It has also been noted that the matzah like Christ is perforated as was Christ through beatings and scourgings! TR I did a Seder with a friends family who are Messianic Jews. I found it interesting but it also seemed a bit ritualistic to me, similar to the practices of Catholicism. To each their own but for me I just prefer spending time focusing on Him and giving Him my unworthy love, which is a pathetic effort at best. I do understand the Seder and all of the other Jewish feasts but I will not practice them. They are from the Old Covenant, which is directly attached to the Law and by the Law I will always perish in Hell so I tend to shy away from anything that brings my "doing" into it. For me, the best I can "do" is be available for Him to use as the tool that I am. (insert smiling emoji since the emoji systems seems to be broken). But as I said, to each their own. I am no judge of what is in men's hearts. I've experienced the same Yohanan. Missionary friends were deeply in to it over a few years time, and wanted myself and another friend to participate in it with them, as a "life-style" so to speak. Beautiful and meaningful, but to share in those things with them felt ritualistic. Well we finished up our Seder last night and it was great! I’m just now waking up and catching up with the comments. Yohanan and Kolleen, I totally feel you on the ritualistic thing. I have also been to Seders that are very ritualistic and “dry”. There are as many different kinds of Passovers as there are presenters I suppose. There is a little book called a “Haggadah” which is supposed to guide you through the service but I tossed that years ago and came up with my own so to speak. I have been presenting Seders for almost 30 years and this is my personal experience. My goal is the beginning was, and still is Jewish evangelism “to the Jew first” but I also realized that the majority of my audience/participants were of the mainstream Christianity flavor and that a lot of the Jewish tradition is meaningless to them. We have the same things on our side of the aisle too, if we were talking to any other person other than a Christian about Easter, and we tried to explain bunnies and eggs, of course they really don’t have anything to do with Easter they are just traditions. So when I do my Seders, I try not to focus on the traditions unless they can be related to Christ in some way since apart from the historical exodus - really all I am concerned with is elevating Christ. I’ll give one good example. At a traditional Passover there is usually a burnt egg. This is purely tradition and the traditional reason for it is that is represents the destroyed and burnt temple to the Jews. Again, what interest would a Christian have in this, what does Christ have to do with this in any way? In my Seder, I use this opportunity to talk about Daniel 9 and how Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would come BEFORE the temple was burnt and destroyed - so to any Jewish listeners, if Jesus was not the Messiah was Daniel a false prophet then? And if Jesus was the Messiah and you have not accepted Him as such then you have a lot more to worry about than a destroyed temple. That’s just one example of how I take the traditional Seder and make it my own so to speak. But I understand what you are saying - I have also experienced those that promote the “lifestyle” and some get pretty upset if you don’t celebrate all the feasts of the Lord or call Him Jesus instead of Yeshua and so forth. I don’t subscribe to any of that - the Holy Spirit convicted me a long time ago that whether you call him Jesus “Heysoos” (as our Spanish speaking friends pronounce it) or whatever your mother tongue is - its like talking to a friend with a pure heart. If you have a friend called Robert and you call him Bob, does he take offense of course not! So I was convicted a long time ago to avoid this type of nonsense, but I have clung on to many of the Hebraic elements that have given me a greater intimacy with Messiah. I just can’t help but think that if either of you had attended my Seder you would have had a good ol time because for me, its all about HIM. But I suppose everyone would say that lol. In any case, to each their own, none of this has any bearing on salvation, and if its not your cup of tea, that is totally ok - what I am really looking forward to is the day when He presents His version of Passover to us in the kingdom, I think we will all enjoy that one! Here’s the thing the church is under Grace not the Law and we are under a New Covenant. Was the Last Supper even a Seder meal? The church is only instructed to have …. What did Jesus do and instruct us to do? Luke 22:19-20 And Jesus promises this … He will not drink again of the fruit of the vine (grape juice or wine) until that day in the kingdom of God (millennium kingdom) Mark 14:22-25 John 6:35 John 6:33 John 6:51 What did the early church do? Acts 20:7 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Communion … with bread and wine (or fruit of the vine grape juice)
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
