I originally posted this two years ago at my own blog, and as we are sharing reflections for Holy Week, I thought it would be fun to share the experience with all of you.
Tonight at church we did a Passover Seder in place of our normal Bible study on Thursday night. I have participated in a seder before, but this night was special. We are hosting the community Good Friday service tomorrow night to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus and tonight we played the parts of his disciples as they gathered the night before he was to die. I told our people that I make a pretty poor substitute for Jesus, but it was my responsibility to lead the meal.
For those who have never seen, or better yet experienced, a Passover Seder, it is an eye opening event. I can’t do justice to the night’s festivities with any description, but I will share that there were several moments that were so powerful and meaningful to me. The first came when it was time to take out the matzah that represents the afikomen. I had the three pieces in a linen cloth and took them out. The matzah is unleavened bread and in the three pieces we see the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in unity; the trinity of God in one. The middle piece is removed and broken in half, and to quote from the haggadah:
Just as the middle piece of the bread of the affliction is broken, Messiah, too, was afflicted and broken. One half is now called the afikomen – “the coming one.” It is wrapped in a white cloth just as Messiah’s body was wrapped for burial.
The matzah is pierced and striped and the comparison to Jesus Christ and the death He would die is hard to miss. He was pierced for us and His back bore the stripes of punishment.
As I wrapped that cloth and prepared to hide it away (even as I type this now), I was nearly overcome with emotion in remembrance of the sacrifice that Christ had made for us. That night, as He celebrated this meal with His disciples, He was acting out what was about to happen to him. He knew what was coming. He knew better than anyone there why they did this every year. This was His body that He wrapped in linen and hid away. As I said the blessing in Hebrew at that point in the meal, I swear to you that I could feel the Lord’s presence with us in the room. I felt as if I was in that upper room that night.
After the eating of the meal, we came to the time to find the afikomen. My kids scrambled around the room to find the hidden piece of broken matzah wrapped in linen. This piece of matzah symbolizes the Passover Lamb, and is seen as such even today Hebrew teaching. As I passed it down the table for everyone to take a piece to eat and read the blessing again in Hebrew, I was overcome again by emotion. As I read from the Scripture, that Jesus at this point of the meal said to his disciples, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” It was another moment, pulled out of time. We were participating in His death and even more so in His time.
This is immediately followed in the meal by the cup of Redemption, which is of course, no accident. God deliberately designed this for all time. His people had demonstrated the plan of salvation every year for 1500 years give or take, until Jesus arrived on the scene and brought it to pass. This cup symbolizes the “blood of the Passover lamb” and it was this cup that Jesus held up and blessed when He said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Again, as I pronounced the blessing in Hebrew, I felt another moment out of time. We were a part of the supper with Messiah and the disciples. What a mighty God we serve, who laid His plan out in plain sight for all who have eyes to see it.
Brothers and sisters, most of us who are Gentile by birth have no experience with these things, but as God’s children, we are invited to come to the table. It is our privilege to be able to share in His table with joy and to come into His presence with thanksgiving in our hearts. I didn’t celebrate the Passover Seder with our church to be a better Christian. We did it to spend a few moments with God in the heart of His plan as it has been told for millenia before us and as it will echo through the time remaining on this earth.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe. May your name be praised forever and ever through those who have come into your family by the grace offered through Your Son, Jesus Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach). AMEN!
I have also experienced the same intense emotions because I can understand to some extent the pain. First that I can recall seeing it explained outside of the Bible but I have read it time and time again. Good excercise you provided.
Thank you, Jack. One of the neat things for me is that the Hebrew blessings for things like the matzah and the wine are pretty standard formulations and haven’t changed for a long time. So it is conceivable that they are the very words that Christ uttered that night when the Gospel says that he said a “blessing.” I think that was why it hit me so profoundly. I am no Hebrew scholar but I have learned to read/pronounce it fairly well, even if I have to look up what it means. (I can do the same thing with Spanish, if only I had more gifting with languages). The first Messianic Seder that I found had the Hebrew text with the English translation in it so it was neat to be able to use it that way.
from 1 Cor. 5, this
‘Our Paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us keep the feast’
We use those same Matzahs for our communion. Cool. Excellent devotional.
Dave,
We use those for communion now as well. Thanks much.
I love the Passover too. It never ceases to amaze and humble me when I reflect on the height and depth and width of the love of God.
During Passion/Resurrection Week, we hear so much about Christ’s death to save sinners. I do not want to minimize that aspect at all, but I find it intriguing that death to save sinners is not the context of Passover. It is but another facet on the glorious diamond that is salvation.
The Passover is about the deliverance of God’s people from oppression in two ways (see below). Now I know that sin is the cause of OUR oppression, but in the case of the first Passover, the only people sinning openly were the Egyptians (at least that is how Exodus records it). The people of Israel were enslaved through no fault of their own and needed delivered from the proud and evil Pharaoh.
God delivered Israel by asking them to sacrifice a lamb for each house. The blood of the lamb was placed on the sides of and over the door to ward off the death angel. This act of obedience shielded all of Israel from the terrible judgment coming to Egypt.
God delivered Israel in two ways at the Passover. First, he judged the oppressor and rendered him almost powerless. Egypt took centuries to recover from one night of the death angel. Obedience spared the Israelites from judgement, but I think a rarely discussed aspect of obedience (and the second way of God’s deliverance) lay inside the Israelite home.
The people were commanded to eat the lamb’s flesh, roasted (on a cross-shaped spit, nonetheless). They ate it in a hurry, with their shoes on and staff in hand. The sacrificed lamb provided the people with the strength to walk to and across the sea. The lamb was not only to be seen by the Judge. The lamb was to be ingested to become the strength of God’s people enabling them to endure their deliverance. God did not pick them up and carry them out of oppression. They walked out, empowered by ingesting the Passover lamb.
I think it would be good in this season not only to remember what Christ does FOR us in his sacrificial death and resurrection, but because we are included in him, what he does IN us is equally as important. I think this is one of the most powerful ideas embodied in the Passover. There is the miraculous hand of God in deliverance, but he also gives us everything we need to persevere in deliverance until it is finished.
Jim G.
Powerful words, Jeff. I felt like I was there in the room with you guys that night. Thanks for the descriptive and moving explanation, brother.
Jim,
The Passover is certainly a vivid picture of our salvation and God’s plan for the same. I gain more appreciation for it every year.
Anthony,
Thank you brother.