Passover Lecture

[Rebbe]

PASSOVER

In 1981 we launched this ministry as The Biblical Research Institute (BRI) and over the years held many spiritually profitable Bible Classes as well as participating in sermon/teaching opportunities that presented themselves in various churches and denominations over the course of our publishing work. By December 1994 we were known as The New Reformation Fellowship and out of this core of dedicated disciples of Messiah the International Messianic Community of Faith (IMCF) was finally born and granted expression. Our first official Yeshiva Orientation Ceremony was held on Shabbat 17 December 1994.

We have come a very long way since then. Our dedicated ministry has served God's people now for over 40 years. As we grow into all the truth, as Our Lord Yeshua promised in John 16.13, we have had to cast off wrong beliefs, erroneous traditions, and we have had to cultivate a spirit of progressive revelation as the Ruach of YeHoVah has led us into a DEEPER APPRECIATION of God's Self-identification with His Chosen People.

Students and brethren, there is only one place where we can intelligently celebrate our Redemption through the death of Yeshua the Messiah – and that is in the fullness of his resurrection life!

The Lord Yeshua rose from the dead, he walked away from an empty tomb, and he offers to lives his life through us by his Spirit. Christ living his life through us is called sanctification. When we are justified ALL our sins are wiped out completely. We are reconciled to God because nothing separates us from the Divine Consciousness. But God's life then enters us.

Our standing in Christ, won for us on the bloodied tree of Golgoleth, can never be revoked. And, as far as our sanctification is concerned it is irrevocable. Certainly we accord with the Word of God when it says that, “by a single offering he [Christ] has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10.14).

The day of redemption is to be remembered and celebrated in a land to be possessed.

It is written that in the Promised Land a father had certain instructions given by God.

“And you shall show your son in that day saying, This is done because of that which YeHoVaH did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt” (Exodus 13.8).

“It shall be for a sign unto you upon your hand” – the Passover is to represent that your redemption out of spiritual Egypt has changed the things you do – “it shall be for a memorial between your eyes” – it is to represent the fact that your redemption out of spiritual Egypt has changed the things you think. “That YeHoVaH's Torah may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand has YeHoVaH brought you out of Egypt” – it is to represent the fact that not only has your redemption out of spiritual Egypt changed the things you do and the things you think, but it has changed the things you say!

In other words it is to represent a complete, revolutionary change of character and conduct. That was to be the SIGNIFICANCE of the Passover.

The Passover is to be a day to be remembered in a land to be possessed – and only THERE do we have the legitimate right to celebrate the fact that the blood of Yeshua the Messiah was shed that we might have peace with God.

“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Yeshua on the night when he was betrayed took matzos, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drinking in an unworthy manner without discerning the Lord's body, eat and drink judgement against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world” (1 Corinthians 11.23-32).

Over the years I have shared with our students worldwide that the Jewish authorities haunted Christ's very footsteps, almost everywhere he went, insisting that he give them a credible sign that he was in fact what he claimed to be – the Messiah. And I, like many others, have stated publicly that he gave only one sign to prove that he was the anticipated Messiah – and that was the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matthew 12.38-40). Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for a period of three days and three nights and so also was the Messiah to be dead for the same time period according to Second Temple oral Messiah texts. (Incidentally, the especially prepared fish was very possibly a megalodon, thought to have become extinct 8 million years ago.) Some time back I realised that this special sign was given ONLY to the scribes and Pharisees – not to other Jews.

Indeed, as I have pointed out in other lectures, Yeshua gave the Sadducees a special sign as well when he raised Lazarus from the dead. As I wrote in lecture 21 of The Gospel of John series (1983, 2002, 2015):

If you turn with me to John 11.17-53 we read, “When Yeshua arrived, he found that El'azar had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Marta and Miriam to console them about their brother. When Marta heard that Yeshua was coming, she went and met him, while Miriam stayed at home. 

“Marta said to Yeshua, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.' Yeshua said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.' Marta said to him, 'I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.' Yeshua said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?' She said to him, 'Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.'” 

“When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Miriam, and told her privately, 'The Teacher is here and is calling for you.' And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Yeshua had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Marta had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Miriam get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Miriam came where Yeshua was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'” 

“When Yeshua saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he snorted like a horse in anger and he was violently angry. He said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Lord, come and see.' Yeshua began to weep. So the Jews said, 'See how he loved him!' But some of them said, 'Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?'” 

