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Last week we explored what Christians can learn from the meaning of Passover. This was an easy task since three of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) taught that the Last Supper of Jesus was a Passover seder on the first night and the fourth (John) taught that it was a Passover meal on another night of the holiday. Even today many Christians find deep meaning (and cholesterol) by attending a Passover seder meal at the home of their Jewish friends.

What Jews can learn from the meaning of Easter is a more challenging task. The problem Jews face in Easter is that the meaning of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ is both the fundamental Christian belief and also the fundamental belief rejected by Judaism. Judaism has no problem accepting Jesus as a teacher/prophet/Jew but has an insurmountable problem accepting Jesus as the Christ/Messiah. The way Father Tom and I worked through this problem may be of help to you. Our solution is built on the wisdom of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans chapters 9-11.

Easter brings to Christians and to Jews a second covenant. The first covenant which was a spiritual bond between God and the Jewish people beginning with Abraham and renewed in every generation since. What Paul taught in the name of nascent Christianity was that Jews do not need to accept the covenant with God through Jesus because of their previous covenant with God, but all other peoples do need to get to the Father through Jesus as the Christ.

(Romans 9:4,11:2, 26-29) Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;…I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin…God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew…And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. .. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. ..As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes...For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

So in different ways Passover and Easter are about what we need to do to become free from sin. From the exodus we learn that we cannot become free if we are in bondage. Until we cast off the external bonds of slavery we cannot cast off the internal bonds of sin. For Moses those bonds were brutal taskmasters of the Pharaoh. Today’s Pharaohs take many forms but we must cast off the powers that prevent human flourishing. The lesson of the exodus was that no number of physical comforts can compensate for life as a slave.

Easter also teaches us that external freedom is not enough. Our sins are so great we cannot adequately atone for them without a help that is as strong as our sin. That help is the sacrifice of God through Jesus. In biblical times that sacrifice was a lamb roasted and eaten as part of the Passover meal. This act is transformed in Easter by believing that Jesus was the “Lamb of God”, (John 1: 29).“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

Both forms of the animal sacrifice convey a message that we are not alone in our struggle for atonement. The Christian version of this sacrifice is so powerful it has transformed Christianity into the largest religion in the world. The lamb of God is a beautiful transformation of the first Passover and sets the spiritual groundwork for the last Passover that will be celebrated when Christ returns. This luminous hope is Christianity’s gift to the world.

Happy Easter!

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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