POSTED 10 MARCH, 2002

What is the Problem With Easter?

by J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net

It comes every Spring, usually sometime in March or April. You know it because in stores you see the baskets, candy, rabbits, eggs, and the annoying fake grass that goes in those baskets. You see the Cadbury cream egg commercials on television with the rabbits gobbling like chickens. Its name is Easter.

Most sincere Christians celebrate the season Easter not as a time to honor rabbits or eat candy, but as one to remember the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). They commemorate His death on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Certainly, of all the events in our faith, His resurrection is the most important. The Apostle Paul validly writes, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Messiah has been raised; and if Messiah has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14). However, when we consider the pre-Messianic and pre-Christian origins of “Easter,” it becomes imperative that we reevaluate it.

It comes as a shock to many Christians, but we who are Messianic Believers do not celebrate Easter. We do not see this holiday mandated in Scripture as one of the Lord’s moedim or “appointed times” of Leviticus 23. We believe it to be a substitute holiday in place of what God has asked His people to do. By celebrating Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we believe that Yeshua comes to die as a random man or common criminal on the cross at Golgotha (Calvary) in a “generic” manner for the sin of mankind. He does not come in fulfillment of our Heavenly Father’s appointed times and part of a prophetic order as the blameless Passover Lamb slain for our sin, and as the unleavened sinless Bread of Life who was scourged for our iniquities.

As it has sadly been the case, many Messianics usually respond to the Christians who criticize us without mercy for not celebrating Easter, in kind. They accuse them of participating in pagan “fertility rites” or for worshipping the Babylonian goddess Ishtar or the sun god. Likewise, because Messiah Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection are not emphasized at many “Messianic” Passover sedars, such Christians may feel that we have lost hold of this monumental event, and perhaps can rightfully say of many such people that they treat Yeshua’s resurrection with disgust.

How are we as fair-minded Messianic Believers to handle Easter? How are we to be mature, Spirit-filled, Torah obedient Believers who follow the example of Yeshua the Messiah? At what time are we to appropriately remember what He did for us on the cross 2,000 years ago? Easter or Passover?

What did God tell us to do in the Spring?

It is only natural that Believers would want to do something to honor God in the Springtime. Spring is a wonderful time of year where we see new leaves on trees, flowers blooming, grass coming to life again, and things are warming in preparation for Summer. It is indeed a time and remembrance of “new life.” In the Springtime, in the Hebrew month of Aviv or Nisan, the Passover is to be celebrated:

“Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household’” (Exodus 12:3). Exodus 12:6 further tells us, “You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.”

The Lord gives detailed instruction in Exodus 12:1-13 about how the Passover was first to be observed in commemoration of the Ancient Israelites’ flight from Egypt. God further goes on and speaks of the Festival of Unleavened Bread in Exodus 12:14-20 and how, “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening” (v. 18), establishing that this feast is to last seven days. Concerning Unleavened Bread, the Lord makes it quite clear that “you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance” (v. 17). “Permanent ordinance” in the Hebrew is chuqat olam (~lA[ tQx), or as the NIV renders this command, “Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.”

These two holidays of Passover and Unleavened Bread were codified in Leviticus 23:5-14:

“‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, “When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.”’”

It is only natural for us to want to celebrate new life and commemorate something in the Spring. That is why our Heavenly Father has told His people to celebrate Passover and Unleavened Bread. We as Messianic Believers observe these holidays not only in remembrance of the Ancient Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt, but also for the prophetic fulfillment in Messiah that these festivals have. In Yeshua, we experience an exodus from slavery to sin to freedom in Him. He has been slain as the Passover Lamb for us, and was bruised like the unleavened matzah (hCm) bread.

What does the New Testament say?

In the Apostolic Scriptures, the Apostle Paul makes a strong parallel between Passover and Unleavened Bread and the salvation that we have in Messiah Yeshua. He writes, “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). “Leaven”[1] here is representative of sin and as Believers in Messiah we are told to “clean [it] out,” the verb ekkathairō (ekkaqairw) meaning “to remove as unclean, clean out” (BDAG)[2] and “to cleanse out, clean thoroughly” (Thayer).[3] This demonstrates how serious it is for us to get the sin out of our lives. Why are we told to do this? The answer startles many Christians:

“Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8).

