Tonight at sundown, the feast week of Passover begins. On the Jewish calendar, Monday is the 14th of Nissan in the year 5770, with sundown beginning a new day. The Seder commemorates the end of the Jews’ slavery to Egypt. Historians believe that occurred in the year 1441 B.C., 3,450 years ago. Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) occurs along with the first full moon after the first day of spring. Before this day was mathematically determined, it was the first full moon after the barley harvest. Passover is one of three feasts of Moses in which the able-bodied Jewish men were required to make the trip to Jerusalem yearly. In the Book of Exodus, the Bible instructs the Jews how to keep the feast of Passover and that it is to be kept through all their generations. They are to acquire one, unblemished male lamb per each household on the tenth of Nissan. At sundown on the 15th of Nissan, they are to gather together and kill the ram, taking some of the blood and placing that blood on the doorposts. After roasting the lamb in fire, they are to eat what they can and burn the remains before daylight.
On that night of the first Seder, the Angel of death killed each of the firstborn in any home not protected by the blood of the lamb. He “passed over” those marked homes, sparing the firstborn in those families. The next day, the Jews began their journey to the Promised Land. Years later, on another Passover evening, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples on the night before His crucifixion.
All of the food items in the Seder, the Passover Feast, point to God’s redemption:
• Maror: These are the bitter herbs, sometimes horseradish and at other times varieties of lettuce, to symbolize the bitter years of slavery for the Jews in Egypt. When redeemed, God takes that bitterness and replaces it with joy!
• Charoset: This is a mixture of apples, figs, dates, nuts, cinnamon and wine to symbolize the mortar or clay used to make bricks, as the Jews did in slavery. When redeemed, we are no longer slaves to sin, but have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb of God!
• Beitzah: This is a hard-boiled egg to symbolize the renewal of life through fertility and the continuation of the Jews as a culture and people. God’s Word told us of the restoration of Israel over 1,000 years before the event occurred in 1948. We also know that the 12 tribes will be around in the Great Tribulation and the Millennium. Just as eggs became a part of Easter due to the Pagans (with Ishtar, the goddess of fertility), this aspect of the Seder is most likely tied to the Babylonian gods during the Jews’ captivity there.
• Karpas: This is either celery or parsley, dipped into salt water, to symbolize the bitter taste of slavery and the tears of the Jewish people. We know that God keeps all of our tears in a bottle, according to Psalms. Again, He replaces our sadness with joy.
• Zeroah: Most Jews still eat lamb at Passover, and even if they don’t, there is usually the shank bone of a lamb on the table. The lamb is symbolic of the forgiveness of sins. The Torah teaches that there is no forgiveness of sins apart from the spilling of innocent blood, and the killing of the Paschal lamb points to the sacrificial system set up through the Law of Moses. This is significant, as there is no longer a temple to perform the sacrificial rituals. There has been no sacrifice since the last temple was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. With the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Lamb of God, we have forgiveness of sins without the sacrificial system of the temple. Jesus redeemed us! He purchased us with the spilling of His own innocent blood!
• Wine: The strong taste of the wine is symbolic of the richness of the Jews’ relationship when they were following God. At the Seder, four toasts of wine are performed at different times in the ceremony, pointing to four “I will” statements of God:
1. I will take you out of Egypt (Cup of Sanctification). Just as God chose the Jews as His people and promised to deliver them from Egypt to the Promised Land, He has fulfilled or will fulfill every promise He has made. This is a special time to reflect on the world of sin He has carried you out of, the promises He has fulfilled in your life and the promises still to come! Along with that, He chose you, just as He chose the Jews!
2. I will deliver you from slavery (Cup of Judgment). Though the Jews were physically enslaved, we were all spiritually enslaved, as we lived in bondage to our sins. This is a wonderful time to reflect on the death your life has earned, and the judgment that you would have received without the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In the Seder, at this point you drip some of the wine onto your plate, so the cup is not full. This signifies the price of our redemption. To the Jews, this has to do with the plagues, but for Christians, the cost of our redemption is the death on the cross of our Messiah! As you drip the wine, think of our precious Messiah’s blood dripping upon the ground. His blood was shed for you, personally!
3. I will redeem you with the demonstration of my power (Cup of Redemption). As a Christian, this is the last cup Jesus drank from at the Seder of the Last Supper. Here’s how Jesus shared the third cup with His disciples that night:
27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:27-29
As Christians, we understand the significance of Christ’s blood as the price of our redemption, but try to visualize the disciples that night, the night before Jesus died for our sins! He told them that His blood would be shed for them and that was the only way they would be forgiven. What a solemn occasion!
4. I will acquire you as a nation (Cup of Celebration). This cup is reserved for after the dinner. At the Last Supper, there wasn’t a final cup, as Jesus told them He would not drink from the cup again until they and we were all together with Him. It was not time to celebrate until after His death and resurrection. This Seder will not finish until we gather together with our Lord at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb! We will join Him in the Cup of Celebration to complete this Seder. We have been baptized into His crucifixion and resurrection, and we will share the end of the Last Supper with Him!
A special glass is also poured for the prophet Elijah, and the door is opened for his arrival. In the second to last verse of the Old Testament, the Lord foretells that Elijah will return:
4“Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,
Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel,
With the statutes and judgments.
5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
6And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:4-6
• Matzos: This is the unleavened bread eaten at the Passover. Leavening (Chametz) is removed from the house. This is the yeast for bread or fermentation. Yeast puffs bread up, and in the same sense, sin puffs up man, as we understand the connection between pride and sin. Throughout the week, for eight days, Jews do not eat leavened bread in the Passover meal or in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, pointing ahead to Jesus! God came to earth and lived as a sinless man, so that He might be punished for our sins. If He had sinned, Jesus would have had to receive His own punishment through death, as Romans tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” Instead, as Paul tells us,
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21
- Afikoman (meaning "what comes after" or dessert). Earlier in the Seder when the unleavened bread is eaten, part of the matzo is hidden, for the children to search for. Whoever finds the matzo is rewarded with money or a gift, and all of the children receive a reward. Once this last piece of matzo is eaten, nothing else should be, in order to keep the taste of matzo in their mouths. Rabbis have difficulty explaining the significance of this event, and typically, the reason is to keep the children from getting restless during the ceremony. As Christians, though, we realize that leaven is a symbol of sin, and in the usage of unleavened bread, it points to the sinless Bread of life, Jesus. Though He is hidden from their eyes, that will change when the fullness of the Gentiles has taken place. Jesus is the taste that will always remain, once they see Him!
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