As Easter week winds down I wanted to take a moment and reflect upon the importance Passover plays in the atonement message of all four Gospels. It is significant that each of the four Gospels places Jesus’ death at Passover, for Passover had specific implications for understanding what God was up to in the work and life of Jesus. When a detail is consistent across all four Gospels, we should sit up and pay attention.
Over the years there have been many different theories on how the atonement of Jesus works. Was it based on penal substitution, Christus Victor, or some other concept? Or was it a combination of them? My personal preference for understanding the nature of Jesus’ sacrifice is to view it through the lens of Passover, since that is a detail common to the four Gospels and consistent with the Exodus-like story of what transpired afterward in Acts. So, first I’ll step back into Exodus and review the importance of Passover to the Jews.
If we remember, Passover was a celebration of God’s aid and support in helping Israel overcome Pharaoh and escape captivity in Egypt. After performing many signs to impress Pharaoh, Moses promised that God would kill the first born sons in Egypt, and that this final sign would be the proof Pharaoh needed to let the Israelites leave. In order to protect the first born of Israel, God commanded that they sacrifice a male lamb, without blemish, and smear the blood on their door mantles, causing the angel of death to pass by their house. In the morning, the first born of all of Egypt, with the exception of the Israelites, were dead, and Pharaoh let Israel leave Egypt to their freedom.
Following this horrific event, Israel advanced into the desert and were chased by Pharaoh’s army. The Red Sea (or, according to manuscripts, the Reed Sea) was parted, Israel passed through on dry ground, and Pharaoh’s armies were destroyed in the sea, ensuring Israel’s freedom.
Israel then moves on to Sinai and obtains a covenant from God that they will be his chosen people and reflect his image into the world. He gives them a way of life which will prepare them for his presence, and a “garden” in the tabernacle/temple (you’ll notice that the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle are quite similar to the description of the creation of the cosmos in Genesis) where God’s presence could be among the people, symbolized by the pillar of fire. God sought to be among his creation.
Now, I don’t really want to dive into the historical accuracy of the Exodus account. There are some great scholarly works on the topic; however, the historicity of the story is not important for my purposes here. Instead, I’d like to focus on the symbols of the myth.
Specifically…
- Israel was enslaved to a great earthly power
- Israel suffered at the hands of this great power
- Someone was called to free Israel from that power (“moses” is Egyptian for “son of”, and he was a covenant member of God living as an alien in the house of that power)
- The power of God cut off the future of that power (first born sons were heirs to the estates and power of their fathers – their death meant that line was disrupted and removed)
- A symbol of unblemished innocence purchased the continuation of Israel’s covenant relationship through the preservation of their first born
- That symbol of unblemished innocence thus purchased Israel’s freedom from slavery (redeemed Israel) to the power
- Israel went to freedom and was ultimately saved by the destruction of that power in the sea, the symbol of chaos, as God displayed his triumph over chaos and the powers of this world
- Israel was baptized into a new life through the Red Sea experience
- A new garden was placed among the new creation, a place where God could walk among his people
This is the symbolism of Passover, so it seems quite important that Jesus would die at Passover and be referred to as the Lamb of God. This gives us a clue as to the nature of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, pointing us to the important detail that it was a redemptive sacrifice – substitutionary in the way that a redeemer would purchase the freedom of a slave. This isn’t referring to someone upon whom the sins would be placed, for there was a ritual for that called the Day of Atonement, where the scapegoat had Israel’s sins placed upon its head and it was sent into the desert. Perhaps there is symbolism related to Jesus in that ritual as well, but importantly that is not the symbolism of Passover, and the Gospels all place Jesus’ sacrifice at Passover, urging us to view Jesus’ work through a Passover lens.
We also see in Jesus’ resurrection story the new creation of God, bringing the Exodus/Passover story alongside the creation story of Genesis, with a few slight twists.
