Season of Redemption

There are four Jewish feast days Moses gave to the children of Israel as found in the book of Leviticus which take place during the spring. These holy days are the Passover (Pesach), the feast of unleavened bread, the day of firstfruits, and Pentecost (holy Shavu'ot). These are the holy days Christ fulfilled during his last days on earth before He was crucified. This time is known as the Season of Redemption.

The Season of Redemption began with the preparation for Passover before the Exodus when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt.

God tells the Hebrew people that they are to keep the month they were given freedom from Egyptian rule as the first month (Nisan). On the tenth day of this first month each family was to choose a lamb. The family was to care for this lamb and love it as if it were one of their own. The families of Israel of every generation following this event were to celebrate the event every year on the same day (Ex. 12:14).

The lamb chosen on the tenth day was to be the Passover lamb sacrificed "in the evening" on the fourteenth, the first of the spring holy days (Ex. 12:6-11) For this reason, it announces the other four. It reached its fulfillment in Christ when Jesus on this same day rode to Jerusalem on a donkey, accepted and loved by the people of Israel. Because this day took place on a Sunday and because of the palm branches that were thrown in the street in Jesus' honor as He entered Jerusalem on a donkey (Matthew 21:1-11), it is called Palm Sunday. It is celebrated in Jesus as the "chosen" Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb that would bring humanity salvation (1 Cor. 5:7).

As the Passover lamb had to be "without blemish" (Ex. 12:5), so also was the Messiah "without blemish" (1 Peter 1:19). This speaks of the Messiah's purity and sinlessness.

Jesus tells his apostles that the unleavened bread, in honor of His body, and the wine, in honor of His blood shed for sin, was to be kept in honor of Him. In this, He represented the Passover Lamb who would take away the sins of the world. (John 1:29, 1 Corinthians 5:7)

Both Exodus and Leviticus discuss the Passover. In Exodus quoted above, we read about the first Passover in detail, why it came to be a holy day, and its reference to the night of the Israeli redemption from slavery. Leviticus gives the Passover as a yearly celebration with the other holy days.

This feast day is to be kept as a reminder of the first Passover (described in Exodus 12). It is sometimes referred to as the first day of the feast of unleavened bread since on its celebration no leaven is to be eaten (Matt. 26:17).

As previously mentioned, the Passover represents Jesus, both His body and blood given as a sacrifice for all, as the Passover lamb.

If every Passover from the time of the Exodus Passover is celebrated on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the first month in the ecclesiastical year of the Jewish calendar (as specified in v. 5) with the tenth as the day the Passover lamb is chosen and Palm Sunday, the tenth, was on a Sunday, then Passover four days later would have taken place on a Thursday. Because a Jewish day is from sunset to sunset (evening to evening) (Lev. 23:32), it would have began on Wednesday night. The night of the Last Supper, then, when Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples, would have been a Wednesday night.

The feast of unleavened bread takes place on the fifteenth (v. 6). It begins the fourteenth at evening. Note that the first day of this feast was to follow the initial Passover feast and Passover day on the fourteenth. The feast of unleavened bread is also called the Passover week since it follows Passover and is kept for one week (the same length of time as the creation week).

As on Passover day, on the feast of unleavened bread only unleavened bread was to be eaten. Both the first and the last days (fifteenth and twenty-first; also read Ex. 12:15,18) were sanctified as Sabbatical, or in other words, dedicated particularly to God's service (v. 7-8). These two days were to be kept holy to God. Like the weekly Sabbath day, no work was to be performed on these days.

The feast of unleavened bread becomes prophetically fulfilled when Jesus died after being crucified on the cross for the sins of the world (Matt. 27:35-50). Since the leaven of bread is symbolic of sin (Matt. 16:5-12, 1 Cor. 5:7-8), the unleavened bread represents the removal of sin. In fulfilling this feast, Jesus units us again to our Heavenly Father by removing our sin.

Jesus was crucified on Passover day, Thursday, and He was laid to rest in a tomb as the day began towards evening (Luke 23:44-46) on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread (Thursday evening, which began on a Friday according to a Jewish day).

Preparation day (Luke 23:54) begins the day before Sabbath and other high Sabbath days, holy days where Scripture specifies that like the regular Sabbath day there was to be no work performed on that day. An example of a high sabbath day is the first day of the feast of unleavened bread (

Lev. 23:7). If the high Sabbath for the feast of unleavened bread was on Friday, then Thursday was preparation day for this Sabbath. Since the first day of the feast of unleavened bread (a high Sabbath) is the fifteenth, then the preparation day for it would have been on the fourteenth (passover) (Matt. 27:62, John 19:3). The preparation day is utilized to make sure all work is finished and no work is performed on a Sabbath.

