Rabbi Pinchas Taylor, founder of The Ark, and Bishop William Byrne, of the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., told Newsmax Wednesday that Passover and Easter are both about freedom, albeit in different ways.
Taylor said that Passover, for Jews, is about marking the progression of the Jewish people from a state of bondage in Egypt to a state of freedom.
"Tonight and tomorrow night, Jews around the world are going to be celebrating, commemorating, and trying to re-experience the exodus from Egypt," he said. "We're going to be reenacting, reciting certain key Biblical verses and passages, and really trying to see ourselves as if tonight we ourselves were leaving Egypt and entering into a state of freedom."
The Old Testament story of Moses recounts how the Egyptian Pharaoh was ultimately persuaded to free the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt after God rained down 10 plagues on Egypt, culminating in the death of Pharaoh's firstborn son.
Byrne said that Catholics and Christians generally are entering into a very special next few days.
"We are making the transition to the three holiest days in Christendom, where we celebrate the Last Supper, and then the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, whom we say is the new Passover, the one who takes us from slavery to freedom," he said. "I always say, you might not have had a great Lent – finish strong. You've got three days. You can redeem the whole thing by making it a great last couple of days."
"Make Thursday and Friday very reflective," he continued. "Attend the religious services that will be at all your Catholic churches and many different Christian denominations. And then, of course, celebrate Easter with more than just bunnies and baskets, but really the gift of eternity, the gift of the freedom that only comes from God."
Byrne said that Easter is the fulfillment of the "rescue mission that God has for humanity."
"When we fell away, when we entered into our own selfishness and things like death and sin and hatred, and all the ugliness entered the world, God sends his only son to enter into that in the fullest of ways and then transform it from the inside out," he said. "Jesus takes all that hatred, all that ugliness, even death itself and nails it to a cross and then in a great coup, in a revolution, he transforms it by rising from the dead, by transforming death, by ending the gap between humanity and divinity, by being both God and man himself."