LeShanah Tovah! Happy New Year!

No, we at One in Messiah Ministries have not lost our minds.

[Well, I can’t speak for the others, but I know I’m completely sane. 🙂 ] According to the LORD’s calendar, we are now in the first month of the year. It is the Jewish month of Nisan, or Abib. “While Moses and Aaron were still in the land of Egypt, the LORD said to them, ‘This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you'” (Exodus 12:1,2).

Nisan 1, up until the Babylonian exile, was the sole new year of the Jewish people. While in Babylon, we adopted the Babylonian calendar and began to celebrate Tishri 1, the Babylonian new year, as our own. Jewish tradition still celebrates the new year in Tishri, which is the 7thmonth in the Jewish calendar. Tradition is good, but we also need to be diligent and look at it our traditions through Torah, the Word of the LORD.

It is here that I must digress slightly. As a Messianic Jew, I need to stand in proxy for my brothers and sisters, and ask forgiveness of our Christian family. We Messianics have often been self-righteous about not celebrating Christmas and Easter because of their pagan roots. We suffer slightly from amnesia when it comes to some of our own traditions. Our exile to pagan lands has affected faith and practice, as Jews. We do maintain the basic, Biblical calendar given to us by the LORD God of Israel. We do keep the “mo’edim”, the appointed times, as set down by the LORD, Himself. However, our present Jewish calendar also contains the names of Babylonian gods, i.e. Tishri and Tammuz, and traditionally, we celebrate New Year, Rosh haShanah, in Tishri and not in Nisan. Please forgive us, dear family, for our shortcomings and arrogance. Both our camps need to look at their traditions in the Light of the Holy One.

“Observe the month of Abib and offer a passover sacrifice (pesach) to the LORD your God, for it was in the month of Abib, at night, that the LORD your God freed you from Egypt” (Deuteronomy 16:1). As Jews, we begin the Biblical new year with the realization that we are a redeemed people, bought with the blood of a lamb. As God commands us to do, we begin an eight-day celebration, beginning on 14 Nisan. This day is Pesach, or Passover. On 15 Nisan, we begin Chag HaMatzoth, the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:4-8). For the next seven days, we give up those things dear to us as Jews – bagels, challah, Hostess twinkies… Actually, the rabbis say we have to give up leaven for eight days. God, on the other hand, says only seven. You decide who wins.

The Pesach seder (order) meal is wonderful!!! We eat; we drink; we dance; we eat some more; and, we REMEMBER. “And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’, you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the LORD…'” (Exodus 12:26,27).

“Mah nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleyloth?” Why is this night different from all other nights, sings the youngest child at the seder table. For the next few hours (yes, it’s that long!), we re-tell the story of a covenant-keeping God, of patriarchs and a prophecy of a 400-year exile; of a coat of many colours, and the jealousy of brothers; of a famine which brought our people out of the land given to our fathers and into the land of Egypt. We talk about prospering in the land of Goshen, and suffering under a pharoah who didn’t know Joseph. We talk about slavery and crying to the LORD for redemption. We smile as we recount the story of a baby found in the bulrushes of the Nile.

“You want me to WHAT?!” says a shepherd with a staff to a burning bush in the middle of nowhere. (We are not sure whether this was said in Egyptian or Hebrew.) “Go tell pharoah to let My people go!” repeats the burning bush, aka “I AM”, the LORD God of Israel. A few visits and nine plagues later, the shepherd with the staff, along with his older brother, are told to prepare the Israelites to leave the land of Egypt.

Moses and Aaron instruct the Israelites to kill a one-year old, unblemished, male lamb. The reason? The LORD is about to go through Egypt, killing the first-born of both man and animal, aristocrat and slave alike – the tenth plague. The lamb’s death would produce the blood to be applied to the lintels and doorposts of every Jewish home (and Egyptian, too, with understanding). “For when the LORD goes through to smite the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and the LORD will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home” (Exodus 12:23).

The covenant of God had kept us. The promise of God had freed us. The blood of the lamb had saved us.

“You shall observe this as an institution for all time …” (Exodus 12:24). It’s interesting to note that in Jewish history, whenever the Jews repented and turned back to serving the God of Israel, the first thing to be re-instituted was the Passover. This is evidenced especially in the reigns of Solomon, Josiah, and Hezekiah. Passover was important.

Passover was key.

Who heard the cry that day, when a young carpenter came to the Jordan to be baptized by the desert prophet? Who was there when the words thundered, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” How many understood that day?

Would I have?

Months later, the now imprisoned prophet sent his disciples to the One whom he had baptized to ask, “Are you the One? Are you the Messiah, the Promised One of Israel?” I love Yeshua’s response here. “Tell Jochanan (John), tell my cousin that the lame walk, the blind receive their sight, and the captives are set free!” Yes, and the lepers were cleansed, the demon oppressed liberated, and the dead were raised!

“Greater things”, the Messiah said. “You will do greater things … after I am gone.”

A few Passovers came and went. Many lambs were slaughtered each year with the hope that the God of Israel would have mercy on His people. Always, at this time of the year, Yeshua was to be found teaching in the Temple, preparing His disciples and fellow Jews for the most important Passover ever. History would forever be changed by this one Passover.

Yeshua reclined with His disciples at the seder table. “I’ve been looking forward to this time,” He said, but instead of the “rachtzah”, the ritual washing of the hands before the meal, the Master takes a towel and proceeds to wash the feet of His disciples. They were horrified. “Not only my feet …!”

What other surprises did this evening hold?

Some time later, Yeshua took bread and blessed it. “Barukh atah Adonai Eloheynu melekh ha’olam hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz.” “Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” As He broke the matzah, He handed it to His disciples and said, “This is My body.” After dinner, as was the custom, Yeshua took the third cup of wine, the Cup of Redemption, and recited the age-old brachah (blessing). “Barukh atah Adonai Eloheynu melekh ha’olam boreh p’ri hagafen.” “Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.” As He passed the cup around, He spoke of a covenant in His Blood.

“Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood …”

We are familiar with the rest of the story.

Behold, the LAMB!

As you close your eyes and contemplate the wonder, tune your ear to the sounds of heaven. When you do, you will hear the sound of a lamb’s bleat followed by a triumphant shout that echoes throughout eternity:

“IT IS FINISHED!”

Happy New Year!