Christian Believers Passover Seder

Hag Sameach Pesach-Happy Passover! If you have decided to trade easter ham for Passover Lamb, you are in the right place! We hope you find this seder (which means “order”) easy to use and a blessing to you as you search to enjoy the Feasts of the LORD (Yehovah).

The Passover that we’re celebrating this night is a one day feast that it’s immediately followed by the Feast of Matzah (unleavened bread) that begins at sundown, and then that is followed by the Feast of Firstfruits (which occurs on the first day after the weekly sabbath during the festival week.)

Passover (pesach)is the festival of redemption. It’s always in the spring, on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Aviv, sometimes called Nissan. Aviv means “spring”.

Pesach is marked in Yehovah’s calendar as a special moed, which we call an appointed time, or Feast, with His people. He has given us instructions to show us how to celebrate this time.

We should yearn to obey God’s commandment on this because it is a direct biblical command and it’s something we can all do rather easily.

The biblical instructions are:

• We must observe a Sabbath on the first and seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12:16)
• All leaven and leavened food must be removed from our homes (Ex. 12:15, 13:7)
• We are not to eat leaven or leavened food for seven days (Ex. 12:15, 13:3)
• A lamb is offered at the place of Yehovah’s name, taken home, roasted and eaten (Ex. 12:8, Deut. 16:2-3). This commandment cannot be observed due to the absence of the Temple
• We are to eat matzah, unleavened bread (Ex. 12:8, 16:3)
• We are to eat bitter herbs (Ex. 12:8)
• We are to tell the story of the exodus out of Egypt (Ex. 12:25-27, 13:8, 14-15)
• We are to do it remembrance of Yeshua. (Matt. 26, Luke 22, 1 Cor. 11)
• Examine your heart before you partake of the bread and cup. (1 Cor. 11)

What can be confusing about Passover, is that the Passover meal is not eaten on Passover. It is eaten as the first meal on the next day which is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Passover Seder together with the Passover meal centered around a sacrifice then roasted yearling lamb. The lamb was killed and prepared on the fourteenth of the month which is Passover, but it wasn’t eaten until the 15th which is the first day of the festival of matzah.

Since the biblical day begins at sunset, so the Passover meal is eaten after dark, then what we call dinner is their first meal of a new day even though it’s eaten of course at night time just after sunset.

The reason it was done this way is because that’s how it was done in Egypt. The lamb was selected on the 10th day of Aviv, checked for blemishes and then on the 14th the lamb was slaughtered and roasted.

The Lamb’s blood was smeared on the doorpost of the of the homes of the Hebrews and then sunset (the start of a new day) the lamb along with the rest of the meal was eaten.

Traditional seder plates in Judaism contain many items not in scripture. We are adopting only a few of them this evening, to help us remember important aspects of how God delivered us with a mighty hand. Besides a few traditions, we are following the biblical instructions.

The Last Supper

So the first thing to understand is the so called “Last Supper” that we read about in the Gospels was not the traditional Passover meal, it was not part of a Passover Seder. That fact is self-evident because Yeshua was executed on the cross on Passover day long after he had eaten that meal, and he died around 3:00 in the afternoon at around the same time the slaughter of the Lambs began on the temple grounds.

So clearly Christ couldn’t have had a Passover Seder the night before the lamb which is the centerpiece of any Passover meal was ritually killed and prepared. On that particular Passover day, Yeshua was already dead and in the tomb before the Jews began to eat their Passover Seder.

So what was the Last Supper? Christian tradition would imply that it was Yeshua’s last supper before he was crucified. This is incorrect. the Last Supper is actually the name of a special meal that began as a Galilean tradition the night before the Passover meal.

It seems that many Jews from Judea adopted this Galilean tradition and also began practicing the Last Supper tradition. Where were Yeshua and all of his disciples from? They were all Galileans, who had journeyed from their homes in the Galilee to Jerusalem according to the commandment to be present at the temple for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

This event was originally given the name “Last Supper” because after eating it, the Jews would then fast for the next 24 hours until they ate the official Passover meal the following evening.

Remember again that the Passover meal was not eaten on Passover day, rather after sundown which is the next day and is the first day of the Festival of Matzah (Feast of Unleavened Bread).

