Vancouver Church - Passover Meal

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Submitted by andy on Wed, 2008-03-19 11:12. [ ]
2008-04-06 15:30
2008-04-06 19:00

Traditional Passover Experience at the Fernandes home

On the second night of our DeeperLife this year we met in homes to celebrate the traditional passover meal. This was the meal Jesus celebrated the night before the cross and it is filled with symbolic foreshadowing to to what Jesus did on the cross.

The Vancouver church opted to celebrate their meal a couple of weeks later (in line with the actual Jewish passover this year).

Here's all the info and a short background on what this night is all about.

Time:

3:30 pm

Details and Location:

Contact Andre for more information by clicking here.

What's a Passover Meal?

Every year Jew's were called to gather in Jerusalem to celebrate this most sacred of all festivals. It was a weak long affair that would culminate in homes around the city with families celebrating a highly symbolic meal together. The meal was intended to commemorate the "Passover" - the greatest event in their history in which God delivered them from their slavery to Egypt - and everything at the meal was designed to recall that great event. So at the meal they would (to name just a few things):

  • Eat unleavened bread to remind them that the night they left Egypt they left in haste, with no time for their bread to rise.
  • Eat bitter herbs to symbolically recall the great sorrow they experienced in slavery.
  • Place the shankbone of a lamb on the table to remind them of the lamb slain in Egypt, whose blood was smeared on their door frames causing the “angel of Death” to passover.
  • Eat reclining at the table to symbolize their freedom - in their culture slaves stood at a meal, but the free people reclined.

Bottom line, the meal served one purpose: to recall the day that God freed his people from their slavery to Egypt.

Yet something more needs to be said: as the years went by, and slavery in various forms continued for the Jews, the meal also began to look forward - anticipating the great day when all slavery would come to an end. As they understood it, in the coming future, God was going to establish a kingdom on earth, and in that place he would draw all his people out of their slavery and into his freedom and peace. While looking back with thanks, the meal also looked forward to this great day with anticipation.

Even to this day, the Passover Meal remains the most sacred of all Jewish festivals - recalling the past freedom and anticipating a future freedom. It's celebrated (with some variations) in homes all around the world.

What does this meal have to do with Christ followers?

The night before Jesus died, he celebrated this meal with his closest friends - its become known as "the Lord's Supper". Except, as you may recall, he made the meal all about him (he was now the cup and the bread!). And in making the meal about him, he was saying something to his followers: everything they recalled and anticipated in the Passover meal was, in an even deeper way, happening in and through him! As he made the meal about him, Jesus was in effect saying: “I will now be the lamb you celebrate and my blood shed will make the way for death to "passover" you - forever. And I will deliver you out of your true slavery - not to a foreign army - but to sin, death and the Kingdom of darkness.”

The point at that final meal was clear: "the passover is about me! I will be your final passover lamb and I will lead you to a final freedom in the Kingdom of God."

Why would we celebrate the Passover meal in a traditional way?

In some senses, with its close links to the "Lord's Supper", we celebrate the passover meal every-time we break the bread and share the cup. At that time, we reenact the passover meal again, reminding ourselves of the Lamb and how his blood has caused death to "passover" and in this God has delivered us from our exile/slavery to sin and into his kingdom.

But that said, there is something special about once a year celebrating the full meal - as Jesus would have on that night. Let me give just a few reasons why:

  • For one, it links us again to our long Jewish history. Christianity is not a "new religion." It is the continuation of the story that God began with his Jewish people. Celebrating this meal reminds us of this fact. It places us again as part of this grand story that began thousands of years ago with a man named Abraham.

  • Further, when we walk through the passover meal, it becomes quickly apparent how the long history before Christ was filled with foreshadowing to him and his work. Its exciting to see that long before the time of Christ, God was preparing his creation for his coming arrival - “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Words of John the Baptist upon seeing Jesus. Did the Passover Meal prepare him for this exclamation?)

  • Connected to that, when you experience the symbols - tasting the bread, the wine, the bitter herbs - it brings new light to Easter. Sometimes when we “hear” about these Easter themes - slavery, deliverance etc. - they can remain these abstract concepts that rattle around in our brains but never puncture our lives. But when we taste them, and experience them with our senses we are often confronted with them on a deeper level. For example, as we taste the bitter herbs we are reminded - “yes, slavery really is awful! Thanks God for serving as our passover lamb!”

  • The meal also teaches us about family worship. When you read through the scriptures you quickly see how important it was for children to be drawn into the very heart of the worshipping community. The Passover meal highlights this as it was designed to have children included, even at times asking key questions.

  • Most importantly though, the meal has a unique way of again drawing us to the very heart of our story: Jesus is the Lamb of God, and he, in a final way, has caused death to "passover" and has made the way for us to be delivered from our slavery and into the Kingdom of God where we eat, and will eat, reclining in peace.

    Bottom line, as it always has, the meal continues to serve one main purpose: to recall the day that God freed his people from their slavery.

    We're going to celebrate the meal this year as the second night of our DeeperLife conference. The hope is that as we do so, it will experientially tie together some of the themes we learn on the first night. May God bless us as we eat the Passover meal together.

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