Passover and Easter

As I sit here Easter Eve, reflecting on the past couple of days, I thought I would share with you some of my learnings from Holy Week.  The past few days have been rich with new learnings.

Thursday night we did something new at church.  We had a seder meal before our Maundy Thursday worship.  A seder meal is the traditional Jewish meal celebrated for Passover each year.  Passover is the festival referenced in Exodus 12 as well as many other places throughout the Bible.  Passover is also the meal Jesus ate with his disciples right before he went to the garden to pray and was then arrested.  

I've participated in seder meals before, but never right before the time of worship where we remember the Last Supper.  There was a small group of people interested in doing this, so Scott and I coordinated the efforts and am I ever glad we did.  The night was rich with symbolism between the Old Testament and New Testament with Jesus.  Even in our modified form (a real Passover meal would take at least 3 hours, ours was just an hour), I still was reminded of so much with Jesus as the perfect Passover Lamb.  

We read through Exodus 12 and were reminded of how the Israelites were to celebrate the meal- taking a male lamb that had no blemishes.  They were not to break the bones of the lamb to be sacrificed.  We see the connection with how Jesus was perfect without blemish and when he died on the cross his bones were not broken.  The seder meal goes through a hand washing portion at the beginning and this was where Jesus changed things up with the traditional meal and washed his disciples' feet.  

The meal also has many symbolic parts in the foods. The matzoh crackers (unleavened bread), wine (we used grape juice), bitter herbs, charoset, karpas, and egg all represent different parts of the Israelites past in Egypt.  Here you can see our plate below.

Jesus really changed things up for his last Passover meal with the washing of the feet and then the breaking of bread and wine and declaring it was his body and blood.  For the Jews, there would have been so much symbolism in the meal because this was a meal celebrated each year for 1,500 years prior to Jesus.  In fact, Jews today still celebrate this Passover meal.  There are four different parts to the meal connected to four cups of wine.  It's no wonder the disciples feel asleep while Jesus was praying in the garden!  They had just taken part in this three hour meal accompanied by much wine.  Jesus told them to watch and pray and they feel asleep.  I think I would have done the same.

I've never had an opportunity to celebrate an authentic Passover meal with Jews, but I think it would be so interesting to take part in because of all the symbolism.  After the meal, we went to worship with all those thoughts of the meal fresh in our minds.  We had a reading from Leviticus 17:10-16, which talked of how the Israelites weren't to eat the blood of animals because the blood is the life of the creature.  I instantly thought of communion and how we eat the body of Jesus and drink His blood.  When we drink His blood, we drink his life!  How cool is that connection with the Old Testament laws!

The Bible is so rich with symbolism and connections between the OT and NT.  I think we lose a lot of that by not knowing the culture of that time.  When we do get a few cultural glimpses, the words on the pages become so much richer and meaningful to me.

Yesterday at church we remembered the price Jesus paid by giving up His life on the cross as we celebrated Good Friday.  Yes, Jesus gave up His life.  There's no other way Jesus could have died since He is immortal, God in human flesh.  Jesus even said that no one could take His life.  He would lay it down Himself.  And He did it because of His great love for you and I.

But Jesus didn't stay dead.  On the third day, the stone was rolled back from the tomb and He was alive!  Jesus conquered death and the grave, so that we might have eternal life.  We don't deserve it, but it's a free gift to all who believe.  We will celebrate that glorious resurrection tomorrow morning at church.  May you ponder that grace anew as you celebrate our Risen Lord and Savior this Easter!