Why are we told to clean out the leaven in our lives? So we can properly celebrate the feast. What feast would Paul be referring to here? Obviously, he would be referring to Passover and all it encompasses! The Greek in 1 Corinthians 5:8 states quite plainly that we are to “celebrate the festival.” Heortazō (eortazw) means “to celebrate as or by a festival” (LS).[4]

These verses take on some new meanings with the Hebrew terms used in the Complete Jewish Bible: “Get rid of the old hametz [leavened dough], so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. So let us celebrate the Sedar not with leftover hametz, the hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah of purity and truth.”

1 Corinthians 5:7-8 establishes how important it is that we observe Passover, and likewise the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These moedim were established by God long before the Messiah’s First Coming, and give us the pattern of Him being our blameless Passover Lamb atoning for our iniquities, and then being the scourged, sinless, leavenless Bread of Life as was prophesied in Isaiah 53:5: “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”

This prophecy speaks of Messiah the Suffering Servant. Those of you who have seen unleavened bread or matzah know that it has lines with small holes in it, which represent Yeshua’s suffering for us. A “scourge,” or chaburah (hrWBx) in Hebrew, is defined as “stripe, blow, stroke,” and “blows that cut in” (BDB).[5]

Furthermore, Paul also writes in Colossians 2:17 that the Biblical feasts specified by God in the Torah are “are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (ESV). In understanding the feasts as a “shadow,” we know that they give a foretaste of the prophetic fulfillment of Yeshua’s First and Second Coming, in which the ultimate sōma (swma) or “substance” is found.

We as Messianic Believers are of the strong position that the Lord gave us His appointed times for a reason. He gave them to us to show us the reality of Yeshua, which gives testimony to us about His plan for order in His Creation. Yeshua’s First and future Second Coming are not “random events” on the calendar, as many Christians perceive them. They are rather ordered events that occur in a set pattern according to the Father’s “appointed times” or moedim.

What was “the Last Supper”?

We do recognize, of course, that many Christians recognize the prophetic significance of the Biblical festivals, including Passover, and many churches regularly do hold Passover sedars. While I believe that churches that celebrate both Passover and Easter Sunday are (somewhat) compromised, this is certainly better than those churches that feel that Passover has no significance whatsoever and condemn those who observe it. Many of these same do not realize that the Last Supper meal, as it is commonly called, was in actuality a Passover meal conducted between Yeshua and His Disciples:

“Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Yeshua and asked, ‘Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?’ And He said, ‘Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, “The Teacher says, ‘My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.’”’ The disciples did as Yeshua had directed them; and they prepared the Passover” (Matthew 26:17-19; cf. Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:8-15).

Some Christians waver as to whether or not the Last Supper was actually “Passover” (although some editions of the NASB have Matthew 26:20-25 titled as “The Last Passover”). This is partially based on John 19:14 which tells us that Yeshua was crucified on “the day of preparation for the Passover,” meaning that Passover began the evening of His crucifixion and so the evening that He and His Disciples partook of the Last Supper would have not been the Passover. There is an easy response to this when we understand that “practice Passovers” were common in the days of Messiah prior to the Passover beginning. Rabbis would usually do this with their students to train them to conduct their own Passover meals, or for those entering to Jerusalem from afar to become accustomed to Passover in the Judean tradition. It makes perfect sense for Yeshua, our Rabbi, to do something like this as He was establishing the New Covenant with His own blood, and commissioning His Disciples to continue His work:

“While they were eating, Yeshua took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28; cf. Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20).

The common practice of communion or “the Lord’s Supper” is derived from the Passover. In Luke 22:19 Yeshua says “do this in remembrance of Me.”

But what is the most important thing as it relates to what many Christians do today? If we truly want to follow the Messiah’s example, then we should pay careful attention to these words of His in regard to “the Last Supper.” He says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15, NRSV). Translated “earnestly desired” (NASU, NIV, RSV), the Greek epithumia (epiqumia) means “a longing after a thing, desire of or for it” (LS).[6] Allow these words to seek deep into your spirit. Yeshua strongly desired to celebrate Passover with His Disciples. We should also follow His example and likewise earnestly desire to celebrate Passover, remembering all the while what He did for us.

A Brief History of Easter

Following Yeshua’s final Passover meal He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, taken before Pontius Pilate, scourged and beaten by the Roman soldiers, and then crucified for us, atoning for our sin. Three days later He arose from the dead, and forty days following He ascended to the right hand of the Father in Heaven. The story sounds all too familiar, but it takes on a completely new light when viewed in the significance of God’s appointed times.

