Are we required to eat a lamb on Passover?

READER QUESTION:

I have a question on the Passover lamb and its been troubling me for a while.  Are we required to eat lamb on Passover?

I see it’s one of the seven feast days and 4 of them have been fulfilled. Maybe eat lamb in celebration of messiah in remembrance of him on that day?  Or do we acknowledge that he is our passover lamb and remember what he has done for us by breaking bread together?

OUR RESPONSE:

Thanks for the question.

Nothing says we must eat a lamb for Passover.  They did, of course, in the first Passover (Exodus 12), because raising, killing and eating the lamb was all part of the ritual that led to spreading the lambs' blood on the doorposts, which in turn saved the Hebrews. 

Y'shua's divine blood was spilled 2,000 years ago, covering all our past sins. Therefore, today,  nobody is required to actually kill an animal for Passover, or to spread its blood on our doorposts, as that would negate our belief in what Y'shua did by martyring himself to redeem us.  As you mentioned in your last sentence, "we acknowledge that he is our Passover lamb and remember what he has done for us by breaking bread together."