“Then Yeshua, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Yeshua said, 'Take away the stone.' Marta, the sister of the dead man, said to him, 'Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.' Yeshua said to her, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone.

“And Yeshua looked upwards and said, 'Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.' When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, 'El'azar, here, out!' The dead man rolled out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Yeshua said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.' Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Miriam and had seen what Yeshua did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.

“So the [Sadducean] chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, 'What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.' But one of them, Kayafa, who was [Sadducean] high priest that year, said to them, 'You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.' He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Yeshua was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned [orchestrated together] to put him to death.” 

“When I was quite young I read the religious stories about Lazarus and his physical resurrection from the dead at the command of Yeshua. But he was bound hand and foot with grave-clothes and wrapping. How did he walk so steadily out of the tomb? I also asked this question of ministers of different denominations and they always looked flustered in response.

“Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest in his Expanded Greek translation recognises the difficulty and so translates the passage, “He shouted with a great voice, Lazarus, here, out. There came out the dead man, bound securely as to his feet and his hands with swathing-bands. And his face was bound around with a handkerchief. Jesus says to them, Untie him at once and permit him to be departing...”

“Wuest mentions Lazarus “came out” but still “bound securely as to his feet” without stating how he actually exited the tomb.

“But if you look at my rendering of the text you will note that I have written: “He cried with a loud voice, 'El'azar, here! out!' The dead man rolled out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Yeshua said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.'” I base my version on Geddes MacGregor's assessment which makes a great deal of sense. Professor MacGregor writes:

“...they take away the boulder. Then Jesus, lifting up his eyes, prays, thanking God for already having listened to him. The implication is that what he has sought to happen has already occurred. Having finished his short prayer, he then says in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, here! Come out!' And Lazarus, who has been partly bandaged according to custom, 'comes out,' which probably means that he rolls out, since the bandages would inhibit movement. Jesus then orders that the bandages be taken off to set Lazarus free” (Geddes MacGregor, The Gospels as a Mandala of Wisdom, 1982, 139). 

“A restored history of the middle-to-late Second Temple Period – the story of the period dominated by the Fifth Procuratorship of Judaea (a short time covered by the rule of Pontius Pilatus, the representative in Jerusalem of the Imperial Pax Romana) -- is beginning to reveal what I as a Messianic Rebbe have been teaching now for over 40 years...: the vast majority of Jews and the Jewish authorities of Our Lord Yeshua's time not only accepted him as their Messiah but for that very reason intentionally precipitated his death. At first glance this may seem to be contradictory to everything we have been taught, but a close reading of Jewish and Christian (Messianic Jewish) Scripture suggests otherwise...

“The emissary Yochanan in his Gospel (Jn 11.46-53) indicates that both the Prushim (Pharisees) AND [Sadducean] High Priests ultimately accepted Mashiach when they became convinced that he embodied the Resurrection, and acting on a Jewish Oral Scripture that the Messiah must “die for the people” (e.g., Zohar 5.218a), they instructed their followers to call for his death and thereby inaugurate the expected Messianic Millennial Kingdom.

“Because Gentile Christians fail to understand Jewish thoughtform they find it difficult to explain how the tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered for the Pesach cried out “Osanna!” one day and “Crucify him!” a week later (Jn 12.13, 19.15).

“Luke, the student and physician of Rav Shaul (Paul), informs us that the common population teemed to Yeshua... the first 5,000 Christians were Jews (Ac 4.4). Then there was the requirement that Gentiles had to convert to Judaism before they could join the Jerusalem Church of Kefa (Peter) and Yaakov (James) (Ac 15.1) Even some of the “painted Pharisees” (Peter Graves, Nazarene Gospel Restored) acknowledged the Mashiach, albeit grudgingly. It is little realised by most Jews and Christians that it has been estimated that by the end of the first century more than a million Jews had accepted and acknowledged Yeshua as their Messiah.

“Nakdimon (known to Christians today as Nicodemus), a prime leader of the Sanhedrin, hailed Yeshua as “a teacher who comes from God” (Jn 3.1-2). Rav Gam'liel, Rav Shaul's teacher, declared, “If [the Messianic Movement] comes from God you [the Sanhedrin] will not only be unable to destroy [it], but you might find yourselves fighting against God” (Ac 5.34-39). 