The first and original Passover in Egypt that was the actual event when after God had visited 10 plagues upon the Egyptians. Israel is finally freed to leave and follow their God into the wilderness. Every Passover since then has been a historical commemoration of that original event that decimated God’s enemies but liberated God’s people.

For the Israelites, this commemoration of Passover is all about remembering how the God of Israel redeemed them from slavery to their evil taskmaster.

However, for believers in the Lord and Savior Yeshua, Jew or Grafted in believer, it is a commemoration of Yeshua’s death on the cross as our Passover. It is HIS blood painted on the doorpost of our lives that God sees.

When it’s our time to stand in judgment before God, and when what we really deserve is eternal death for our sins, he’s going to instead see the blood of the Lamb. He’s going to see that as smeared upon us and eternal death is going to pass over us and we’ll be given eternal life.

1st Corinthians 5: 6-8: “your boasting is not good, do you not know that a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven the leaven of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Paul is instructing believers in Christ not on whether as believers we ought to continue celebrating Passover, but rather in what attitude we should celebrate it.

Paul certainly expects all followers of Yeshua Jesus Christ to continue celebrating Passover. Paul uses the metaphor of leavening in this passage. Biblically speaking, leavening is symbolic of sin. This is why we follow the command to remove all leaven from our homes prior to the first day of Unleavened Bread.

Paul points out the Christ is our Passover and so Yeshua is what we are celebrating with our Passover Seder as Christians. This night gives us the opportunity to relive that special Passover 2,000 years ago when our Lord and Savior went to the cross on our account and so redeemed us from the eternal death that our sin has earned us.

About The 4 Cups
The tradition of 4 cups has special commemorative meaning and purpose. We take 4 sips as 4 cups of wine is a lot! There are 4 things God promises that these cups represent:

The Cup of Sanctification—“I will bring you out…”
The Cup of Deliverance—“I will deliver you…”
The Cup of Redemption—“I will take you for My people…”
The Cup of Praise and Restoration—“I will be your Elohim…”

Begin Seder (order) of the Passover Remembrance Meal

Small Child 1: why is this night different from other nights?
Beginning with Passover and for seven days after you are to eat nothing with leaven (yeast) in it.

Cup1: Sanctification
The first cup is called the Kiddush, it is the cup of sanctification, the cup of holiness. As God is holy so we are to emulate him.

Luke 22:17-18: “and Yeshua took the cup and when he had given thanks he said take this and divide it among yourselves for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine wine until the kingdom of God comes.”

Blessing: We thank you Father for the holy and blessed vine of your servant David that you made known to us through your son Yeshua. Yours is the glory for ever and ever amen.

So we drink of the first cup of wine together so we might sanctify this Seder. David spoke of God’s holiness: read Psalm 103 while drinking of the cup of sanctification.

(all drink first sip)

Parsley:
Small Child 2: Why do we eat parsley and salt water?

The next element in the Believers Seder is called the karpus and it is represented by the parsley. The green color of the parsley represents life and life is the entire point of redemption.

We dip the parsley in salted water and the reason that the salt and water is important is because our tears are salty to the taste. For believers the parsley represents new life both now and in the new life that our Savior gives to us. The salty water commemorates the tears that we have shed as sinners. Guilty without hope before we knew him and submitted to Him.

Read Exodus 2:23–25

Blessing: blessed are you O Lord God King of the universe who creates the fruit of the ground and brings life and joy from sorrow and pain.

(everyone dip your parsley into the salty water and eat it)

About the Matzoh

Small Child 3: Why do we eat Matzah tonight?

Notice how the matzo is both pierced and striped and since matzah is unleavened bread, we have a beautiful symbol that can be equated to Yeshua’s unleavened body.

His body was not racked with sin, but this sinless man was beaten beyond recognition with a whip, hence the stripes. He was mocked eventually pierced with a spear to ensure his death as he hung attached via nails to the cruel and inhumane Roman execution stake.

