Passover / Holy Week

Biblical and Church Calendars

Mea culpa (my mistake). Calendar confusion…it happens.

Last week, I should have sent you a Passover post that consists of the traditional reading of Song of Songs. Additionally, the Sh’mini post that I sent out last week, should have gone out for this week. Whoops!

The traditional annual cycle of readings in the Jewish lectionary is augmented by the insertion of holiday readings. Thus, the Feast of Passover temporarily interrupts the flow of readings through the Torah, Prophets, and Apostolic Writings to reflect on God’s saving deeds. These deeds consist of God saving the Israelites from slavery to Pharaoh by the blood of a spotless lamb 3,500 years ago and God saving His people from slavery to sin by the blood of our sinless Messiah 2,000 years ago.

Life on the fault line between Judaism and Christianity can be confusing sometimes because, among other things, they tend to operate according to two different—but related—calendars.

The pictures above represent two calendars. The black and white calendar on the left depicts the lunar months and the Biblical feasts. The color calendar on the right represents the church calendar.

Each calendar possesses its own history, tradition, and treasure. I used the red circles in the picture to highlight the same time period within each tradition. Specifically, the biblical calendar’s Feast of Passover points us to same set of events as the Church calendar’s Feast of Easter.

In both cases, blood saves people from the wrath of God. Leviticus 17:11 captures this mystery,

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

Despite these events of Passover and Resurrection being so intricately connected, they have been historically separated. Since the Council of Nicaea in 325 (A.D. or C.E.), the people of God have been trained to separate these events into Jewish and Christian traditions. But they are linked.

And God is restoring this connection by healing old divisions and reuniting the people of God.

The Parashah Project is an attempt to help bridge the historical and theological divides and foster deeper understanding and unity among the people of God.

Last week should have been a Passover post and the traditional Scripture reading for Passover is the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon. If you want to dig in to this traditional book, the Bible Project is a good place to start. Click on the picture below for a brief overview video of this book.

Also, next week is another double portion that will take us through Leviticus 12-15 along with the accompanying readings in the rest of the Scripture so you may also want to get a head start reading the text this week.

Shalom,

Thomas