May 2007

Seder

            The Saturday before Easter the whole family came to our home and we celebrated with a Seder meal.  It is a wonderful Old Testament tradition that conservative Jews still celebrate today.  Before the meal begins leaven, representing sin, is hidden in the house and the children look all over the house until they find it and remove it from their presence.  The meal is a meal of memory in that it remembers the slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt and God’s deliverance from slavery.  There are foods that bring the bitterness of the slavery into sharp focus as you eat horseradish on matzah bread.  We dipped parsley into salt water as we remembered the salty tears of those who endured beatings and back breaking labor in Egypt.  They also shed tears because they were in captivity and were away from their homeland.  The charoseth is a mixture of finely chopped apples and nuts, sugar, cinnamon and a teaspoon of wine.  The mixture reminds us of having to make bricks without mortar.  As the ten plagues are recited, each person dips a spoon into the glass of wine and puts a drop on their plates.  The reading is done with great solemnity as the plagues are repeated one by one. 

            But there is more to the Seder.  This ancient ritual of the Jews also tells the story of Jesus.  There are three Matzahs on the father’s plate.  These are unleavened bread, and as this bread, resembling large crackers, are baked they leave brown stripes on the Matzah.  They speak of the three men on crosses, and the stripes remind us of the stripes on Jesus’ back from the beatings.  The Jewish people cannot explain the origin of the tradition, but the middle Matzah, called the Aphikoman, is taken from between the others, broken in two, and then one of the halves is folded into a napkin and hidden.  It makes us think of Jesus who died between two thieves, whose body was broken and hidden in the grave.  At the end of the meal the Matzah is found and brought back to the table.  The meal cannot be completed until everyone has eaten from the Aphikoman. 

            This is the same meal which Jesus celebrated with his disciples at the Last Supper.  It was the Aphikoman that Jesus shared with his disciples saying, “This is my body which is broken for you.”  Then he took the third cup, the cup of thanksgiving, and shared it with the disciples saying, “This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.” 

            It was a great time as we celebrated the memories of the past and made our own memories as well.  The grandkids can’t wait until we do it again next year.  It was something I will always remember, and each year it will have more meaning to the children.  The story of Jesus can be told in so many ways, and this was a particularly powerful one, because we saw how God used traditions among those who did not believe in Jesus to tell about the reality of his life, death and resurrection. 

Resurrection blessings,

Rod