Yeshua’s beating and piercing for our sake was prophesied by Isaiah hundreds of years before he was born: Isaiah 53: 4,5. “surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace with His stripes we are healed”

Here is the most meaningful part of the Seder ceremony. The matzah bag consists of three compartments inside of it, and upper middle and lower. Each compartment has one piece of matzah in it. Rabbi’s are not clear among themselves as to why this three compartment bag is used in their Seder. Some think it is because of a Jewish tradition begun by the prophet Daniel up in Babylon that the exiled Jews should pray three times a day towards Jerusalem and they took those three compartments from that.

But for believers in Yeshua the symbolism of the three part bag is unmistakable. It represents the tripart nature of God that is at the same time one “echad” perfect unity. The middle matzo representing the son of God, Yeshua the Messiah. Now take the middle piece of matzah out of this three-part bag, representing Christ and break it.

The smaller of the two pieces is going to be placed back into that middle compartment. The larger piece is going to be placed into a linen napkin and then hidden for the remainder of the evening.

For us, this linen napkin represents the burial garment that Yeshua wore as he was laid into that tomb. When we hide the matzah, it is symbolic of Christ being buried. We call this piece the “afikomen” which is a Greek word that means “he will come again.”

(Read John 19:31 through 20:18 while an adult hides the afikomen to be found later in the seder.)

Maggid: Cup of Deliverance

Maggid means “storyteller” because it’s at this point in the Seder of a standard Jewish Seder that the story of the Exodus from Egypt is retold. (Read Exodus 12:21- 50)

Traditionally you would dip your finger and drop ten drops of wine on the seder to represent the ten divine plagues that God visited upon Egypt.

It’s now time to bless this second cup of wine and drink. This cup represents God’s deliverance of his people so take your cup and recite this blessing:

Blessing: blessed are you O Lord our God King of the universe who creates the fruit of the vine.

(all take a sip of wine)
(Now break off a little piece of matzah and hold it in your fingers)

One of the primary elements of the Seder is the matzah because it represents the absence of sin.

Leavening is the biblical symbol for sin but in the original Passover as the Israelites hurriedly prepared to leave Egypt in the morning God commanded Israel to pack only unleavened bread for their journey out of Egypt for a very practical reason: there was no time to make normal leavened bread and give it a few hours to rise before baking it.

Now as believers we are to understand that as we undertake our journey with Christ as our new master, that we are not to enter into it slowly. We are to take firm hold of that deliverance that he has given to us and we be in a big hurry to leave the leavening- to leave our sin behind us as we flee our evil task master Satan. We are not to take that old sin with us when we enter our new life with God.

Blessing: Blessed are you O Lord our God King of the universe who brings forth bread from the earth.

(all eat matzah)

Maror: Bitter Herbs:

Small Child 4: Why do we eat bitter herbs?

Tradition used horseradish or bitter herbs. This represents the bitterness of the bondage that Israel suffered under the wicked Pharaoh while in Egypt. For us it also speaks of the bitterness of sin that had enslaved us although in our Redemption by Yeshua we have left that bitterness behind just as Israel left their bitterness behind. This redemption is something we should never forget.

Blessing: blessed are you O Lord our God King of the universe who has sanctified us with the blood of the Lamb and he has commanded us to eat bitter herbs.

(eat the matzah dipped in horseradish (bitter herbs))

Charoset Clay and Mortar:

This is a mixture of apples and honey representing the mortar used in the bricks that Israel needed to make in order complete all the construction work that they were forced to do in Egypt.

Once again this is a symbol of how God in His mercy takes bitterness and turns it sweet. As he took our slavery and set us free.

(take a piece of matzah dipped in charoset and eat it)

Passover Lamb:

This would be the time they would eat roasted lamb. Its blood which marked the doors of the houses of the children of Israel, signifies their obedience to Yehovah’s command. The lamb’s shed blood redeemed the firstborn of the children of Israel.

In the afternoon of the day of the Passover meal, the lambs were taken to the temple to be sacrificed. This was the same time Yeshua was nailed to the cross so through his shed blood, death will pass over us. (Read John 19:14-16)

At the time of the slaughtering, it was tradition to read Psalm 118. Imagine this being read at the temple slaughtering at the same moment Messiah was being crucified on the cross. (read Psalm 118)

The children of Israel were also instructed to eat the Passover in haste, their loins girded, and their staffs in their hands, their sandals upon their feet, awaiting departure from the bondage of Egypt. Today we all may recline and freely enjoy the Passover Seder.

