An explanation and history on why Christians celebrate Easter and why Christ didn’t actually die on Good Friday. No it’s not from pagan roots. (Where the actual word Easter comes from is a little more tricky) But the Christians celebrated the Passover on the resurrection day.
Easter is what the early Christians called Pesach (Hebrew) Pascha (Greek) or Passover. Focus on the resurrection, they celebrated first Sunday after the Passover. Not wanting to take on the Jewish custom of the Passover on the 14th of Nison, they chose the Friday to celebrate the crucifixion.
This has seemingly led to a lack of biblical understanding of what Christ did on the cross at the Passover. Originally celebrated on the 14th day of the first month, Nisan. Somehow it appears to have been changed to the 15th of Nisan which is actually the first day of the 7 day festival of Unleavened Bread, this first was held in Egypt recorded in Exodus 12. An overview of Israel’s feasts is recorded in Leviticus 23.
The Lord God YHWH appeared to Moses and had him go to Pharaoh and say “Let my people go so we may worship the Lord God in the wilderness” after 9 plagues, Pharaoh still was hardened.
So the Lord said, recorded in Exodus 12. Take a lamb or goat from the first year without blemish. Kill it and eat it (Remember Christ saying this is my body given for you) paint the blood of the lamb on the door posts of your houses and when the angel comes he will destroy every first born male in Egypt. But when he see’s the blood (This is my blood of the new covenant) he will “Pass over” That house and spare those sons. So Israel did this and Pharaoh let them go and they went and Moses parted the sea 🌊
This is important to remember when we celebrate Good Friday as the Lord didn’t die on a Friday (The Christians chose that day remember)
Matthew 12:39-40 He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
So Jesus Christ is our Passover lamb. Sacrificed so we would be covered by his blood, the blood of the lamb for the forgiveness of sins. Raised on the third day, Sunday. So we could have new life by his spirit.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:29 CSB
https://bible.com/bible/1713/jhn.1.29.CSB
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 CSB
https://bible.com/bible/1713/1co.5.7-8.CSB
The Heavens Declare 