“There can be little doubt that he understood what most Christians (including Catholics) fail to grasp – the subjecting Sovereignty of God in His plan and purpose for humankind. The Sanhedrin concluded “It is obvious to everybody in Jerusalem that a miracle... has been worked through [Mashiach's disciples] in public and we cannot deny it” (Ac 4.16). 

“Then there is Midrash evidence: “The son of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi had a choking fit. He [Rabbi Joshua] went and brought one of the followers of [Yeshua] to relieve his son's choking” (Midrash Rabbah, Ecclesiastes 10.4.1). Rav Menachim of Speyer noted, “A Christian may be permitted to heal a Jew even if he invokes the aid of Jesus and the Saints.” Even Maimonides wrote, “Ultimately, all the deeds of Jesus of Nazareth... will only serve to prepare the way for the Messiah's coming and the improvement of the entire world” (Mishnah Torah: Hilchot Melachim U'Milchamoteihem 11.4).

“These non-hostile pro-Yeshua evidences have been pointed out by a number of rabbinic scholars, as well as scholars despised by both Jews and Christians alike... [many have] suffered ridicule and shouldered suspicion over the years, yet... research on this matter of a Sanhedrin actively engaged in promoting the goal and aims of Yeshua in fulfilling his Messianic destiny must one day be not only “heard” but given the acknowledgement... rightly deserved).” [End quote] 

Why did many Jews of high standing agree with the death of Yeshua on the Passover? Yeshua had many friends in high places which is testified by the Gospels, especially the Gospel of John. In his trial in front of the Sadducean High Priesthood, none of his compatriots came forward on his behalf. 

They failed to come forward, as I have insisted for years, not out of fear of the Sanhedrin, but in order to assist him in the fulfilment of his Messianic destiny. This is the sequence of these highly-significant events: FIRST, Our Lord Yeshua announces he is the Messiah (Jn 10.25); SECOND, he also calls himself 'the resurrection' (Jn 11.25); and THIRD, the entirety of the Sanhedrin elders decide to kill him (Jn 11.45). 

The decision of the Jewish elders to “kill” Yeshua took place not out of hostility, but as an effort to fulfil the Jewish prophecy that the Messiah must “die for the people.” And when did this plan to finally kill Yeshua formulate? The answer to this question throws more light on this astonishing historical event. 

Yeshua purposely chose Hanukkah (or “Feast of Lights” and “Festival of Dedication”) to announce to the Jewish people that he was the “Son of God” (Jn 10.22) – this is a festival that invariably occurs on the 25th day of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar and which date has a major significance in a prophetic way in relation to the laying of the corner stone of the future Temple of God. Whatever the case in relation to the prophetic outcome and spiritual significance of the Festival of Lights, the rabbis noted that the 25th word of Genesis in the Masoretic text is Oyer, or “Light” (Bereshit 1.3). While it remains true that the festival of Hanukkah commemorates an event that took place regarding the Menorah, after the Maccabees cleansed the desecrated Temple and rededicated it to the God of Israel, a non-biblical tradition located in the Talmud insists that a small container of oil was found which had not been defiled by the Hellenists and there was enough oil in it to light the Temple menorah – enough to last only a day. However, a miraculous event occurred in which the Menorah stayed alight for a full 8 days! The numeral eight incidentally speaks of the coming Mashiach. EIGHT IS THE NUMBER OF YESHUA!

Thus (as a rabbi explains) the spiritual meaning of these temporal events is that the light of God could not be extinguished by the forces of darkness. This corresponds to the opening passage of John's Gospel: “All that came to be had life in him, and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower” (Jn 1.4,5). This event sets the stage for those to follow.

After Yeshua announced that he was the “Son of God,” he went to the home of Miriam and Marta in Beit-Anyah. There he proclaimed the next stage of his vocation: “I am the resurrection... If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live” (Jn 11.25). Then, as if to prove this bold assertion, he raises El'azar from the dead (Jn 11.43-44).

Now, the doctrine of the Resurrection polarised the two main schools of the existing Judaisms of the Second Temple Period: the Pharisees (the P'rushim whom all biblical students realise believed in it) and that of the Sadducees (the Tzadukim who did not accept the stand on the immortality of humankind). The Synoptic Gospels record the incident in which the Tzadukim challenged Yeshua to take a stand on the issue (Mt 22.23, Mk 12.18, Lk 10.27). “This was an attempt,” writes a noted rabbinic authority, “to ferret out his political leanings more than an enquiry into” his quaint religious beliefs. If he came down against it, notes the Reb, he was a Tzadukim; if in favour of it, a P'rushim. As usual, the Lord Yeshua “evaded their attempts to pin him down.”

