Jesus the Afikomen and the Promise of the Rapture

 

It is this time of year the followers of Jesus Christ celebrate His victory over Death and the Jews commemorate Passover. There is an ancient Jewish tradition associated with the Passover Feast of Unleavened Bread that is called the hiding of the afikomen.

 

Feast of Unleavened Bread & the Afikomen

 

Yeshua was in the sepulcher the day following His crucifixion, which was the fifteenth of Nisan, the first day of Unleavened Bread.

 

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is observed the day after Passover and is a seven-day festival to the Lord (Leviticus 23:6-7; Exodus 12:7-8,14-17). As Christianity emerged from Judaism, Jewish ideas taken up and developed by followers of Jesus were suppressed by Jewish authorities. Such was the case with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

 

One of these ideas or customs is practiced during the Passover Seder and involves 3 Matzahs which are wrapped up in a white linen napkin. In this ancient custom, the father of the household takes the middle matzah and breaks it in half.

 

The smaller half goes back in with the other 2 matzahs while the larger half (now called the afikomen) is placed in a separate linen and hidden somewhere dark in the house.

 

The children search for the afikomen and bring it to the father in exchange for a prize. Refusal to surrender the afikomen until a prize is agreed upon is called a “ransom”. And the prize is called “the Promise of the Father”.

 

Now the father breaks the afikomen into as many pieces as there are people gathered and each partakes in remembrance of the paschal lamb.

 

Does any of that custom remind you of Jesus?

 

The three matzahs represent the Godhead. The middle matzah that is broken represents Jesus, specifically the afikomen because Jesus gave His life as a “ransom for all” (see Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Tim 2:6; Rev. 5:9). His broken body was wrapped in linen (Matt. 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53; John 20:7) and hidden in a dark place.

 

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. - Hosea 13:14 KJV

 

14. Applying primarily to God's restoration of Israel from Assyria partially, and, in times yet future, fully from all the lands of their present long-continued dispersion, and political death (compare Hsa 6:2 Isa 25:8 26:19 Eze 37:12 ). God's power and grace are magnified in quickening what to the eye of flesh seems dead and hopeless ( Rom 4:17, 19 ). As Israel's history, past and future, has a representative character in relation to the Church, this verse is expressed in language alluding to Messiah's (who is the ideal Israel) grand victory over the grave and death, the first-fruits of His own resurrection, the full harvest to come at the general resurrection; hence the similarity between this verse and Paul's language as to the latter ( 1Cr 15:55 ). That similarity becomes more obvious by translating as the Septuagint, from which Paul plainly quotes; and as the same Hebrew word is translated in Hsa 13:10, "O death, where are thy plagues (paraphrased by the Septuagint, 'thy victory')? O grave, where is thy destruction (rendered by the Septuagint, 'thy sting')?" The question is that of one triumphing over a foe, once a cruel tyrant, but now robbed of all power to hurt. BLB Commentary

 

(Emphasis added by me. In an upcoming article I will address The Rapture as a Harvest.)

 

Now we remember Jesus as the Final Afikomen when we partake of the matzah piece!

Event Horizon--The Resurrection

The afikomen is returned to the father for a prize. Forty days later, the father gives the child his prize. Jesus 40 days after His resurrection gave the apostles a gift when he told them to “wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). Then when Pentecost had fully come, the Holy Spirit was given--the greatest prize of all!

 

The afikomen is hidden away after being publicly broken, which is reminiscent of Yeshua’s burial after His public death. Then the afikomen is found—which alludes to Yeshua’s resurrection and our Savior walking out of His tomb. Then the afikomen is given to all present as a symbol of God giving life to those who follow Him. As Yeshua said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6:35). Whatever its historical origins, the afikomen is a beautiful analogy for what Yeshua has done for us. Source

 

I learned of the afikomen custom from reading Tom Horn’s book The Messenger. His team found proof that this rare ancient word began before the time of Christ and refers to Jesus Christ as “The Coming One” or “the messiah who has come”.