So how did we get Easter Sunday, a holiday that by many accounts seems to be divorced from Passover? At Passover time we are told to eat unleavened bread and lamb, whereas on Easter Sunday yeast rolls and hams are commonplace. Yeast or leaven represents sin in relation to Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Swine is an unclean animal, the consumption of which God says is “an abomination unto you” (Leviticus 11:10, 11, 12, 20, 23).

One of the things that we have to understand is that neither Yeshua nor the early Believers and Apostles celebrated “Easter.” They observed the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread as they always had and remembered the Messiah in all. “Easter” as its own holiday was not formalized until centuries later at the Council of Nicea. While establishing many critical doctrines of our faith, including the Messiah’s Divinity, later Church councils such as the Council of Antioch (341 C.E.) and the Council of Laodicea (363 C.E.) made it illegal for Christians to participate in the Sabbath or Passover. Susan E. Richardson’s comments from Holidays & Holy Days confirm this:

“…In A.D. 325, the Council of Nicea set aside a special day just to celebrate the Resurrection. The problem with an official day was deciding whether or not the Resurrection should be celebrated on a weekday or…on a Sunday.

“Many felt that the date should continue to be based on the timing of the Resurrection during Passover. Once Jewish leaders determined the date of Passover each year, Christian leaders could set the date for Easter by figuring three days after Passover…

“…As Christianity drew away from Judaism, some were reluctant to base the Christian celebration on the Jewish calendar.”[7]

These comments should essentially confirm the fact that the Church of the Fourth Century wanted to create a holiday separate from anything “Jewish.” Like Jeroboam of old, many of the bishops wanted to replace the Lord’s appointed times with their own replacement holidays. Richardson continues,

“Since Easter is a celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection, you would think there wouldn’t be room for paganism. However, Easter is one of the holidays most intertwined with pagan symbolism and ritual.

“The origin of the word easter isn’t certain. The Venerable Bede, an eighth-century monk and scholar, suggested that the word may have come from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre or Eastre—a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility…”[8]

We do point out, however, that Richardson does state, “Recent scholars haven’t been able to find any reference to the goddess Bede mentioned and consider the theory discredited.”[9]

However, there may be a similarity and connection between the name “Easter” and the Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar, especially as Richardson does admit that “easter would be linked to the changing of the season”[10] and hence be connected to Spring fertility and growing. Either way, the fact that Easter Sunday is connected to paganism should raise some serious eyebrows among those wanting to follow Scripture.

Whether “Easter” is a name of pagan origin or not in this case is unimportant. The fact that there are strong pagan connections to it as Richardson, a Christian author, readily attests should be shocking to those endeavoring to be Bible Believers who follow Scripture and not manmade tradition. The fact that later generations of Christians would form a holiday honoring the Messiah’s resurrection originally based in paganism and not celebrate Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread, casts a shadow upon Good Friday and Easter Sunday. People have largely decided to ignore what God asks us to do in Leviticus 23, reemphasized by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, and instead feel it prudent to assert their own holidays.

We should not be as dense so as to think that all Christians over the centuries have been participating in “fertility rites.” I do believe that God has honored those who have celebrated Easter in ignorance, truly wanting to honor Him. However, the Father is leading us into a time where the fuller truth is being revealed and He will give us the choice of whether or not we want to observe His holidays or those of human origin.

Fairy Tale Reasoning

Of course, there are many more traditions associated with Easter that are supposed to “commemorate” the resurrection of Yeshua. What about the venerable “Easter bunny”? Where did he come from? The only place rabbits are mentioned in Scripture is in Leviticus 11:6 and Deuteronomy 14:7 where the Lord declares them to be unclean animals that we are forbidden to eat. We once again turn to Susan E. Richardson’s rather “revealing” Christian commentary from Holidays & Holy Days:

“There are several reasons for the rabbit, or hare, to be associated with Easter, all of which come through pagan celebrations or beliefs. The most obvious is the hare’s fertility. Easter comes during spring and celebrates new life.”[11]

This statement is disturbing because rabbits are commonly associated with sex. A popular expression in relation to young people nowadays is that they “have sex like rabbits.” And I would point out that this sex is usually always outside the bounds of marriage. God did not tell us to associate new life with rabbits in Spring. Richardson also states, “The hare or rabbit’s burrow helped the animal’s adoption as part of Easter celebrations. Believers saw the rabbit coming out of its underground home as a symbol of Jesus coming out of the tomb. Perhaps this was another case of taking a pre-existing symbol and giving it Christian meaning.”[12]

Adopting a rabbit’s coming out of its underground burrow comparing it to Yeshua’s resurrection is complete fairy tale reasoning in my assessment—and makes little or no sense whatsoever!

