Passover and Holy Thursday Supper Eucharist

A  Night of Passover

    This week some of us took a journey to Boerne and took part in a Jewish Pesach (Passover )or Haggadah ( telling) put on by the Boerne Anglican Church and DR Samuelson , a Holocaust Survivor, who is Jewish himself.  We learned about what Jesus Himself experienced as a child ( Luke 2:42) and what He certainly did with His disciples , Mark 14:12 “ And the first day of unleavened bread , when they killed the Passover…Where is the guestchamber , where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?”  We know this as Christians as the Eucharist or Holy Communion on which Jesus took the bread and blessed it and brake it, and “gave it to them, and said, Take eat, this is my body.” 14:22

    The Passover was instituted by God for the people of Israel in Exodus 12.”

And you shall eat of it [the roasted lamb] this way, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in a hurry. It is the LORD's Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 And the blood shall be a sign to you upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon you for a destruction when I smite in the land of Egypt. 14 And this day shall be a memorial to you. And you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by a law forever." (Exodus 12.11-14)

WE remembered this in eating of the bitter herbs, “they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it." (Exodus 12.8) Called maror – or horseradish it reminds us of the suffering of the people in Egypt. We ate this with the haroset , sweet apples, nuts and cinanamon to remind us of the mortar of the bricks the people built storehouses . Unleavened bread or matzah was also eaten reminding us of the haste they made as they left Egypt. The lettuce or karpas was dipped in salt to remind us of the tears. Lamb or zeroa is as the Pashcal lamb in the temple.

This night is different from all other nights in the 4 Questions. How different is this night from all other nights! 

On this night we eat only unleavened bread –why?

On this night we eat only bitter herbs? Why?

We dip the herbs tonite . Why twice? Karpos dipped in salt and the haroset dipped in horseradish ( Joseph’s coat was dipped in goat’s blood to seem as though he was killed and the doorposts were dipped in blood in exodus)

Why do we all lean tonight? As freemen we lean as royalty and recline to eat

THE 4 Cups- We raised the 4 cups of wine- Deliverance “ I will bring you out”

“I will rid you of your bondage”- freedom

“I will redeem you” redemption , also the Cup of Elijah  “ Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome God; and he will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to the parents.” 

 ( the DOOR is opened and we fill Elijah’s cup in the belief that the Messianic Age will come. Only when it comes will we drink from the cup)

“ I will take you for my people and I will be your God”- consummation

WE as His people now by faith in His blood believe that CHRIST OUR PASSOVER is sacrificed for us ( I Cor 5:8) and then let us therefore keep the feast , not with old leaven , neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.