Pascha means Passover

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APRIL, 2005

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Orthodox North continues a series of various articles of relevance to modern Christians. The first article, Pascha means Passover, is a review of the meaning of Pascha in the Orthodox Church as originally conceived by the eearly Christians. The second article, The Date of Pascha, describes how it differs from the Western Church.

[Note: All previous articles may be viewed from the "Articles Archive" page.]

Pascha means Passover
Rev. Fr. Anthony Michaels

Pascha means passover. It has undergone a series of changes that have deepened the meaning of the feast until it has reached the ultimate meaning in the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

First, the original feast was an agricultural celebration that I am sure goes back to the very beginning of human history. Professor George Barrios has said that its origins come from “two distinct observances, the ritual slaughtering of a yearling lamb and the meal that followed, with the observance of the unleavened bread, the matzoth, in Greek (a-ze-me). The former rite was a sacrifice offered by shepherds for the blessing of their flocks throughout the year. The latter was associated with the offering of the first handful of ears of grain, the omer, an anticipation of the harvest which would be gathered during the succeeding weeks; accordingly, the matzoth symbolized the beginning of the new life cycle, as nothing was to be left of the old baking leaven of the past year.”

Moses added another more spiritual meaning to the agricultural feast. “The Mosaic institution united the twin festivals into the week-long celebration of the Passover, which was made to commemorate the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and the constitution of their tribes as a nation. The name of the feast, ‘pesach,” was explained by means of a popular etymology: the angel of death sent by God to strike the first born babes of the Egyptians ‘passed over’ the houses of the Israelites signed with the blood of the lamb; a late meal was eaten in a hurry; the matzoth would recall the bread which the women had baked without waiting for the dough to rise when the Israelites departed furtively under cover of darkness (Exodus 13:16).

	This Jewish passover was a preparation for the Christian pascha or passover, where the full and ultimate meaning of the feast is understood. This is the “ultimate passage,” Fr. Schmemann has said, “into the Kingdom of God. And Christ was the fulfillment of Pascha. He performed the ultimate passage: from death into life, from this ‘old world’ into the new world, into the new time of the Kingdom. And he opened the possibility of this passage to us.” St. Paul said, “Christ [is] our Pascha, sacrificed for us (1 Cor. 5:7).” The sacrifice of the yearling lamb, first done to ensure the health of the flocks and the well-being of the shepherds and their families and then slaughtered to celebrate the liberation of Israel from Egypt, is now the Sacrifice of the Son of God who is the “lamb that takes away the sin of the world.” Whereas once the spilled blood covered the Israelites by protecting them from the angel of death, now the blood of Christ covers the believer from the real angel of death, Satan, who would drag us down and keep us slaves in the brick pits of hell rather than Egypt.
Christ is also the high priest who offers the sacrifice; He is the lamb and the priest. “The economy of the Mosaic covenant is superseded; no longer will a high priest chosen from among the sons of Aaron, from among men enter once a year into the Holy of Holies and make atonement for his sins and the sins of the people, but Christ, priest according to the order of Melchisedech, enters with his own blood, once and for all, and in this we have a ‘sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that reaches into that which is within the veil’(Heb. 6:19).” This Old Testament ritual of atonement “passed over” and realized its true purpose in the Last Supper. “When Jesus sat with the twelve at table, it was not out of nostalgic remembrance of the days of Moses and the miraculous liberation from the servitude in Egypt. ‘Of a desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer, for I shall not eat until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God (Lk. 22:25-26)’ Jesus’ intention is not to commemorate a ritual of the past, which was but a foreshadowing of the reality to come. The rites of passover were figures which would not be fulfilled through a chain of successive symbols, but through actual events: the supper of the twelve, an anticipation of our Eucharist; the Divine Liturgy, an extension of the sacrifice (of Christ on the Cross) in time and space, as the sacred body and the precious blood are handed or given to us under the veil of the holy gifts; and the consumption of the mystery, the eternal reign of Christ in a recreated universe.” Everything in the Old Testament that sustained the Israelites through the wilderness to the Promised Land is a preview of coming attractions when not manna of the Exodus or the sacrifice of lambs in the Temple but the bread and wine of the Eucharist is the only sustenance and nourishment, the only ritual with any real significance, which strengthens us to enter the Promised Land of the Kingdom of God; the manna is the bread and the lamb’s blood is the wine, and the body and blood of Christ that is given to us is the Eucharist. This, then is a short summary of the full meaning of Pascha and Easter in an Orthodox Christian perspective. Fr. Anthony Michaels is the pastor of St. John Chrysostom Orthodox Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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