Passover as a way to understand Good Friday

There are many links between Passover and Good Friday. The lambs that were slain every year at Passover (when Israel remembered: not at all often in the 500 years when Kings ruled over Israel - maybe about ten times in that period!) were a pointer back to the great salvation achieved in Exodus and a pointer forward to the far better salvation when the true Passover Lamb, God's own Lamb, was slain for many to go free. Likewise the death of Jesus was full of things that would make Jewish readers think back to the Passover, in order to help them understand what went on.

Firstly, Passover:

God wanted to redeem a people from slavery (Ex 3:9, 20:1) so they could worship him. (Ex 5:3)
So he sent judgement on the slave-master, Egypt. (Ex 11)
This judgement was deserved by the people whom God was saving, the Israelites. (Ex 13:11-15)
So God told them to kill a lamb in the place of those who should die as judgement from God. (Ex 12:6)
God's judgement 'passes over' those places which the door is covered by lamb's blood. (Ex 12:23)
This brings the nations to worship God (Ex 12:38)

And the Good Friday parallels:

Christ died on the day of the Passover (Jewish days are sunset-sunset, the Passover was eaten the evening before, and the day afterwards was the Sabbath, which followed Passover). (Luke 22:7)
God wanted to redeem a people from slavery so they could worship him. (Rom 6:17-18)
So he sent judgement on the slave-master, sin. (Rom 8:3)
This judgement was deserved by the people whom God was saving, the Christians. (Rom 5:8)
So God killed the Lamb in the place of those who should die as judgement from God. (1Cor 5:7, Mark 10:45, Rev 5:9)
God's judgement 'passes over' those people who are washed in the Lamb's blood. (Rev 7:14, Rev 12:11)
This brings the nations to worship God (Rev 7:9-10, Acts 11:18, Eph 2:11-13)

He Sat Down! Jesus as Great High Priest.

This is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He doesn't need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all when He offered Himself. (Hebrews 7:26-27)

He entered the holy of holies once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:12)

This man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. (Hebrews 10:12-13)

Now the main point of what is being said is this: we have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up, and not man. (Hebrews 8:1-2)

Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession.(Hebrews 4:14)

Since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.(Hebrews 12:1-2)

Jesus is sitting there waiting - the sacrifice is over - "It is finished!" (John 19:30). No more needs to be done! Let us hold on, let us look at the large cloud of witnesses to this (Hebrews 11 for some examples), let us throw off burdens and the sin that traps us. Let us run to the end, with endurance, safe in the knowledge that he who endured a cross is now sitting at the right hand of God.