Tonight after we left mom's house we headed over to our church where some of our members were hosting a replica of a Jewish Seder in honor of Easter/Passover. As most of you know, Jay and I have both been to Israel ( I have been 2 times and Jay has led a group there 5 or 6 times, one of those times we were fortunate enough to go together last April) and we both love the traditions of the Holy Land. While in Israel, we both experiences bits and pieces of the Passover traditions but never experienced the full Seder. A lady came (can't remember her name) from the Memphis area who was a member of a Messianic Jewish community (believing Jews) and taught us all the history and background of the ritual as well as led us through the ceremony. It is so neat to see how devout the Jews are to what the believe and everything has a meaning and a purpose. If only us believers were that devout in all areas of our life especially relating to our walk with the Lord...the world would be a different place no doubt. It is also so neat to see the resemblance of the things that Jesus did and said that had so much significance of the traditions of his Jewish culture. The only difference is that HE was right before their eyes and they have yet to see that HE is the prophecied one that was to come. But to those of us whose eyes have been opened, what a beautiful picture of who He is.
We began the night with lots of great food and fellowship where we got to meet lots of new friends and then had an incredible time of worship...WOW!
I missed some of this because I had to take Brayden out for about 15 minutes, but this is the matza that Jewish people eat during the Passover. It contains ZERO yeast because in the Jewish tradition, yeast (or the "fluff" of it) represents sin. Even the least little bit of yeast makes the whole batch corrupt...so true of our lives. Even the smallest sin makes us still a sinner, corrupt by it.
The plate below had three things on it and each one very significant. The parsley represented the branch that the Jews used to put blood on their doorposts during the Passover. You dip this in some really salty water which represented the tears that were shed during the Passover. The red stuff is actually a form of horseradish that they were to eat until they cried as a symbol of the heartache that was experienced when they were in captivity/coming out of captivity from Egypt. The nutty substance (not sure what this was) represented the brick/mortar from captivity.
Karis met a new friend and didn't want to leave her even after several hours. Maggie takes gymnastics at the same place Karis takes but they had never officially met until tonight. They sat next to each other the whole time and went through ALL parts of the Seder with us adults. She is acting so grown up!
The Jewish table for the Seder ceremony beginning with the lighting of the candles...
This is the book that we followed with the ceremony step by step in it. Seder actually means "order" because there is a very strict order/structure of the ceremony.
There are four official "cups" in the Seder which usually consists of real wine but we used grape juice. This below is an example of the 2nd cup which represented the 12 plagues of Egypt. You took your pinky and dipped it in your grape juice and then touched your plate (did this 12 times) and each time named one of the plagues as a memory of them.
The lady that led the Seder...very neat woman who has a calling to the Jewish community (she has no Jewish background but became a member of a Messianic Jewish church to learn the traditions and Hebrew language to fulfill her calling).
This was probably one of the neatest experiences I have ever had other than being in Israel. It made me realize how I take my calling so lightly sometimes and how little I know about the history of my God and the Jewish culture or any other culture for that matter. It was neat that the kids were involved in the ceremony and it is a very family friendly environment. Even Brayden was in there for all but about 15 minutes of it.
Thank you Jesus for being that Passover Lamb for us so that we no longer have to follow those rituals. You are indeed our risen Saviour!
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