He says, “God is God, not of the dead but of the living,” which seems to beg the question (Mt 22.32). Only after he announces that he is the Son of God does he take an unequivocal stand: not only are the Tzadukim wrong about the Resurrection but he, Mashiach Yeshua, is its living embodiment, as proven by his raising of El'azar from the dead. Strange as it may seem, this aligned him with the very P'rushim whom he elsewhere appears to have condemned for their heightened hypocrisy. 

After seeing Yeshua raise El'azar, some of Miriam and Marta's guests “went to tell the Pharisees what he had done,” and as a result “the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting” (Jn 11.45). This meeting was most important. It is integral to an understanding that the Jews of his time called for Yeshua's death not out of hostility and rejection (as we all have been told for 2000 years by a carnal church hostile to the real Mashiach's Lordship and the Jewish race in particular), but out of a recognition of his Messianic role and an attempt to precipitate it.

Two things are noteworthy in these events. ONE, that the informants ran to the P'rushim, rather than the Tzadukim; and TWO, that the chief priests, who were presumably Sadducees themselves, would have accepted an invitation from their supposed enemies to decide the fate of Yeshua. Something of compelling significance must have drawn these arch enemies into collaborating with each other – something more than merely putting down one of the many (and not particularly different) messianic movements taking place in Palestine at the time. Whatever the case, a remarkable meeting ensues, as described by John: 

“Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. 'HERE IS THIS MAN WORKING ALL THESE SIGNS,' they said, 'and what action are we taking? If we let him go on this way everybody will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy the Holy Place and our nation.' One of them, Kayafa, the high priest that year, said, 'You don't seem to have grasped the situation at all: YOU FAIL TO SEE THAT IT IS BETTER FOR ONE MAN TO DIE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE THAN FOR THE WHOLE NATION TO BE DESTROYED.' He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest he made this prophecy that Yeshua was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were determined to kill him" (Jn 11.47-53).

Read it again: the high priest, and all the Jewish leaders assembled with him, agreed that Yeshua must die not only for the salvation of Israel, but “to gather together in unity the scattered children of God” – in other words, to fulfil the Messianic commission. It is for this reason – to actualise the Jewish prophecy that the Messiah must “die for the people” and “gather the scattered children of God” – that the Jewish leaders determined to “kill” him, and not, as we have been told by two thousand years of distorted Gentile-Christian history, because they and the Jews whom they led “despised” and “rejected” him.

Kayafa (Caiaphas) speaking as a prophet proclaims that Yeshua must be executed, not as a punishment for claiming to be the Messiah but, on the contrary, in order to fulfill his Messianic destiny: “Yeshua,” he says, “must die for the nation [of Israel]... and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God.” Kayafa is calling on the authority of Jewish Oral Scripture. The first part of his prophecy that “Yeshua [must] die for the nation” parallels the Jewish, pre-Christian Oral Scripture: “When God desires to give healing to the world He smites one righteous man among them... and through him gives healing to all... A righteous man is never afflicted save to bring healing to his generation and to make atonement for it” (Zohar 5.218a).

This Atoning Messiah of Judaism not only “dies for the people,” but also rises from the dead after three days – as shown in another Jewish Oral Scripture that states: “(The) Messiah [ben Joseph] will... be slain and lay in the streets for three days. Then... the prophet Elijah will go and revive [him]... And in the hour when the Tribes of Israel will come forth, Clouds of Glory will go before them. And the Holy One, blessed be He, will open for them the sources of the Tree of Life, and will give them to drink on that day” (Otot Ha-Mashiach).

Clearly, this pre-Christian, Judaic doctrine anticipates Christ's alleged prediction throughout the Gospels that on the “third day” He would “rise again.”

The second part of Kayafa's prophecy – “and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God” – refers to another Jewish Oral Scripture: “And then the Community of Israel communes with the Holy One, blessed be He, and that hour is a time of Grace for all, and the King [Messiah] holds out to [Israel], and all who are with her, his scepter of the thread of Grace so that they all may be wholly united to the Holy King” (Zohar 5.45a). Furthermore, a Mishnah by Maimonides states, “If a king will arise from the House of David [who]... gathers the dispersed of Israel [as Kayafa believes Yeshua could do], he is definitely the Messiah” (Mishnah Torah: Hilchot Melachim U'Milchamoteihem 4.11).

