Passover in the Christian tradition
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The Passover is significant in Christian theology because according to the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was the Passover meal eaten on the 15th of Nisan and Jesus was arrested that night and crucified the following afternoon (the Gospel of John puts the events a day earlier). While there is much debate among Christian theologians over whether Jesus’ Passion and crucifixion could have occurred on a Jewish Holy Day, traditionally the Last Supper has been viewed by the Christian church as the Passover Seder and, correspondingly, the institution of the Holy Eucharist — one of the two major sacraments in the Christian tradition — commemorated by Christians on Maundy Thursday.
The view of Jesus as a metaphorical lamb offering himself as a Passover sacrifice became a popular motif both in the New Testament, notably in the Gospel of John, and in later times. For instance, writing to a proto-Christian community in Corinth, Paul exhorts them to follow a higher ethical standard, calling on the community to "clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed" (First Corinthians 5:7, NRSV).
Both the sacrificial character of Jesus’ crucifixion and the institution of the Lord’s Supper has led to a traditional view of the Holy Eucharist as a Passover meal. During the liturgy, Christians recite the Agnus Dei and certain fraction sentences (for example, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast") at the breaking of the bread (the symbolic body of Christ). The Passover theme reaches its apogee during Holy Week and Easter. For example, the liturgy for the Great Vigil of Easter includes the Exsultet — an ancient hymn which contains the line "This is our passover feast, when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain, whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers." Another theme connecting the Christian Easter with the Passover is the Christian perception of the story of Jesus’s resurrection as liberation from slavery (that is, slavery to sin). The collects, liturgy for the renewal of Baptismal vows, and the Eucharistic Prayer, all include explicit references to both Jesus as the Passover lamb as well as to his resurrection accomplishing a metaphorical release from the bondage of slavery. In keeping with this, chapters 14 and 15 of the Book of Exodus frequently constitute one of the readings at the Great Vigil.
In Romance languages, the same word is used for Easter and Passover (a descendant of the Latin pascha, derived from pesach.)
