavened bread without something to drink with it. So the cup was there all the time, waiting for Christ to give it the significance of his shed blood. The unleavened bread was there too, a symbol of his broken flesh. By choosing the unleavened bread as a symbol of his Body rather than the roasted flesh of the lamb, Christ indicated that the sacrifice of a lamb as the symbol of his death was to be discontinued. Now with the bread as a symbol of his Body there was no longer any need to keep passover by sacrificing a lamb. The sacrifice of his own body put an end to Levitical system of animal sacrifices. The new Passover was instituted. Just as the old passover was a yearly memorial, (Ex 13:9) so the new Passover is an annual commemoration of his death, instituted on the 14th of Nisan.
Then He said to them,
"With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."
-- Luke 22:16
Jesus not only looked forward to sharing this passover with his disciples but promised to share it with them in a new way in the kingdom of God.
"But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." -- Matthew 26:29
Christ fully intends to keep his promise to share the passover with us at its fulfilment in the kingdom of God. Until that time we are to keep it year by year to proclaim his death until he comes. (1 Cor 11:26)
Christ has told us both how and why we are to observe the Lord's Supper. If the churches had chosen to retain it's observance in it's proper passover context then it is most likely that a clearer and fuller understanding of it's purpose would have continued throughout the ages. Instead, in choosing its own path guided by human wisdom, the church has misinterpreted the meaning of the sacrament and has fallen into idolatry on account of it. The Lord's Supper symbolises everything that the old passover symbolised. It is a continuation of the ancient ceremony within the Christian context. It is as Paul said, a proclamation of the Lamb of God's death until he comes. It contains no symbols of the resurrection. Let us not be confused.
Christ gave the command to regard the paschal cup as a symbol of his blood as often as we drink it, that is to say annually on the 14th of Nisan.
But let's assume, for argument's sake that the command to "do this as often as you drink it" was understood by the disciples to be "as often as you like." With a clear command of Christ so well understood by each of the 12 disciples and the apostle Paul, there is no doubt that this observance would have begun to take place shortly after the crucifixion, whenever the disciples gathered together. But the only mention of the Lord's Supper in Scripture is bythe apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. This absence of any record of the Lord's Supper ceremony includes the many accounts of Christians meeting together which are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. If the Lord's Supper was being celebrated daily, weekly, or even monthly, one would expect several mentions of this ceremony in the New Testament. Some have tried to explain this anomaly by stating that the phrase "breaking of bread" refers to the celebration of the Lord's Supper. eg Acts 2:42. But the term "breaking bread" cannot be shown in any reference to even vaguely refer to a celebration of the Lord's Supper. No hint of religious ceremony is implied in the text, and the all important sharing of wine is never mentioned. Furthermore, this breaking of bread is often directly associated with the satisfaction of hunger. (Acts 2:46) In fact, in some instances it simply cannot be given any other explanation. eg
And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat. --Acts 27:35 (Read on)
Now give consideration to the view that the Lord's Supper or Christian Passover was at that time being observed annually on the 14th of Nisan. Let's put the theory of the annual observance to the test. Let's see if the only mention of the Lord's Supper by Paul can be connected to the date of the Christian Passover, ie. the 14th Nisan.
1 Cor 16:8 shows that Paul's first letter to the Corinthians was in fact written shortly after the Passover around the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. (1 Cor 16:8) This would certainly account for Paul's use of Passover imagery in Corinthians 5:7-8, his reference to the exodus from Egypt in 10:1-10, and to the connection between the sacrament and the altar sacrifices in 10:16-22. It would also account for Paul's timely concern about the flippant manner in which the Lord's Supper was being kept. (1 Cor 11:17-30) which he undoubtedly had knowledge of by recent reports. (1 Cor 1:11) So it is possible that the only Lord's Supper reference in the New Testament refers to an event which took place on the 14th Nisan near to or in Corinth. If this is the case then the phrase "come together in one place" 1 Cor 11:20 would refer to the gathering together of several "house churches" of that area to one venue in order to keep the Passover feast. To argue against this and say that coming together simply meant "going to church" would be to suggest that every time they met together "... in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk." -- 1 Corinthians 11:21
Around 80 A.D. a man named Polycarp became a Christian. He was a godly man who served as a bishop of Smyrna. He was well acquainted with the apostle John and with some of the other disciples.
