It’s been a trend in some Christian circles and churches to host and celebrate Jewish feasts or meals, including the Passover. You don’t have to look too hard online to see what I mean. I suppose it’s one thing to watch a video or read a book to learn how Jews celebrate the Passover; it’s another thing to actually partake and make these Jewish meals part of our church or Christian life.
From a Reformation perspective, we say that the Old Testament’s “ceremonial laws are now abrogated” in the New Testament era (WCF 19.3). “We believe that the ceremonies and symbols of the law ceased at the coming of Christ, and that all the shadows are accomplished, so that the use of them must be abolished among Christians (BCF 25). There is firm biblical reason for this Reformed position. Zacharias Ursinus comments:
That the ancient Passover, with all the other types which prefigured the Messiah which was to come, was abolished at the coming of Christ, is evident,
1. From the whole argument of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews respecting the abolishing of the legal shadows in the New Testament. “The priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.” (Heb. 7:12; 8:13.)
2. From the fulfillment or these legal shadows. “These things were done that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken.” “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” (John 19:36. 1 Cor. 5:7.)
3. From the substitution of the New Testament; for Christ, when he was about to suffer, and die and sacrifice himself as the true Passover, closed the ordinance relating to the paschal lamb with a solemn feast, and instituted and commanded his Supper to be observed by the church in the place of the old passover. “With desire, I have desired to eat with you this passover, before I suffer.” “This do in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:15, 19.) Christ here commands the supper, not the ancient passover, to be celebrated in remembrance of him. As baptism has, therefore, succeeded circumcision, so the Lord’s supper has succeeded the passover in the New Testament.
It may seem exciting and even spiritual to reenact ancient Jewish feasts and meals, but we need to remember that Hebrews tells us not to go back to the copies and shadows of the old covenant (Heb 8: 5, 13). As Hebrews makes very clear, you can’t have the old and the new together. The old is fulfilled, and the new is here, so don’t go back! Or, like Paul says in Galatians 4:9-11, a Gentile Christian putting himself under the Jewish ceremonies and laws is the same as going back to his pagan religion! Commenting on Galatians 4:9, C. K. Barrett said, “To go forward into Judaism is to go backward into heathenism.”
Since we have Christ, the Passover Lamb, and his final sacrifice, we don’t need to sacrifice animals, have altars, celebrate Jewish ceremonies, feasts, Passovers, and so forth. Instead, we celebrate the Lord’s death by blessing and sharing bread and wine like he told us to do until he returns (1 Cor. 11:23ff).
The above quotes are found in Zacharias Ursinus trans. by G. W. Williard, The Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism (Cincinnati, OH: Elm Street Printing Company, 1888), 440.
(This is a re-post from July 2016)
Shane Lems
Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Hammond, WI
The Reformed Reader Blog 