If you ask any random person on the street about who usually celebrates the Passover feast, you’ll get a simple answer: Jews.
They’re not wrong. The Passover is a strictly Jewish memorial, designed to commemorate a time in Jewish history, when God personally delivered the Jews out of slavery. That’s the story from top to bottom.
But what if I told you that anyone in that day could celebrate the Passover if they really wanted to?
The Text in Exodus 12:43-49 is very exclusive. In fact, the very first sentence strictly says, “No foreigner is to eat of it.” Throughout those seven verses, several more mentions are made to the Passover being a Jews-only feast, stating that a sojourner or hired servant “shall not eat of it,” and that “no uncircumcised person” may eat it either.
You would think this is an open-and-shut case, were it not for the mountains of caveats inside those same verses. God actually gives an exception for sojourners, foreigners, and slaves (and presumably anyone else) to eat the Passover if they allow themself to be circumcised.
This is not a simple matter. Without going into details as to the process itself, circumcision is known to be both painful and permanent. It takes a commitment to allow yourself to be circumcised; only then are you allowed to take part in the Passover with the Jews.
A lot of sermons and blogs are devoted to Christ being our Passover, and for good reason. But relatively little is done as to the picture of circumcision itself, especially as it pertains to baptism—a connection Paul himself made in Colossians 2:11-12.
Even though Christians don’t undergo a physical mutilation of the flesh, baptism is a sign of the New Covenant. It’s a commitment to God (Acts 22:16) and a desire to join His people (Acts 2:41). Just as no person is able to eat the Passover unless they were willing to undergo circumcision, so baptism is the entry point for Christians, signifying a similar type of deliverance from spiritual slavery into spiritual freedom.
It would be hard to convince anyone who wasn’t already a Jew to want to undergo circumcision solely for the benefit of being a part of the Jewish community, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Serving God isn’t about half-measures, it’s about dedicating yourself to what He says and living your life according to His rules.
But not just so that you can wander around with the Jews in the desert, but so that you can take advantage of all the covenant promises as well. Grace, mercy, hope, salvation—it’s all there for someone—anyone—who is willing to fully dedicate themselves to God.
