I am excited to share a glimpse into one of our family traditions, a Messianic Passover! Every year we seem to add new traditions or mix up what we teach on. Usually our meals and teaching, worship and prayers all take about 3 hours and the preparation is about 5 hours of cooking and 3-4 hours of scripture prep. You can make this more or less involved depending on the ages of your children and how helpful they are!
Enjoy~ Angie
Last night we enjoyed fellowship with a few families from our church as we worshipped and “remembered” the past, specifically, what God had done for His people through the Exodus from Egypt. We spent a good amount of time teaching the children the different elements of the Seder. We focused on the symbolic theme relating to Jesus- our Messiah and what He did for us and how He fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:7-10, NIV
The observance of these times is by no means to be construed as some alternative method of salvation. We merely like to celebrate these traditions of old when we can. When the Lord prompts us to celebrate it is for the benefit of our understanding of Him as well as means to remember Him, grow in our relationship with Christ through a better understanding of what He has done for us, and to teach these truths to our children. Here are some basics on the topic, as well as some ideas of what we teach:
There are four cups of wine drank throughout the night {we use grape juice so the kiddos can participate too}. They represent four distinct redemptions promised by God to the Hebrews as told in Ex. 6:6-7.
1) “I will take you out of Egypt”
2) “I will deliver you from Egyptian slavery”
3) “I will redeem you with a demonstration of my power”
4) “I will acquire you as a nation”.
Since there is so much one can teach on this, every year we choose a different cup to teach about. This year we taught on just one of the cups, The Cup of Redemption since the next day was Friday, the day Jesus died for the redemption of our souls. You can also replace wine for grape juice which we did of course for the kids and us pregnant mamas.
The wine symbolizes the Joy of the Lord. {Psalm 104}
The Karpas: Parsley dipped in Salt Water
The Saltwater symbolizes two things: the tears shed by all who have experienced bondage and the Red Sea which God saved the Hebrews through.
The Parsley represents a new nation because of it’s green color. Greens also represent hyssop, which was used to place the sacrificial blood above the door.
The Roasted Egg represents Pharaoh’s hardened heart towards the Hebrews.
In my previous post I went into detail about some of the meaning behind the egg, please refer here for more info.
Another meaning is that the egg represents the beginning of a new nation. Just as an egg represents a new life of a chick to one day be hatched, so the Israelites had a long journey until they had reached their “promised land” and were beginning their new life as a “new nation.”
The Unleavened Bread
There is so much I could share here in the form of symbolism. The unleaved bread, for me, has been the most significant study this year. I would encourage you to inquire about the history and ask God to reveal Himself to you through it.
First of all, there is typically three loaves of unleavened bread (Matzah) served.
The three loaves, for the Christian, can represent the Trinity. The 2nd loaf is typically broken in two by the Father… (Jesus, the Messiah, broken for us) then one half of the loaf is wrapped in a towel and stored under a pillow or hidden somewhere in the home (which represents the burial in the tomb). Such a great lesson for children!
If you were to buy matzah (store boxed) and serve it at the end, it has punctured holes all over it so it would not rise at all, which is symbolic of the holes in Jesus’ hands and the puncture in His side. There are burn marks and lines from the grate to which the matzah was cooked on, symbolic of our Savior’s bruises and stripes of blood from the beating he endured on Good Friday.
In case you did not know, yeast is symbolic of sin, which is why the Jewish community typically will clean their homes of all yeast for Passover. The unleavened bread (yeast free- sin free) represents our Christ- sinless. You can see how much you could get out of this.
“Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Cor 5:6-8, NIV
The Bitter Herbs {horseradish or Maror} is to remind us of the bitter cup Jesus drank for us- the vinegar in the wine while being crucified.
The Charoset is an apple, walnut, brown sugar, wine salad that represents and looks like clay and mortar (bricks) like the Hebrews had to work within Egypt as slaves under Pharaoh.
The Lamb Shank Bone represents the sacrificial lamb of Passover.
During this section of the teaching, we talk about the blood of the lamb over the Hebrew doors, when the Lord PASSED-OVER them and the sons were saved.
“Our Passover lamb has been sacrificed” 1 Cor 5:7
“You see, just at the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Rom 5:6-7
We did not eat lamb for our meal b/c Jesus was sacrificed for us so we wouldn’t need to make these kinds of sacrifices any longer. {plus, I don’t have a good lamb recipe! 😉 If you have one, can you leave it for me in the comments!} All is forgiven!
Jesus last words on Friday when he died for the sins of the World:
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34
“It is finished.” John 19:30
May the Presence of our Lord and Savior move the hearts in your home and may the legacy you are leaving be strengthened by the celebration of the freedom we receive in Christ Jesus!
Your Sister in the Journey,
Angie Tolpin