Blessing: Blessed are You, Yehovah, King of the universe, who has given us rest through Yeshua our Messiah.

How great is Yehovah’s goodness to us! For each of His acts of mercy and kindness we declare, “It would have been sufficient.” To say that in Hebrew, you say, “Deyanu.” So when the orator reads the following out loud, all respond with, “Deyanu!”

Orator (in bold) reads out loud:
If Yehovah had merely rescued us, but had not judged the Egyptians,
All say: “Deyanu!”
If Yehovah had only destroyed their gods, but had not parted the Red Sea,
All say: “Deyanu!”
If Yehovah had only drowned our enemies, but had not fed us with manna,
All say: “Deyanu!”
If Yehovah had only led us through the desert, but had not given us the Sabbath,
All say: “Deyanu!”
But Yehovah, bless his Holy name, provided all of these blessings for our ancestors and not only these, but so many more. Now, Yeshua is enough.
All say: “Deyanu!”

Blessing: Blessed are You, Yehovah, King of the Universe, for You have in mercy supplied all our needs. You have given us Yeshua, forgiveness for sin, life abundant, and life everlasting, Hallelujah!

(Father of the family or other may give blessing over the meal, now eat!)

After the meal:

Afikomen:

The most important part of a believer’s Passover Seder must be the afikomen because it relates to the Messiah’s buried body resurrecting. This is that piece of matzah that represents Yeshua’s sinless body. Earlier we placed it into the linen “tomb” and hid it away.

In Jewish homes the afikomen was typically wrapped up and hidden by an adult and then children were sent to find it. When a child would find it, the afikomen would then be brought to the person that I was officiating the seder, usually a father or a grandfather, and he would give the child some money. This represented buying back the matzah, or redeeming it. Redemption requires a price to be paid.

Now it’s interesting that afikomen is not a Hebrew word, but a Greek word, and it’s meaning is really amazing. Remember how this has been a part of traditional Jewish seder for centuries.

Afikomen literally means “I have come” so it makes it all the more appropriate that in a Seder ceremony a price would be paid because redemption demands a price and Christ was the price paid as our ransom.

The typical redemption price to buy back a firstborn son is a half a shekel. But the cost that God required for our Redemption was the most costly sacrifice ever made. The price was the death of God’s only begotten son, Yeshua (Jesus). So the afikomen is hidden away, then it’s found and the redemption price is paid.

(children search for the afikomen now, and bring back to head of family for a small prize)

Cup Of Redemption:

The third cup is called the cup of redemption.

Blessing: blessed are you O Lord our God King of the universe who creates the fruit of the vine.

(all drink 3rd sip)
(Read Psalm 136)

Perhaps the most famous story in the Bible that prefigures the death of Christ is The Binding of Isaac in Genesis chapter 22. now in this story Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice the life of his own son Isaac who interestingly is about the same age as Yeshua when he went to the cross. The similarities between the binding of Isaac and Yeshua’s crucifixion are dramatic and meaningful. We learn that God will provide his own sacrifice, a symbol of God providing his son, Yeshua the Passover lamb.

Cup of Praise and Restoration:

Now it’s time to partake of that fourth cup.

God kept his word: his son was sent, he was executed and in so doing we are redeemed and restored. For this we should praise Him! This is the fourth cup that brings this Passover Seder to a close because there’s no more that needs to be done.

Yeshua’s death is the one and only act that’s needed to atone for us, how appropriate then that the Apostle John says that Yeshua’s final utterance was; “it is finished” no truer words have ever been spoken. (Read John 19:28-30)

Blessing: Blessed are you O Lord our God King of the universe who creates the fruit of the vine and who brings us salvation through his own matchless mercy and grace as followers of Christ, worshippers of the God of Israel.

With this final sip we have obeyed the father’s commandment to remember to honor the Passover and to especially to honor our Passover lamb, it is finished!

Blessing: Numbers 6:24–26
Yehovah bless you, and keep you.
Yehovah make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you.
Yehovah lift up his face toward you, and give you peace

Our Passover Seder is now complete.
Orator: Lashana haba’ah birushalayim!
Everybody shout: “Next year in Jerusalem!”