Reflections on the Seder Meal and its Christian Connection

 

Let's relate this to us as Christians. Jesus initiated our Lord's Supper from this first Passover meal and at some similarities between the PASAH and Jesus.

•      God initiated this Passover meal before the events took place that it was to commemorate- Jesus initiated the Lord's Supper commemorating His death and looking forward to His resurrection before the events took place Exodus 12:1-20 – Luke 22:13-22).
   

•  God told Moses for them to take a lamb four days before its slaughter-Christ entered Jerusalem on Sunday - four days before His crucifixion. Both took place on the 14th day of the month Abib (Exodus12:2-6 - John 12:12-15).
   

•   Israelites were to sacrifice a male lamb one year old - in the prime of his life - when he was at his strongest. Jesus was about 33 years old - pinnacle of earthly strength and maturity (Exodus 12:2-6).
   

•       Male lamb was to be without blemish. Jesus is our example of perfection and sinlessness - without blemish. A lamb is patient, noiseless and submissive to death as was Christ (Isaiah 53:7 - Matthew 27:14).
   

•   The entire assembly of the congregation of Israel was to kill their lambs. A priest did not do this.  Everyone was to witness and be responsible for the death of the lamb. We are all responsible for the death of Christ on the cross. It was our sins that crucified Him (Exodus 12:6 – John 3:16).

     

•     The blood of the lamb was to be put on the two doorposts and lintel so that they might be passed over when death came to Egypt. It is the blood of Christ that keeps us from everlasting death (Exodus 12:22 – Hebrews 9:14).
   

•      Lamb was to be roasted whole - no broken bones. Christ was crucified and died with no broken bones - even though the soldiers were sent out to break His leg bones to hasten His death (Exodus 12:8-9 – John 19:31-36).
   

•     The meal was to be eaten with bitter herbs to remember the bitter slavery, suffering and hardships in Egypt. During the Lord's Supper we are to remember Christ's hardships and suffering (Exodus 12:8 – I Peter 4:1).
   

•     The meal was also to include unleavened bread (Exodus 12:8). Leaven is a form of corruption, sin, and impurity. Paul instructs the church about leaven and its spiritual application in I Corinthians 5:7-8. We are to be unleavened - clean out malice and evil from us.  Jesus alludes to this in Matthew 16:6-12 when He says beware of the leaven of Pharisees and Sadducees.
   

•   The Israelites were to eat in haste with their shoes on, staff in their hand and ready to go, looking forward to their future as free men. We as Christians are to be ready to go - watching and waiting for Christ to come - looking forward to our future in heaven as men free from sin (Exodus 12:11 – Luke 12:37).
   

• The Israelites put the blood on their doorposts several hours before midnight. The passing Egyptians must have thought that peculiar and ridiculous. It made them vulnerable to the spiteful Egyptians. But the blood of the lamb protected them from death. We are to accept Christ as our Passover Lamb and let his blood protect us. We are perpetually being saved from the hand of the destroying angel when we have Christ's blood on our doorposts. (Exodus 12:22-23 – I Peter 1:19)

What does it mean to have Christ's blood on our doorposts?

It is the act of perpetually having a badge that can be seen, experienced, spit upon, and being made vulnerable like the Israelites were vulnerable with blood on their doorposts for the Egyptians to see and laugh, and revile.

It also means cleaning up our act, diligently searching for corruption and sin present in our lives - like the Jews meticulously cleaning their house of leaven with a candle and a feather.

It means doing everything that God commands us.