Because the first day of the feast of unleavened bread took place from Thursday evening to Friday evening during the year Jesus was crucified, this means there were two Sabbaths together: a high Sabbath followed by a regular Sabbath. As such, both Friday and the regular Sabbath day following Friday (Saturday) would have been kept as Sabbath. Jesus fulfilled these two Sabbath days when He "rested" in a tomb (His death) in order to give man rest from sin (Hebrews 4:3).

[Note in Mark 16:2 and John19:31, the Greek translation is "Sabbaths" (plural) (Sabbaton: Sabbaths) (Strong 4521), meaning more than one, showing there were indeed two Sabbaths that year].

Approximate dating of Passover year of Jesus' crucifixion can be found by finding the reign of Tiberius. According to the book of Luke, Jesus was baptized in the "fifteenth year of the reign of King Tiberius" (Luke 3:1,21-22) which took place in A.D. 27 (Doig) when Jesus was 30 years of age (Luke 3:23). There were three Passovers that Jesus attended during His ministry, including the final Passover (John 2:23, 6:4, 12:1). This means His crucifixion would have occurred between A.D. 30 and 31 of the Julian calendar when He was 33 years of age.

A closer Passover dating can be obtained through examination of moon phases by referencing the date of the new moon for the spring solstice which begins the first day of the month during the time of Jesus' crucifixion (Spring Phenomena). Since the Passover was on the fourteenth day of this month, these days need to be added to obtain the Passover date (Reckart). The dating places Jesus' crucifixion in the year A.D. 30.

In A.D. 30, the new moon phase began on a Wednesday evening in Israel (Julian calendar) for a Thursday (beginning Wednesday evening Jewish day) Passover.

The firstfruits was the feast celebrated the Sunday following the regular Sabbath day which came after Passover. The people of Israel were to bring an offering to God from their firstfruits or first of their harvest.

They were not to eat the food of the land until they gave an offering because doing so proved their devotion to God before themselves.

This feast day known as Pentecost (holy Shavu'ot) was a high Sabbath and was to be celebrated forty-nine days after the festival of the Firstfruits. Counting the day of firstfruits, this was fifty days, therefore the name Pentecost.

As the Jewish Shavuo'ot was celebrated 49 days after the day of firstfruits, so was the Pentecost event 49 days after the resurrection of the Messiah (Acts 2). Its prophetic fulfillment began the Church Age.

This day represents "a new meat offering unto the Lord" which prophecied the New Covenant or New Testament giving the blood of Christ "shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28).

With the beginning of the Church on the day of Pentecost came the beginning of forgiveness of sin and, because of this, the opportunity for salvation for all mankind.

This time was based on the Roman nightwatches as used in first century Rome, which was also used by the Jews at that time. The cockcrow, as it was called, signaled the third watch.

The cock crow was the sound of a trumpet (not a rooster). According to the nightwatches, the first cockcrow was at 3 AM. A Jewish tradition at the time of Christ was a cockcrow or the blowing of a trumpet at sunrise on a holy day or feast. This means the second cock crow happened at sunrise on the final nightwatch. For this occasion, it would have happened on the sunrise of Passover day. (Remember that Passover began the previous evening.) It was this cock crow which was quoted in Matthew, Luke, and John (Matt. 26:34, Luke 22:34,John 13:38).

Notice that it says "straightway" or straight after this "cock crow" it was "in the morning" which shows that this event took place at sunrise. Since it was at sunrise that the chief priests held the consultation, it is likely that Jesus was captured at the garden (Matthew 26:46-57) approximately the time of the first cockcrow (3 AM), then interrogated and beaten (Mark 14:62-65) before being taken to Pilate at sunrise.

As John wrote his letter with the intent of it being read to those who were gentile, he was quoting Roman time, which was from midnight to midnight. This time at 6:00 AM would have been approximately at sunrise or shortly after, coinciding with the time given in Mark 15:1.

Whereas John wrote to a gentile audience, Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience who kept Jewish time according to when sacrifices were offered. Matthew records that Jesus died "about the ninth hour" going into Thursday evening, which began the feast of unleavened bread.

("heart" from Greek kardia: the heart, the thoughts or feelings (the mind), brokenhearted) (Strong 2588) ("earth" from Greek ge: earthly, ground, world") (Strong 1093).

It was this time, sunrise Thursday morning to just before sunrise the Sunday morning of His resurrection, that Jesus was "in the heart of the earth."

Jesus was "in the heart of the earth" when he was turned over to the gentiles because at this point He became separated from God ("cast out of thy sight") for our sins (Jonah 2:4).

The Kingdom of God was being fulfilled when Jesus was here on this earth, and it was finalized 49 days after His resurrection on Pentecost (Shavu'ot).

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