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Just Another Essay



Christ Our Passover

Essay Posted April 22, 2008 by James E. Nelson

As it was taught to me and I understand it, the theological reason the Orthodox church didn’t adopt the Gregorian calendar and it’s earlier date for Easter is because the Orthodox date coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover, and the church didn’t want to lose that important linkage. In fact the link between Jesus’ death and Passover has always remained much stronger in the east than in the west. The normative Orthodox term for Easter, for instance, is Passover. (Pascha is a derivative of Pesach, the Hebrew term translated Passover in English.)

I was reminded of this close conceptual link this year for a couple of reasons. First, on the western calendar Easter was about as early as it is possible to get, making the date of Pesach and Pascha well over a month later. Second, when the Vatican recently re-approved the use of the Latin Mass there was a controversy surrounding a prayer for the conversion of the Jews that appears in that Mass. The original prayer includes language drawn directly from 2 Cor. 3 (“that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts ...” and “hear the prayers that we offer for the blindness of that people ...”).

Only three things are certain in this world: death, taxes, and that the Anti-Defamation League will get offended over something and complain about it at least once a month. Well, they were offended by the prayer and demanded the Latin Mass be changed. Amazingly (even though the language is drawn directly from scripture) Pope Benedict acceded to their wishes and revised the prayer to remove what the church thought to be the offending words. The Anti-Defamation League was still not happy, saying the prayer still kept the most troubling aspect intact, namely, “the desire to end the distinctive Jewish way of life.”

In short, this group would be happy with nothing less than complete removal of the prayer. They will be offended until Christians stop praying for them altogether. But as David Mills observes,

We would want gently to note that in demanding that Christians do not pray for the conversion of the Jews, the Jewish leaders are demanding the conversion of Christians—not to Judaism, of course, but to a different version of Christianity, one defined, not by our Scriptures and tradition but by the desires of another faith. This is no less offensive to Christians than the prayer is to Jews. It is an assault on the integrity of the Christian religion. [Touchstone, April 2008, p. 4]

Let me switch gears completely at this point. Eating breakfast at church following the Lazarus Saturday Divine Liturgy, the subject of Mormon baptism came up. I have Mormon relatives on both sides of the family tree and made a comment about the Mormon baptism practice. A woman a few chairs down snapped at me that Mormons don’t do what I claimed that they do. It turns out she was Mormon. I think she was offended less by the supposed factual error and more by the fact that we weren’t giving Mormon theology the proper gravitas that it deserved. We weren’t Mormons, so we should keep our mouths shut.

In both cases (the Mormon down the table and the Anti-Defamation League) the offended party has fallen for the false corollary to the American doctrine of the separation of church and state. It is widely believed in America and the modern West that religion is a private matter: I’m free to practice mine but I should keep my mouth shut about any other religion, and if I don’t, practitioners of the other have the right to get offended. But, come to think of it, St. Paul recognized that the last part of the formula (the fundamental human right to get offended and leave in a huff) was very much a part of the interaction between faiths. “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:18).

And in America, where everything (including doctrine) is politicized and then cynically used to get my candidate elected or to destroy the opposing candidate, it’s easy to make a joke, mumble an apology and slough off such affairs. In other words, it’s easy to become as immune to the fundamental conflict, and in turn become as cynical about such conflicts as the politicians who use such conflict as an opportunity to send out yet another fund raising letter.

But the inevitable and obvious relationship between Pesach and Pascha puts such things into a different context. Jews see Passover as a “meta-narrative,” an event that defines their life of suffering; and to the extent that it is a meta-narrative, it is an end in itself. But Christians see Passover as a twofold event, a promise and fulfillment. Passover explains why the world is as it is in Jewish theology. Passover, according to Christian theology, makes it impossible for the world ever to be as it is again, because it begins the process of healing the world.

The joyful sadness of Holy Week, when celebrated according to the Orthodox calendar, is always set in contrast to the ongoing suffering of the Jewish people, which always remains a profoundly disturbing theme of Pesach. At least we ought to be disturbed that since Esther and Mordecai battled boldly for their people in Persia, those same people have been persecuted, marginalized, and often killed, simply because they are Jews.

If the “pure and undefiled religion” (Jas 1:27) has taken hold of my heart at all, this threefold nexus will be a part of the joyful sadness of this week. Whether it’s Christmas, a tent revival meeting, or Holy Week and Pascha, the event, properly observed, is not just about my Savior and my salvation. Such an event also implies the veil and blindness of sin and unbelief. Such events also occur in a world torn apart by the reality of what happens when the world fails to recognize, accept, and obey the Truth.

Pure and undefiled religion, while meek and mild on the surface, is always divisive and offensive, because it defines the world very sharply; it sees the world as God sees the world. And for that Christ our Passover was killed. Should we expect anything different?