The Passover meal and celebration is a very ancient tradition among the Jews. It goes back to the time of Moses, when God rescued the Israelites from slavery and led them out of Egypt. The Passover meal is traditionally held in remembrance of the night when God passed through the land of Egypt and struck down all the firstborn males in the land. But when God saw that the Israelites were obedient, and had placed the blood of the lamb upon their doorframes, he passed over them, and the plague of death did not enter their homes.
Preparations for the Passover celebration began long before the sacrifice of the lamb took place. The preparations included the members of the family looking through the house for yeast or for anything that contained yeast. All yeast was supposed to be removed from the house. After the removal of all the yeast from the house, the father of the house would make one last thorough search to make sure there was no yeast. The mother of the house would purposely leave a few bread crumbs somewhere in the house for him to find. These crumbs would them be removed by the husband and taken outside of the house and burned.
In the afternoon, the Passover lambs would be killed at the Temple, and the Passover meal would begin that night as soon as the first few stars began to come out.
The meal would begin with the lighting of the candles. It was the role of the mother to light the candles.
After this, the Father of the house, or whoever was in charge that evening would take a cup of wine and announce the traditional blessing. “This blessing was recited on Sabbaths and on other holy days and included the blessing of the wine, and the blessing of the day.” Every person who participated in the Passover was required to drink for cups of wine throughout the course of the meal. This wine was mixed with water in order to prevent the participants from becoming drunk. These four cups represented the four promises found in Exodus chapter six, verses six through seven. God told Moses to say to the Israelites:
“I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.”
The first promise is that God will bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
The second promise is that God will free the Israelites from being slaves to the Egyptians.
The third promise God gives is that He will redeem them.
The fourth promise is that God will make them His own people.
In the New Testament, at the Last Supper, Jesus took the first cup, which was known as the Cup of Sanctification, took a sip from it after saying the blessing, and then passed the cup around to His disciples. Some families choose to drink from the same cup. Others choose to have their own separate cups. Today, we’re using separate cups.
After the blessing, the people would wash their hands before handling the food. In the Gospel of John, we see that Jesus did more than this. In chapter 13, John writes:
“It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."
"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"
Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
By washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus was showing them that it was only through Him that they could truly be made clean. Jesus took the position of a servant by washing their feet, and he told them that they must also be servants and follow His example. Earlier, the disciples had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest, and Jesus told them that whoever wants to be great, must learn to be a servant.
In Philippians chapter two, Paul writes about the humility that Christ showed. He says:
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
It is important to see that in order for Jesus to “redeem the world from slavery,” He first had to become a slave Himself. In the same way, in order for Jesus to redeem the world from death, He first had to die Himself.
After everyone was finished washing, they then took their vegetables and dipped them into bowls of salt water. The salt water represented the tears of the Israelites as they had suffered in the land of Egypt because of their slave drivers.
When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He said:
"I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”
The dipping of the vegetables would also remind the Israelites of how they had dipped a hyssop plant into the blood of the lamb and used it to wipe the blood onto the doorposts of their homes on the night that God passed through the land of Egypt.
After everyone had dipped the vegetables in the salt water, it was time to uncover the three sheets of Matzah, or bread made without yeast. The reason bread without yeast is eaten is because when the Israelites left the land of Egypt they did not have enough time to wait for the dough rise.
In Deuteronomy chapter sixteen, God says:
“Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.”
At this point in the meal, the youngest son of the family is supposed to ask four questions.
The first question is: Why is this night different from all other nights?
The second question is: On all other nights we dip once, but why on this night do we dip twice?
The third question is: On all other nights we eat both leavened and unleavened bread, but why on this night do we only eat unleavened bread?
The fourth question is: On all other nights we eat meat roasted, stewed or boiled, why on this night do we only eat roasted?
After this, Psalms 113 and 114 were sung, which say:
Praise the LORD.
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.
Let the name of the LORD be praised,
both now and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the LORD is to be praised.
The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the LORD our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes,
with the princes of their people.
He settles the barren woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
Praise the LORD.
When Israel came out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
Judah became God's sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
the mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
Why was it, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,
you mountains, that you skipped like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.
After the singing of the Psalms, the second cup was drunk. This cup was known as the Cup of Freedom, and it reminded the people that God had kept His promise to free them from the Egyptians.
After this, it was time to begin the main part of the meal so everybody washed their hands again.
In order to begin the main meal, the host blessed the Matzah, broke it, and shared it with everybody.
In the New Testament, at the Last Supper, Jesus also broke the bread and gave it to His disciples. At this point, Jesus showed the significance of the breaking of the bread.
The Gospel of Luke records that:
“When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."
After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."
At the Last Supper, Jesus showed how the Passover sacrifice had been pointing to Him. The symbolism of the Passover pointed to what He would do when He offered His life in sacrifice for the salvation of the world. It was a traditional part of the Passover meal to talk about the different parts of the meal and to explain how they related to salvation. Jesus does this at the Last Supper, but He goes beyond the tradition of remembering the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt, and goes on to point to the New Covenant, which does not depend upon the blood of animals, but upon His blood.
In John chapter six, Jesus says to the Jews:
“I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."
