Passover plays a central role in the life of many, many Jews around the world, even those who might not ordinarily consider themselves to be very religious. The book of Exodus says that Nisan, the spring month when Passover falls, is to be at the “head of months” in the Jewish calendar (12:2). Passover’s celebration of God’s miraculous liberation of the enslaved Hebrews from their Egyptian taskmasters is, in many ways, the real beginning of Jewish peoplehood — of their vocation as a people who are called to live in freedom as God’s People, and to work to liberate others as well. That ancient biblical storyline has inspired countless social justice movements around the world, including the American civil rights movement, the development of liberation theology, and Catholic social teaching. In fact, the 1971 Synod of Bishops’ famous statement, On Justice in the World, says:

Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.

That idea, that the Church’s mission includes the liberation of human beings from every oppressive situation, is the language of Exodus, of Passover.

For many of us, the Exodus story is very familiar. An older generation probably knows it from the 1956 classic movie, The Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. A younger generation probably knows it from the wonderful animated film The Prince of Egypt, which came out in 1998. At the heart of all those cinematic re-tellings is the story told in the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament.

For generations, the Hebrews had been enslaved to the Egyptians, under harsh and oppressive conditions. But God calls Moses, a Hebrew who had been spared from death as an infant and raised in the household of Pharaoh, to confront the Egyptian ruler with a demand that the Hebrews be allowed to go into the wilderness to worship God. After Pharaoh’s refusal, Egypt is struck by a series of horrendous plagues, which ravaged the nation and its people — and yet Pharaoh does not yield and allow the Hebrews to depart. Finally, in the most devastating and heart-wrenching plague of all, God threatens death for every firstborn Egyptian male, human or animal.

But, God tells Moses, the Israelites will be spared — will be “passed over” — if they slaughter a lamb for each family, mark their doorposts with its blood, and eat it roasted as part of a special meal, in readiness. As the Israelites huddle in their homes, sharing that meal, the Angel of Death passes through Egypt, and all the firstborn sons die; the Hebrews alone are spared. Finally, utterly broken by the plagues, Pharaoh gives permission for the Hebrews to leave … no, he orders them to leave, and never return. Under Moses’ leadership, they leave Egypt, and leave slavery behind. They begin a journey that would lead them through the Red Sea and into the desert, where they would wander for many years, until eventually God brings them into the Promised Land. Today, we think of it as the “Holy Land.”

We remember the dramatic scene of the Israelites passing through the Sea of Reeds on dry ground, and how God’s Presence led them, in the form of “a pillar of cloud by day,…and in a pillar of fire by night” (Exodus 13:21). Passover celebrates that incredible story, and how the loving power of God brought the Jewish people out of bondage and into freedom. As the ritual text for Passover (the Haggadah) says, every generation must consider themselves as having been personally freed from Egypt: the story of the Exodus is not relegated to the distant past, but reminds us of how God continues to act, to bring us out of all kinds of slaveries into freedom, out of all kinds of darkness, into light. For many Jewish people, Passover is the lynchpin of the calendar, the high point of the entire Jewish year. The Passover meal is, therefore, both solemn and joyous, both ancient and contemporary. It is a meal celebrated as a family, but it reminds each person of their connections to Jews of all times and places—going right back to those first Hebrews who escaped from Egypt.

Both Jews and Christians share the story of the Exodus, and of Passover. Exodus is the second book of both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. For both communities, it is told in the second book of their sacred texts, Exodus, or Shemot. For Christians, however, Passover takes on an additional layer of meaning, because the Gospels make it clear that Passover formed the backdrop to the final week of Jesus’ life, what we today refer to as Holy Week. Traditionally, we have thought of the Last Supper as being a traditional Passover meal, although the four Gospels are not unanimous about this. For the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus’ final meal gathered with his followers is the Passover; for John’s Gospel, however, it seems to be the evening before Passover. For John, as Jesus is being crucified, the lambs for Passover are being slaughtered in the Temple. John clearly wants us to see the parallels between the Passover lambs and Jesus without directly equating the Last Supper with the Passover meal. That apparent discrepancy between John and the Synoptics is difficult to resolve, despite the best efforts of Christian historians and Biblical scholars. But it is clear that Passover is the reason why Jesus and his followers are in Jerusalem: Jesus is a faithful Jew, who makes the Passover pilgrimage regularly.

The parallels between Jesus and the Passover lamb are scattered throughout the New Testament. John the Baptist points to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). In 1 Corinthians 5:7, St. Paul says that “Christ, our Passover, has been slaughtered,” And the Book of Revelation contains numerous references to Jesus as a Lamb who had been slaughtered (cf. 5:6), but who now reigns victorious in God’s presence in heaven. References to Jesus as Lamb are found in the commentaries of many early Christian writers, and throughout our liturgies. If we don’t know the original story of Passover in Exodus, however, we will not be able to understand the connections the New Testament writers are trying to make. Because Jesus was himself a faithful Jew, Passover will always be a moment of profound connection between Jews and Christians.

Attempts to recover that connection have sometimes had mixed results. In recent decades, some Christian communities have tried to celebrate some form of a “Christian seder.” Often, this entails “tweaking” or re-writing the ritual text (the Haggadah) to insert Christian texts and make Christian symbolic connections more explicit. As well-intentioned as this practice may be, it risks doing serious harm to our relationship with our Jewish siblings.

For more than 1,500 years, Christians have not celebrated the Passover, and attempting to “reclaim” it today can come across as artificial, offensive, or aggressive. In the same way that we Christians would not want non-Christians to celebrate the Eucharist to “get a taste” of what Christians do, so we do not want to reduce this sacred ritual meal to a “historical re-enactment” that can be viewed as exploitative and hurtful. We know relatively little about the details of a first-century Jewish Passover meal, and we know that those rituals have evolved considerably over the centuries, especially in the Middle Ages. So, even if we were to follow a contemporary Passover Haggadah, it is certainly not the Passover as Jesus knew it 2,000 years ago. We cannot undo the passage of all those centuries, and pretend that Judaism and Christianity did not turn into two distinct religions. But we can appreciate the beauty and the rich meaning of Passover. We can wish our Jewish friends and neighbours blessings as Passover approaches. We can join them as their guests at Passover. And, doing so, we can remember that many of these prayers and symbols would have been very familiar to Jesus and his family.

Each year, Pope Francis would send a Passover message on behalf of the world’s Catholics to all of the world’s Jewish people. As he prayed back in 2018, “May the Almighty bless and accompany the journey of the beloved Jewish People. May the Most High allow us to grow ever more in friendship and to be witnesses of peace and harmony.” Especially in our world of tensions, violence, and fear, may we pray similarly for our Jewish friends, as they prepare to begin Passover this year. Chag Pesach sameach. A joy-filled festival of Passover to everyone!

Dr. Murray Watson is a Catholic Biblical scholar and interfaith activist who has worked closely with Jewish and Muslim communities, both in Canada and in the Holy Land. He currently serves as the Adult Faith Formation Animator for the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board, based in Barrie, Ontario, and he regularly writes, speaks and teaches on Biblical and interreligious topics.