Thus, by alluding to these two commonly held doctrines, Kayafa prevails, and the assembled Jewish leaders finally “grasp the situation.”

Recall that the Jewish religious leaders had the responsibility to “dog” the steps of any Jew who proclaimed himself to be the Messiah and to take note of any “signs” he may provide as evidence of his calling. This is the reason why Yeshua was asked repeatedly to give a “sign” by representatives of the Sanhedrin.

With the awesome resurrection of El'azar from Sheol the second conclusive “sign” was made available to them. Yeshua was fulfilling the “signs of the Messiah” and, therefore, according to Jewish Oral Scripture, he must enter the next stage of the scenario, which is to “die for the people” in order to “make atonement for his generation” and “unite the scattered children of God.” Consequently, they determine to “kill” him, not as a punishment for his claims, but to catalyse his Messianic vocation. 

New light is now thrown on why the Jewish “mob” demanded Mashiach's crucifixion (Mt 27.11, Mk 15.1, Lk 23.13, Jn 19.1). Viewed from the perspective of Kayafa's prophecy, and the Jewish Oral Scriptures that prompted it, their assertion “his blood be on us and our children” (Mt 27.25) can now be taken to mean, as Rav Shaul later wrote, “Through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins” (Eph 1.1-7).

Contrary to current popular belief, according to the Gospels themselves thousands of religious Jews flocked to Yeshua during his lifetime and even before Paul brought his message to the Gentiles. This strongly suggests that there was no contradiction in their minds between the “Orthodox” Judaisms of the day and Yeshua's teachings. In fact, we're told, the early Messianic Movement “went as a body to the Temple every day” (Ac 2.46).

Moreover, the Jews who cried “Crucify him!” and “Let his blood be on us!” did so because they believed, as their Oral Scriptures had told them, that his sacrificial death would free them from sin and initiate the Messianic Era – a belief that would later become the cornerstone of Gentile Pauline Christology.

As long as the cry “Crucify him!” is articulated as a cry for Yeshua's blood precisely because those who so cried wanted him dead in their rejection of his Messiahship – as long as this crude misunderstanding is allowed to perpetuate itself – so anti-Semitism will be the cross that all Jews living in a Christianised society will be forced to bear.

Its high time the positive cry “Crucify him!” is propounded to overthrow the perpetuation of a darkened religious ignorance which must finally give way to God's loving penetrative powerful Light of Life.

But wait! While Christ gave a SIGN to the scribes and Pharisees, and a second SIGN to the Sadducees with the raising of Lazarus from the dead, there was yet a THIRD SIGN – a largely lost or overlooked sign – that was actually given at the crucifixion itself – to any and ALL (yes, even to pagan Roman soldiers) and those who had gathered to laugh and scoff and to further torture the writhing Messianic Pretender (I use that term in its original intended meaning) because they actually hated him (as some did!) in their disbelief that he was who he claimed to be.

It is a fact of the Second Temple period that there were many Jews who could memorise entire sacred scrolls. Many of them could repeat (for instance) ENTIRE Psalms (and other texts) by rote. Jews could commit to memory the psalms and the first opening line would immediately be recognised for its entire contents. 

Jewish religious authorities have a name for this phenomenon.

It's called remez. Basically, it means “hint.”

The teachers of Yeshua's period (and Our Lord himself) made useful opportunity by utilising remez succinctly. By quoting a single text or small section of a text hearers of parables and discourses would mentally access in their minds the surrounding data contained, for instance, in a partial quote from the Psalms. In the Gospels we find Yeshua using remez to not only save time but also to attack his enemies. As a great example of this technique consider what Matthew records about one specific incident.

“The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he accomplished, and the children crying out in the Temple, and saying, 'Osanna to the Son of David!' they were hostile and confronted him. 'Do you hear what they are saying?' And Yeshua replied, 'Have you never read, 'Our of the mouths of babes and nursing infants, You have perfected praise'? Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and he lodged there” (Matthew 21.14-17).

Yeshua quotes in a limited way from Psalm 8.2 as he walks away, and the Sadducean priests fill in the rest of the text... “to confound your enemies, to silence malicious and revengeful tongues teaching your foes a lesson.”