Is “Easter” mentioned in Scripture?

There is, however, one instance where many Christians tell us that “Easter” is mentioned in the Bible. “Easter” appears in the King James Version rendering of Acts 12:4:

“And when he [Herod] had apprehended him [Peter], he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.”

This is not an accurate translation of the Greek text at all. The Greek does not have “Easter” but Pascha (pasca), the transliteration of the Hebrew Pesach (xsP) or “Passover.” The New King James Version has corrected this seemingly intentional error:

“So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover” (Acts 12:4, NKJV).

King James Only advocates, who believe that the King James Version is perfect and without error, superior to the original Hebrew or Greek, have argued that this rendering of “Easter” for Pascha is accurate. Why is this the case? Because King Herod, they say, the one who took Peter captive, was a pagan and celebrated Easter. While this is unsupported by the text, notably because Acts 12:3 tells us that “Then were the days of unleavened bread” (KJV) connecting Pascha to Passover, it is interesting that they must admit that “Easter” is a holiday of non-Biblical, rather than Biblical, origins.

Easter in Perspective

Many Christians will continue to not understand why we as Messianic Believers do not celebrate Easter Sunday, and instead honor Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. They, in their ignorance, may look at us with utter disgust and will proclaim that we deny the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua. But this is truly not the case as Messiah is our Passover Lamb slain for the forgiveness of sin, and “is the firstfruits of those who have died” (1 Corinthians 15:20, CJB). We do not deny Yeshua’s resurrection; we just believe that Christians are commemorating it inappropriately. They are honoring it outside of the bounds God has given us, and have given credence to a holiday that has some pagan connections.

But this problem, just like that of Christmas, is compounded by Messianics who condemn Christians mercilessly and claim that they are worshipping Ishtar or the sun god on Easter Sunday. Truly this is not the case and such criticism is unjustified, especially as many of these “Messianics” do not seek to honor or remember Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection at their Passover meals. Yeshua Himself says, “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2). Many of these same people will readily admit that when they celebrated Easter they were not celebrating pagan fertility rites. They, in ignorance, just like me, did not know the origins of the holiday and were unaware of the greater blessings and significance of celebrating Passover.

Messianic Believers need to set the higher standard when Easter comes. It is only one day out of the year, and fortunately it is not given the same type of commercialization as Christmas is. Let us be the ones who lead by our example of loving others who are ignorant of the truth of Easter’s history and celebrate it because they do not know any better, believing the Biblical appointed times of the Lord to be unimportant.

What is the problem with Easter?

While we do not celebrate Good Friday or Easter Sunday because they were adapted by Roman Catholicism to replace Passover, we do not condemn those who celebrate it in ignorance, and neither do we condemn those who defiantly celebrate it and are opposed to us celebrating the Lord’s moedim. (God will handle them). But we do pray and urge Christians to reconsider what they are doing, and consider whether or not “the Church” has the right to replace God’s holidays with its own holidays. We find no justification for this and will choose to commemorate the Messiah’s resurrection at its appropriate time connected to the Spring appointments, not a holiday that historically has connections to pagan fertility rites. We will also encourage others to do the same making Yeshua’s sacrifice for us part of God’s orderly plan, rather than part of the unorderly and unsanctified days of the heathen.

What is the problem with Easter? Easter was not established by God. It was established by men to be a substitute of some of the most important of the Lord’s appointed times: Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Just as the Ancient Israelites were in Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, so we as Believers who have received Messiah Yeshua into our hearts have experienced our own exodus from sin into new life, and the promise of a future resurrection and eternal communion with Him in His Kingdom on Earth. We have the confidence of knowing that He came in a preordained order, not as part of a random, unordered day of revelry.

J.K. McKee (B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A. Student, Asbury Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic apologist. He is author of several books, including: The New Testament Validates Torah, Torah In the Balance, Volume I, and When Will the Messiah Return?. He has also written many articles on the Two Houses of Israel and Biblical theology, and is presently focusing on Messianic commentaries on various books of the Bible.

NOTES

edited for spelling/grammar
04 March, 2007