Consider…
- There was a reconstitution of the Twelve Tribes of Israel (calling of the Twelve Apostles to head the new family of God)
- There was a rebirth of creation through the waters of baptism
- The powers of this world – the powerful empire, death, religious authority – were brought to one place and concentrated upon one person
- That person was without blemish and innocent (God himself)
- The blood of Jesus was spilled due to the obstinacy of the powers of this world, which were willing to ignore God’s miracles and do anything to hold onto power – including kill
- Through the death of Jesus (again, God himself – see Philippians 2:1-11), the powers are defeated and cut off from the new creation, for they judge themselves and show themselves without love
- Jesus’ resurrection vindicates the Son of God (Adam was a son and Moses meant “son of”) and he becomes the first fruits of the new creation, heir to God’s covenant, and continuation of the line of God (we join Jesus as heirs through him, expanding and continuing that line of God and fulfilling the promise to Abraham)
- God comes again to be among his people within a garden (Jesus’ tomb was in a garden)
- God again walks among his people in a garden, though in the light of day rather than at night, as it was in the Garden of Eden
- Instead of the woman being the first to “fall”, a woman is the first to behold God in the garden and becomes the first witness (i.e., apostle) of the new creation, including becoming the first to embrace it/him
- The new temple is built in the body of the church of God (see many references to the church as the body of Christ, Jesus referencing his body as the temple that will be raised, etc.)
- God fills his temple with his presence, the fire of the Holy Spirit
I could go on. There are many correlations between the creation story, Exodus, the atonement/resurrection of Jesus, and the establishment of his church. The point of it all is for us to be part of that new creation – the one that is now, and still not yet. We’ve all been invited to become people of the new creation – Easter people – through baptism, unity in community, partaking of the body and blood of Christ (he becomes one with us, and we do this as a body of disciples), and then taking the story and God’s presence (Holy Spirit, us as image bearers) to the rest of creation. This is all a new creation, right under our noses.
For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
2 Corinthians 5:14-19, NRSV
Wheat & Tares 
Thank you for sharing.
To be honest, I do not personally put much stock in attempts to draw those kinds of comparisons between biblical stories – you can find common elements in anything if you look hard enough.
But I do share your love for pondering the atonement and the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice. Right now, I see the atonement as a matter of what Christ had to do in order to gain the power to forgive sins. This is His unique ability – being able to say “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” which nobody else can do. It’s even the reason Matthew gives for His name: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
And I believe that only a being who has suffered as Christ did is capable of forgiving sins. Forgiveness would be meaningless coming from someone who hadn’t suffered all the cruelties and pain and injustice which mankind are capable of inflicting upon one another. So Jesus had to come down to Earth and suffer and die like a man in order to gain the ability to forgive our sins.
A post on Easter today I assumed you worshipped in the Orthodox tradition that is beautifully celebrating Pasha tonight.
” I grew up Mormon but have since joined the Episcopal Church.”
I think that’s great as long as you didn’t do that for the same reason as a friend of mine because she, unaware of the irony, “didn’t like how the founder of the Church [JS] treated women.” 😂
Wonderful post.
I like your view of the passover/atonement symbolism much more than the angry God who is killing Egyptians must be appeased by the intercession of the Son on our behalf.
Believing Joseph:
You sound like you may be part of the Snuffer “Remnant” movement, and I suspect we may find it a bit difficult to find common ground on this since I’m Trinitarian. To me, Christ was the divine Logos, the Word of God. He was the Christ from before time and before the cosmos were created. It is Christ through whom the cosmos was created and continues its “being”. He is God and already had the power to forgive sins. It was God himself, not an emissary, who died for us and forgives our sins. I say this not to try and convince you of the error of your ways, only to communicate my perspective.
Regarding my thoughts on the Passover and Jesus…this wasn’t me just riffing here. The Passover-based perspective is grounded in the New Testament and was the common view of early Christians. They viewed the entire drama, from Adam, through Noah, Abraham, Moses, on down to 1st century Israel, as one great saga brought to climax in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Now it was time for the “new Israel”, which united Israel and the Gentiles – in a sense, the entire human race – as one family of God.
I know I won’t convince you of this, which is fine. I just wanted to state that it isn’t me just descending into a Nibley-esque parallelomania; it’s standard fare in the NT and early Christian writings.