We find this approach again in Luke's account of Yeshua speaking to Zacchaeus. With his enormous intellectual grasp of the prophets, Yeshua borrows from the message of Ezekiel 34. This passage declares that Yehovah is angry with Israel's political and religious authorities for scattering God's flock and that He as the Shepherd of the Chosen People would actively seek and save them. I won't repeat the Zacchaeus incident but in your own time reflect on the entire passage of Luke 19.1-10. In response to the arrogance of the religious authorities who were in the vicinity of Yeshua's communication with little collector of Roman custom, Yeshua stated (quoting from Ezekiel) “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk 19.10). Everyone would have known that with these statements the Lord Yeshua was emphatically announcing to all who could hear, that HE WAS MESSIAH AND YEHOVAH GOD IN HUMAN FORM.

And now, finally, when Yeshua has been rapidly tried in illegal courts, tortured and scourged by Roman thugs with the Governor's compliance, and now nailed ruthlessly to the branches of a tree in an orchard along with criminal revolutionaries, a dying Yeshua cries aloud the very opening statement of Psalm 22.

“Eli! Eli! L'ma sh'vaktani?” (Mt 27.46) – “My God! My God! Why have you deserted me?” Matthew records this agonising cry in Hebrew.

Mark also records these terrible cries but he does so in Aramaic. “Eloi! Eloi! L'ma sh'vaktani?” (Mk 15.34).

What is this he is doing? He is giving humanity THE THIRD SIGN identifying himself as the expected, anticipated, awaited, and hoped-for Messiah. The Jews surrounding the tree would have been quite cognisant of Psalm 22 and Our Lord is using remez to make his point. Immediately, those who heard would have had a flow of verses running through their minds – and would have been seeing those words coming to life before their very eyes!

NOTE: The insults and disgusting comments from the mocking crowd:  “But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see me ridicule me; They show contempt with their mouth, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in YeHoVaH, let Him rescue him; Let Him deliver him, since He delights in him!” (Psalm 22.6-8). 

NOTE: His dying thirst. “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; It has melted within my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death” (vvs. 14,15). 

NOTE: Roman “dogs” – those who had abused him – pierced his hands and feet. “For dogs have surrounded me; the assembled wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet” (vs.16).

NOTE: The visual appearance of Yeshua's torn body as a consequence of the stoning that took place as he hung on the tree was apparent to all. “I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me” (vs. 17).

NOTE: They were witnesses who watched the Romans cast lots for the clothing Yeshua wore. “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (vs. 18).

Step by step, Yeshua's agony PERFECTLY MATCHED that ancient description of the One who hung on the tree in Psalm 22. It was anciently recognised by the Jewish rabbinic authorities that this was a Messianic Psalm. Indeed it was, and IS. A number of rabbis down through the ages have become converts to Yeshua as Mashiach from what they have read for themselves in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. Some of those who watched him in his paroxysms of agony and well knew the contents of Psalm 22 would have had, with little doubt, a restless and sleepless night.

Yeshua's FINAL great teaching, shared with the masses who gathered to watch the sentence of death being carried out by the Roman Pax Romana on that fateful Passover day in 30 CE – launched by a simple and profound remez as the Saviour hung dying in agony for YOU and for ME and for THE WHOLE WORLD was the largely overlooked THIRD sign and absolute PROOF of WHO Yeshua claimed to be and really was. A text authored a thousand years before the birth of Christ was being re-envisaged for all the world to witness.

So how does Psalm 22 conclude? With vindication for Yeshua – despite the murder most foul that took place at Golgoleth 2000 years ago.
 
“You have answered me.

“I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. You who fear YeHoVaH, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,and fear Him, all you offspring of Israel! For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; but when he cried to Him, He heard. My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay my vows before those who fear Him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise YeHoVaH. Let your heart live forever! All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to YeHoVaH, and all the families of the Gentiles shall worship before My Only One. For the kingdom is YeHoVaH's, And He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who cannot keep himself alive. A posterity shall serve him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this” (Psalm 22.21-31).

The Passover is now upon us and the years are rapidly passing away before our very eyes. Many carnal-minded people have commented to the Rebbetzin and myself in recent days that they do not know where the year and the YEARS – have gone. The countdown for the end of the age is evidently occurring as we speak. It is even acknowledged by the heathen in the world in which we live.

May the Shalom of God embrace each of us as we partake of the emblems of Mashiach's broken body and his shed blood this year for each of us.

And may we all be richly blessed by all that Messiah has accomplished for us on our behalf.

In sincerity and love,
Rebbe