Easter And Passover Remind Us That We Can Triumph Over Fear

In our secular culture, we have largely separated Easter as a holiday from its religious origin, namely, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, the central message of Easter is still relevant, particularly considering the past few years of uncertainty.

Passover Is a Celebration of Freedom from Tyranny

This is the message of Easter in a nutshell: There is hope that transcends and delivers us from the darkest circumstances. The message of Easter is rooted in the ancient Hebrew holiday of Passover. In order to properly understand the hope of Easter, you have to understand the deliverance of Passover. 

Passover originated in one of the darkest times in Jewish history – when the Israelites were captive slaves to the ancient Egyptians. According to the Exodus story, Pharaoh ordered slave masters to brutally rule over the Israelites as a means of “population control.” Pharaoh’s most cruel mandate was the mandatory execution of all Jewish baby boys. He even hired midwives to kill the infants immediately, before the mothers could even hold their child for the first time. This was a dark time for Israel indeed, and their existence and continuation as a people seemed hopeless as Pharaoh cruelly ruled over them and killed their most vulnerable. 

Passover is a story of freedom, the hope of deliverance from even the darkest moments in history.

This is why Passover is a story of freedom, the hope of deliverance from even the darkest moments in history. According to the Exodus story, God (in Hebrew, Yahweh), brought up the leader Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery under the Egyptians into the “Promised Land” where the Israelites would form their own nation. Nine times God commanded Moses to tell Pharaoh the famous line “Let my people go,” and each time, Pharaoh said no. God would respond to Pharaoh by sending a “plague” to punish Pharaoh’s disobedience and stubbornness. However, the story of Passover emerges during the tenth and final plague – when God warns Pharaoh that the eldest son of every family in Egypt would be slaughtered if he did not let the Israelites go.

Just as Pharaoh took the life of every firstborn Israeli baby boy, Yahweh threatened to take away the firstborn of every Egyptian family. God commanded that the Israelites slaughter a pure and spotless lamb and paint its blood on their doorpost as a sign of their hope in God’s deliverance from this judgment. As the “angel of death” slaughtered the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, he “passed over” the houses of the Israelites, saving them from destruction. After this gruesome plague, the Pharaoh finally relinquished the Israelites and they finally received their freedom and deliverance. 

Like Moses, Christ leads his people out of the greatest bondage: sin and death.

So where does Easter come into the picture? In the Christian tradition, Christ is considered the ultimate Passover lamb. Like Moses, Christ leads his people out of the greatest bondage: sin and death. Like the Passover lamb, He died so that, by the mark of His blood, death would pass over His people. Though God spared the sons of Israel, He did not spare His firstborn Son, who died so that the rest of the world could have everlasting life. Jesus died for our deliverance, and He rose again to give us hope of an everlasting life. Through His death, we have freedom. Through His resurrection, we have transcendent hope. 

Hope for Our Time

So what does Easter have to do with a pandemic, inflation, or an Eastern European war? How is the Easter story relevant in our secular culture? Like the ancient Israelites, we're eagerly awaiting when we will be delivered from our current fear, chaos, and uncertainty. No matter what you believe, the Easter story can tell you this: There is reason to hope even in our current darkness.

Closing Thoughts

This Easter, let us hope, even in the midst of our uncertainty, and celebrate our deliverance from our current circumstances. The plagues preceded the Passover, the Crucifixion preceded the Resurrection, bondage preceded freedom, and fear preceded hope. We too can have hope and confidence that we will be delivered from our current season of fear. There is hope in the midst of our fear and deliverance in the midst of our uncertainty. 

Article updated: 04/11/2022