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Remembering Our Roots: A Look at Passover

Jesus' Heritage

Over the past few years, I have developed a great appreciation of and thirst for knowledge about the Jewish roots of Christianity. (Just ask all my friends — I'm pretty sure they get tired of me talking about the Hebrew meaning of this or that.)

We Christians sometimes seem to forget that Jesus was a Jew, a religious Jew, who observed the Jewish customs, attended the festivals and worshipped Yahweh in the Temple. There is a lot we don't know or understand about the Jewish faith, and because of this ignorance, there's quite a bit we don't fully appreciate or realize about Christianity. Anyway, my fascination with Judaism as practiced in the Old Testament has led me to a new appreciation of Easter — its symbolism and overall message of God's redemption.

Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights?

One of the ways we Christians can learn more about Jesus' heritage is by celebrating Passover. Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, which in the Jewish faith is the equivalent of Christians celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus. God led the Jews out of slavery — He rescued them, set them free and showed His power among them.

And He told them not to forget it.

Every year, Jews remember the Exodus by celebrating the Passover as commanded in Exodus 12; the faithful have remembered this event for thousands of years.

For the past couple of years, I have participated in a Seder — a dinner to commemorate the first night of Passover. It's something I recommend every Christian do at least once. Every guest of the Seder is supposed to participate as though God personally led them out of Egypt as well. It is a way to bring history alive — to, in a small way, experience the sadness, excitement and wonder of that time so long ago.

Not only does it help us to remember and understand our Jewish heritage, but there are countless ways in which this ancient tradition connects to Christianity. (Let us not forget that Jesus' Last Supper was a Passover dinner.) Once you understand the symbolism throughout the meal, there's no way to ignore the fact that all signs point to Jesus as the Messiah the Jews were waiting for.

One point of the Seder is set specifically to recall the miracles by which God demonstrated His power. Participants list each of the ten plagues in order to rejoice and remember God's strength. A Seder plate provides food set to commemorate specific events — participants eat parsley dipped in salt water to recall the tears of slavery; they eat charoset (a mixture of apples, sugar and wine) as a symbol of the mortar they used to make bricks; and they eat horseradish to remind them of the bitterness of slavery. These elements of the Seder are meant to remind participants of how trapped they were, how enslaved, how utterly hopeless the situation was without God.

It Would Have Been Enough

Numerous points during the Seder are meant to simply praise God and thank Him for His goodness. During Passover, participants worship God together numerous times. They bless Him for providing sunlight, for creating food, and for His sanctification, deliverance and redemption.

One portion of the service is a song called "Dayenu," a Hebrew word meaning, "it would have been enough." Specifically, "the song, 'Dayenu' answers the question, 'For how many favors do we owe praise to God?' The answer is 'unending.' If the Lord had done any one of the mighty acts of the exodus, that would have been enough for us or, in Hebrew, 'Dayenu.' However, the Lord continually saves and provides!"¹

The group says things like, "If God had only brought us out of Egypt, but not punished the Egyptians — Dayenu!" Or, for the Christian, "If Messiah had only been raised to give us eternal life, but not sent us His Spirit — Dayenu!"²

The beauty of these portions of the Seder is that as you read through them you are in awe of God and what He's done. This awe of God is crucial to the Jewish faith. In his book, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, Abraham Joshua Heschel talks about the importance of wonder to the faith:

The sense for the "miracles which are daily with us," the sense for the "continual marvels," is the source of prayer. There is no worship, no music, no love if we take for granted the blessings or defeats of living. No routine of the social, physical, or physiological order must dull our sense of surprise at the fact that there is a social, a physical, or a physiological order.³

Heschel's point is that the things that seem commonplace to us are not. We must not forget that God created it all and allows it to continue. Whatever He has provided is enough for us. As the Jews say, "Blessed be Thou … by Whose word all things come into being."

Redemption Is Nigh

The ultimate theme of Passover is redemption. It speaks of God's redeeming the Hebrews from Egypt, and it speaks of God's future redemption in the Messiah.

When the Temple was still standing in Jerusalem, the faithful Jews would make a pilgrimage each year for Passover. According to Marvin R. Wilson's book, Our Father Abraham, the Temple courts would be brimming with people, animals and blood spilled in order to redeem the people:

The offering of the Passover sacrifice at the Temple began about 3:00 p.m. and was conducted in three massive shifts. When the Temple court was filled with the first group of offerers, the gates of the court were closed. The ram's horn was sounded and the sacrifice began. Each Jew slaughtered his own lamb. The priests stood in two rows, one holding gold basins and the other, silver. After the blood was drained into a basin, it was tossed against the base of the alter.⁴

Now, take a moment to picture what this looked like: thousands of bleating animals, sharp knives, blood everywhere. The smells and sounds must have been overwhelming. And remember that this happened every single year at Passover (not to mention the fact that animals were sacrificed in the Temple every single day, twice a day, to atone for the sins of the people). As the animals were sacrificed, it signified the people calling out to God to remember His promise — to bring them redemption.

And so, during the Seder, we think of God's redemption. What He has already done and what He has yet to do.

One of the most beautiful parts of the Seder (at least in my opinion) is the breaking of the matzoh (unleavened bread). During the Seder, three pieces of matzoh are placed together. At one point, the second piece of bread is broken in two, and the smaller piece is hidden. That piece is called the afikoman, which means "dessert." After dinner, the matzoh is found, brought back to the leader, who "redeems" it for a price. The leader then takes the afikoman, breaks it in pieces and distributes it to the guests to remind them of God's deliverance in the past, present and future.

And a long time ago in Jerusalem, at Jesus' last Seder dinner, He took the afikoman, broke it and distributed it to the disciples, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19b, NIV).

What a glorious thing! The breaking, hiding and redemption of the afikoman is about God's saving grace and points toward the ultimate redemption in His son, the Messiah. The Passover sacrifice — the thousands of animals slaughtered in the Temple each year — is no longer needed. The Lamb of God was slaughtered for us once and for all during the Passover season 2,000 years ago.

When God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, He told them to take the blood of a lamb, brush it over their doorposts, and He would spare their lives. "The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13). And as Wilson puts it, Christ must have been thinking of this same saving blood during His last Seder:

But also envisioned is a time when the Lord "will swallow up death forever … [and] will wipe away the tears from all faces." In biblical terms, this is God's final act of deliverance, his ultimate outworking in history of that ancient promise, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Exod. 12:13).⁵

Bless the Lord

C O F F E E  S H O P

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Do you currently or do you plan to celebrate Passover?

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The symbolism in a Seder dinner is beautiful. The meal is a time to gather with friends and family and remember what God has done, rejoice in His goodness, and contemplate ultimate redemption. For the Christian, it has extra significance, as we bless the Messiah who has saved us, and who is continually redeeming us through His blood.