Symbols pointing to Jesus

The Feast of Pesach is fast approaching, where Jews all over the world will be celebrating the onset of the exile journey which their ancestors undertook through the Sinai desert all those years ago. It began when they had to paint their doorframes with the blood of a lamb in order that the angel of death would pass over their home and not kill their firstborn sons. They roasted and ate this lamb, dressed in travelling clothes, and then left on their journey out of Egypt that very same night.

 This feast is celebrated with deeply embedded customs, some given by God in the Torah, some evolving from the culture in which they found themselves.

One of the rituals involve having three pieces of unleavened bread (called Matzah) on the table. Nobody in Judaism remembers why it is specifically three. But in hindsight, we can see the beautiful symbolism of their and our Messiah Jesus Christ in this Pesach practice. Three pieces of unleavened bread points to the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The middle of these three pieces (therefore referring to the Son) is removed, and then broken in two. So too Jesus’s body was broken on the cross – which is what Jesus alluded to when He took bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples to eat in remembrance of Him.

This broken piece of bread is called the afikomen, meaning that which comes after. It is wrapped in a cloth and hidden away, to be eaten after the main meal. Similarly, Jesus’s body was wrapped in burial cloths and hidden away in a tomb. The missing bread is searched for, and when found, unwrapped, and eaten. We know that Israel is still searching for her Messiah, but He has come and will come again after great tribulation befalls His people, and then their eyes will finally be opened – they will have unwrapped senses to recognize Him!

We know from Rom 11: 25 (I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in) that the veil preventing Israelites from recognizing Jesus in their feasts was put there so that we as Gentiles might also participate in the salvation He brings. And for this we are eternally grateful!

But at the same time, let us fervently pray that our Jewish friends will have the eyes of their hearts enlightened by Holy Spirit, to fully comprehend the meaning of the feasts they so faithfully and meticulously keep celebrating!

Pearls to ponder:

Let our hearts be filled with wonder and amazement when we come to realize that our God has created His feasts with an incredible amount of detail which all point to Jesus our Saviour – no earthly being could have orchestrated this!