 

Yet today the religious Jews explain away the reason for hiding the afikomen or broken matzah as a means of entertainment for the children (see Chabad.org and LearnReligions.com).

 

It seems the afikomen ritual was preserved but over time its meaning was perhaps deliberately distorted. (I’m sure this is the case. After all the religious leaders paid off the guards at Jesus’ tomb to report that His body was stolen not resurrected! See Matthew 28:1-15.)

 

The Afikomen and The Last Supper

 

At the last supper Jesus was telling His disciples that He fulfilled the afikomen and that it no longer had to be hidden or sought after. At this Passover meal Jesus broke the afikomen representing Himself bypassing the search because He was REVEALED!

 

Jesus made Himself known by the “breaking of bread”:

 

And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem [about] threescore furlongs.

And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

And it came to pass, that, while they communed [together] and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. - Luke 24:13-16 KJV

 

And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed [it], and brake, and gave to them.

And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,

Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.

 

And they told what things [were done] in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. Luke 24:28-35 KJV

 

All who heard this for the first time in our home on Resurrection Sunday in 2022 were moved with tears in their eyes—including me who had the honor of teaching it.

 

The Promise to the Bride

 

But I got to thinking--is the “Promise of the Father” a typology of the Promise given to us in John 14 when Jesus said, “I will come again for you”?

 

The building of the bridal chamber is the 8^th step in the ancient Hebrew marriage:

 

The bridegroom departed, going back to his father's house to prepare the bridal chamber.

At this point, the bridegroom leaves for his father's house to prepare the bridal chamber for his bride. . . Before he goes, though, he will make a statement to the bride. "I go to prepare a place for you; if I go, I will return again unto you." This is the same statement Yeshua made in John 14:1-3 before He went to His father's house in Heaven, as it is written:

 

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Fathers' house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:1-3).

 

According to the tradition of the afikomen—40 days after Jesus as the afikomen returned to the Father, Jesus appeared to the apostles and relayed the promise of the Gift when he told them to “wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4).

 

And, being assembled together with [them], commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, [saith he], ye have heard of me. - Acts 1:4 KJV

 

Then when Pentecost was fully come the Holy Spirit was given--the greatest prize of all for with it came the seal of eternal life!

 

Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. - 2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV

 

And since the Spirit is an “earnest in our hearts” or “token” are we to be redeemed on the same day but 2,000 years later—when Pentecost is fully come?

 

Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. - 2 Corinthians 5:5 KJV

Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. - Ephesians 1:14 KJV

 

Jesus as the Found Afikomen presented Himself to the Father resulting in the pouring out of the “ransom” or “The Promise of the Father”. So then are our crowns and rewards that are given to us soon after we are Raptured an extension of “The Promise of the Father” that came on Pentecost?

 

How Likely is a Pentecost Rapture?

 

Jesus and the Old Testament Saints were the Firstfruits Barley Offering—the first part of that harvest. So where does that put Those in Christ who are awaiting their “harvest” when the trumpet sounds? Pages 143-144 of The Messenger state:

 

The rabbis say that the dispensation of law began on Pentecost. . . Many Jews say that this, the first mention of a trumpet blast in Exodus, was regarded by the spiritual leaders of Israel as having occurred on Pentecost. . .

Furthermore, the trumpet was blown not by a human, but by a heavenly being. . . The next such trumpet should sound on the day of Rapture and resurrection, making the day of Pentecost an interesting possibility for that event. . . (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

 

The celebration of Pentecost is associated with the wheat harvest, but Jesus’ resurrection is tied to the barley harvest. I wanted to write about what I found regarding the Rapture as a harvest, but first desired to share the wonderful significance of Jesus the Passover Afikomen—our beautiful Savior who has ransomed us from death and the grave and will soon catch us away—perhaps this year.

 

Come! Lord Jesus Come!