According to Eusebius, Irenaeus (in his third book against the heresies) said of Polycarp, "And Polycarp, a man who had been instructed by the apostles, and had familiar intercourse with many that had seen Christ, and had also been appointed bishop by the apostles in Asia, in the church of Smyrna, whom we have also seen in our youth, for he lived a long time, and to a very advanced age, when, after a glorious and most distinguished martyrdom, he departed this life. He always taught what he had learned from the apostles, what the church had handed down, and what is the only true doctrine. All the churches bear witness to these things, and those that have been the successors of Polycarp, to the present time, a witness of the truth much more worthy of credit, and much more certain than either Valentine or Marcion, or the rest of those perverse teachers. The same Polycarp, coming to Rome under the episcopate of Anicetus, turned many from the aforesaid heretics to the church of God, proclaiming the one and only true faith, that he had received from the Apostles, that, viz.. which was delivered by the church."
The following passage from Eusebius refers to a discussion that took place between Anicetus the Bishop of Rome and Polycarp on the observance of the Passover during Polycarp's visit to Rome sometime around 160 A.D.
"For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe it, because he had always observed it with John the disciple of our Lord, and the rest of the apostles, with whom he associated; and neither did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe, who said that he was bound to maintain the practice of the presbyters before him."
Sixtus, the sixth bishop of Rome is cited by Eusebius ("Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History" Chapter 24) as being the earliest of the bishops of Rome who did not keep Passover in its Christian context. The bishops of Rome were however, at peace with those in Rome and nearby who did, and maintained the practice of sending out portions of bread to be used in the Lord's Supper by those who kept Passover at this time.
Around 180 A.D. Victor, Bishop of Rome, attempted by threats of excommunication to force the churches in Asia not to observe the passover on the 14th Nisan but to conform to the Roman practice of celebrating "passover" on the first Sunday after the true passover. In his answer to Victor after deliberation by a forum of the bishops of Asia, (these included the well known churches of the Revelation) Polycrates makes mention of the example of many of noted saints and original disciples of Christ. He is quoted as saying, "For there were seven, my relatives bishops, and I am the eighth; and my relatives always observed the day when the people threw away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, am now sixty five years in the Lord, who having conferred with the brethren throughout the world, and having studied the whole of the sacred Scriptures, am not at all alarmed at those things which I amthreatened, to intimidate me. For they who are greater than I, have said, 'we ought to obey God rather than men'". Victor then proceeded to take action against all the bishops represented by Polycrates calling them heretics and publishing letters of excommunication. However many churches were sympathetic to the Asian churches' cause and made strong protests to Victor. The conversation between Anicetus and Polycarp (mentioned above) was quoted by Irenaeus in the defence of the Asian churches led by Polycrates. Victor was powerless to enforce his excommunication order.
The controversy was still current at the time of Constantine, Emperor of Rome, in the fourth century. When Constantine called his first "World Council of Churches" in Nicea 312 A.D., the date of the passover was second place on the agenda of issues to deal with. However, discussion centred around the date of the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. The church of Rome and those under its influence celebrated the resurrection on the Sunday following Passover. The Quartodecimani, as they were called, commemorated the death of Christ on its anniversary. Constantine ruled against the observance of Passover on the 14th of Nisan, neither by consensus, nor by the power of the Holy Spirit, but because of the shame of its association with the Jews. (Read Constantine's letter to the churches. Eusibeus' "Ecclesiastical History")
Constantine was in error on two accounts.
1. Christ never commanded his disciples to celebrate his resurrection. 2. Christ did command his disciples to commemorate his death. The question was not which day is more suitable but rather which celebration is scriptural. Constantine had no right to "change times and laws". (Dan 7:25)
We too have the opportunity to make a choice, Easter or Passover?