Imago Dei Church will be celebrating Passover with a Seder Meal and Potluck Dinner on March 13, 6pm, at the Old Fellowship Hall at Wake Crossroads Baptist Church. Mark and Shelly Haugh will be leading the Seder Meal for us, and this blog is written by Mark as an overview of the Seder Meal and why we are celebrating the Passover.
Why are we, believers in Jesus, celebrating a Jewish holiday – Passover?
For me, there are several reasons. I celebrated my first Passover in 1981, a few months after meeting my wife (Rachel Feldman, AKA Shelly Haugh). Being born and raised Jewish, she has celebrated the Passover every year of her life and it has always been her favorite holiday. Now also it has become my favorite holiday for a number of reasons: the way it points to Jesus, the way it makes communion so meaningful, the gathering of good friends and family, and the great food my wife takes two days to prepare, that we only eat once a year.
God chose to reveal himself through a People–Israel, through creation, and through His Son Jesus.
God promised that through Abraham He would bless all nations, and through the nation of Israel would come the Messiah. Scripture says: “We know who we worship, salvation is of the Jew” (Genesis 12:1-3, John 4:22)
Jesus sent his Disciples to go and prepare the Passover meal. (Luke 22:15)
And He (Jesus) said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
The Passover Seder demonstrates how the Lord our God keeps His promises. Also, now a modern Jewish Passover Seder (pronounced “say-der”) reveals Jesus as the coming Messiah.
Passover was and is a shadow of what is to come. Through prophecy, God foretelling the future, that we may believe Him! (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
Scripture says all things that happened to Israel are an example for us. (1 Corinthians10;11)
Revealed is: Man’s sinfulness; God’s willingness to forgive; the way we may return to Him and the faithfulness of His love, so that all would turn from idolatry and sin to faith in their Creator. The Bible tells us God did not choose Israel because they were the mightiest of nations or the largest. He simply chose them, as one would walk into an orphanage and say “I will take that child.” (Deuteronomy7:6-8)
It was at Jesus’ last Passover that He instructed believers to keep the Lord’s Supper, in remembrance of His sacrificial death on the Cross.
The Jewish Passover of today still points to Y’shua, the Hebrew way to say Jesus, as the Messiah. Y’shua, Jesus and Joshua are all the same word, meaning Salvation, Jehovah Saves.
Finally, in Exodus 12:1-14, the Lord commands his people to keep this feast as a day of remembrance for all generations.
12 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. 7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.