When Jesus broke the bread, He told His disciples to remember Him every time they did the same thing.
“In the context of the Passover meal, 'do this in remembrance of me' means much more than recalling the past. Passover not only recalls the events of the Exodus but also seeks to involve each generation in that experience as a present reality. It is a re-actualization of what God has done for his people during which participants are to think of themselves as if they were there. It was not just their ancestors; they had been slaves, and they had experienced the saving power of God.
“There is an example of this in Deuteronomy 5:2-4:
‘The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. The LORD spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.’
“The generation that God first spoke to had passed away, but God's interest was not only in them; all future generations of Israelites were to identify with those who had gone before as those who had, themselves, received God's promises and experienced his deliverance. During the Passover [Meal], participants step back in time to relive the first Exodus, and as they do so the saving events associated with the first Exodus break through into the present day. Oppression and dark powers opposed to God's people are ever-present; but so too is the saving power of God giving his people hope for the future and enabling them to renew their journey to the Promised Land.
“As the participants shared in the Last Supper they were already remembering what God had done for them, and were sharing in the experience of the first Exodus for themselves. When Jesus commanded them to eat the bread in remembrance of him, he introduced a significant new emphasis; nevertheless, we may suppose that the same idea of re-actualization, which formed the basis of the Passover [Meal], is intended. In the future when the disciples, and the generations of Christians who were to follow them, shared this meal they would not merely be looking back on a past event. In the Lord's Supper participants sit at the table with Christ; they are drawn into fellowship with him; and the saving events which Jesus announced — the giving of his body and the shedding of his blood — break through into the present to be appropriated afresh by his followers.”
After the Passover story is read, the rest of the meal is served, which includes the lamb.
Next, everybody is supposed to take a piece of Matzah and dip it into the bowl of bitter herbs, or horseradish. The bitter herbs are to be a remembrance of the bitterness the Israelites faced when they were slaves in Egypt. They also serve as a reminder to Christians of how our lives were bitter before we came to know Christ, because of the slavery of our sin.
After the tasting of bitterness, the Matzah is dipped a second time. But this time it is dipped in a sweet dessert made of apples, nuts, and honey, known as Charoseth. To the Israelites, the Charoseth represented the bricks and mortar that they used when they were slaves, but it also pointed to the fact that to have hope of something better is a sweet thing.
At this point in the meal, the three sheets of bread are presented. As Christians, we see the symbolism of the three sheets of bread as representing the three parts of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The middle piece of bread, which represents the Son, is taken and broken. When we take this bread and we break it, we remember that the body of Jesus was broken for us.
We feel the texture of the bread, and we feel that it had been pierced. We look at the appearance of the bread, and we see that it is striped. And we remember the nails that pierced the hands of our Lord, and we remember the stripes of blood which ran down His body. We remember what the prophet Isaiah said when he spoke of our Lord:
“There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the LORD laid on him
the sins of us all.
He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.
No one cared that he died without children,
that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave.
But it was the LORD’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many children.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the LORD’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.
I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.”
The bread that has been broken is then wrapped in the white cloth and hidden somewhere in the house. When we do this, we remember that Christ’s body was wrapped in burial cloths and hidden in the ground for three days. For three days His body was hidden in the grave.
After the piece of broken bread is wrapped in the cloth and hidden, the children are then told to go and search for it. The one who finds it is rewarded. In a similar way, the one who searches for Christ and finds Him is rewarded with great joy.
The bread does not remain hidden forever. It is brought back. In the same way, Jesus did not remain dead forever. He was brought back to life.
At this point, the main portion of the meal has ended, and the third cup is drunk. This cup is known as the Cup of Redemption, or the Cup of Blessing. Many people believe that this was the cup which Jesus took at the end of the Last Supper, when he said to His disciples:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
On the night of the first Passover, the blood of a lamb had been wiped on the door frames of the Israelites’ homes. This had allowed the Israelites to be saved from death, and from slavery to the Egyptians. Now, when we celebrate Passover, or the Lord’s Supper, we remember that it is through the blood of Christ that we have been set free from sin and death.
After the third cup had been drunk, the fourth cup was filled, and Psalms 115-118 were sung. In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that before Jesus and his disciples left from the meal to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, they sang a hymn.
Jesus did not drink from the fourth cup. After the third cup had been served, He said:
“Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
The fourth cup was known as the Cup of praise, and was associated the promise God had given to the Israelites which said that God would take them as His own people, and He would be their God. Jesus knew that before he could drink of this cup, He would have to drink of another cup. He would have to drink the cup of death in order for us to be made His people. He proclaimed that once He had been lifted up on the cross, He would draw all mankind to Himself. And only through His death could we truly be made the children of God.
In the Garden, He prayed:
“My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
The fourth cup represents a right relationship between God and people. In order for there to be a right relationship, Jesus had to first pay the penalty for our sins. Now that this is done, we look forward to the day when he returns to take us to His home that He is preparing for us. When He returns, we will eat with Him, and it is then that He will drink of the fourth cup. This cup represents the making of everything right again. Jesus will drink of this cup when He comes to make everything right again.
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