Passover

Since reading about Passover in the Bible, i have been wondering if its a holiday we should, not necessarily celebrate, but observe?
I know its considered a Jewish holiday, and the rules and guidelines on what you have to do are down right nuts, but is it something that we should be thankful for and not let go by without a thought?
I mean, where would we be right now if God hadn't brought Isreal out of slavery?
Brandon and i have been talking about this for a while now, and Passover is next Tuesday...we would just like some other views on this subject.

Yes, we DO know that we don't HAVE to celebrate it, but my question is...should we atleast observe it in some way?

It's a personal decision. Jesus is our passover. What happened for Israel in Egypt was a foreshadow of the greater event that was to take place down the road.

Gavin and I like it best the way Doug Batchelor described it...

A soldier is gone to war, while he is away his mother looks at a picture that she has hanging on the wall of him everyday. She's lonely and misses her son sometimes and talks to the picture for comfort.

Then one day she hears a knock on the door when she opens it she finds her son standing there in his uniform, finally he has returned! With a huge smile on her face she turns and runs back to the picture of her son hanging on the wall and kisses it and tells the picture how glad she is that he's back home.

Duh.

Makes sense to us. You can honor any of the holy days of old at anytime. Just like we don't have to only honor Jesus's death for us on Black Friday. (Even thought that's not the real anniversary either).

It's not a salvational issue... you're not saved b/c you keep/honor the old holy days and you're not condemned if you don't. However... if you're not following what is expected of us now then observing holy days/requirements that have been made null & void will not make up for your shortcomings.

That's my generic response. It's what I would share with anyone that asked the question. Since this topic has been semi discussed for the last 2 years or so within our family we've done a good amount of study and come to our own conclusions.

Do you mean 'Good' Friday? Isn't 'Black' Friday the day after Thanksgiving?

I know what your saying. And like i said, i know its not something we HAVE to do...but we don't HAVE to celebrate Christmas, or Easter, or any other "Christian" holiday, but we usually do anyway.
I just wonder why Passover is different, it seemed like such a monumental thing at the time, even Jesus celebrated it.
I don't think we will celebrate it, though, its just something we have been discussing.
I mean, we don't celebrate Easter, so why would we celebrate Passover.

we can still celebrate a risen Savior... of course it's not the same day that Easter is on... same as Christmas is not really Christ's birthday... oh yeah... Good Friday, I knew it was on of those Friday's

Jesus kept Passover b/c the sacrificial services were still in effect until he died on the cross. Those services ended at his death, that's why the veil seperating the most holy place was ripped in two at that same time.

There was a lot of stuff that God had to do differently with those people that actually left Egypt and their children... they had had 400 years of bondage... while you're reading in the OT you'll see how immediately and precisely God dealt with sin -- immediate death...

OKay it's been about 2 hours since I started this post b/c Gideon smashed his finger and we've been.... it's a long story that involves a red hot paper clip and a drill bit... I lost my train of thought but I'm sure I've said enough.

Yea (I know, I know, you're all amazed to hear from me and everything.... especially since it's almost a month after this was posted. I haven't even touched my computer in days!) ...

But just as food for thought:

I was having a conversation with someone a while ago about feasts and holidays and that person said that it's always nice to be "in the know" about things. While you may not necessarily feel obligated to observe Passover (or any other such thing, for that matter), it may be nice for you to be aware of it, and of other celebrations commemorating certain Christian events. There was symbolic reasoning for each celebration, and while Passover has been fulfilled already .... maybe you'd just be setting the groundwork for a further study/acknowledgement of other holidays?

Did I make any sense to anyone? Yeesh.

Jesus gave us the right of communion to take the place of the passover. Somewhere in the SOP (maybe DA) EW tells us that it would be an affront to Jesus for us to keep the passover, since it's meaning was to prepare a people for the Messiah.

However having a communion service the night before "good friday." would not be offensive... afterall that is when Jesus did it with his disc. Celebrating the passover with the symbols of his body and blood would be very appropriate.