Passover 2025

You may have been thinking as you read the title to this post, "I thought they were Christians."  We are.  For the last twenty-something years, we celebrate the Passover, but from a Christian perspective.  It's an exciting event we look forward to each year.  Tricia busies herself in the kitchen the day before, roasting lamb with rosemary and herbs, preparing wild rice, roasted beets and kohlrabi, snap beans, cole slaw, squash with chicken, tabbouleh, hummus, with homemade cheesecake and coffee for dessert.

The table is set in the dining room with fine china and silver.  After church we gather for our Passover Seder.  Both Russ and Benjamin joined us for the festivities.  Unfortunately, Laura Lee was unable to join us, but we pray next year she will.  Over the years, we've invited numerous guests to join us as it is a special event to share and celebrate.

We gathered around the table and got ready to begin.  

Mother lights the candles to get things started.

The seder lasts about an hour and we follow a guide called the Haggadah, or the Telling.  It orders the meal, and it is read as everyone follows along.

There are special foods that symbolize different things in the story, there are prayers and rituals, and the audience is invited to participate as we put dots of wine on the plate as the 10 plagues are read aloud.  The story from Exodus is read that recounts Moses leading his people out of Egypt.

Each person participates in reading and asking questions.  Four cups of sparkling grape juice are poured signifying, The Cup of Sanctification, The Cup of Deliverance, The Cup of Redemption, and The Cup of Praise.

The significance of the matzoh being unleavened and striped and pierced is discussed.  We learn and remember the significance of Passover to the Christian.  Just as the Israelites applied the blood to the doorposts of their home so that the Angel of Death would pass over their home, we remember that the blood of Jesus, the Passover Lamb, applied to our hearts give us freedom from the slavery of sin and give us life eternal.

In John's Gospel, John 1:29 to be exact, John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus walking up, said, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."  It was a very important thing to say.  Jesus is our Passover Lamb!

Image Credit

Passover.  A day of remembering.  A day to enjoy faith, family and food!  Next Sunday we'll celebrate Resurrection Sunday, where we'll celebrate the high point in the Christian life, when Jesus rose from the grave victorious over sin! 

Trying A New Thing

Exodus 12

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.

22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.

23 For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.

25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?

27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.

So each year for almost 20 years, we've celebrated Passover but from a Christian perspective.  We posted about it before - about how Jesus' blood atoned for our sins.  His Blood applied to the "doorposts of our hearts" frees us from the burden of sin.

We read from Scripture and feast.  One of the centerpieces of the meal is roasted lamb.  Normally we get a leg of lamb.  This year we had difficulties finding it and settled on a rack of lamb.  We had never roasted a rack of lamb.  'Twas a new experience for us.  First, we 'frenched' the rack by removing the fat from the rack, exposing the bones.  

Then we made criss-cross cuttings across the cap and rubbed liberally with olive oil.

Then we rubbed the rack with sea salt and pepper and sprinkled herbs like thyme and coriander over the top and sides.

Then we went and picked some fresh rosemary and chopped it up.  Our rosemary was once a small thing.  Now it is a big bush.  It is happy in our herb patch.  Rosemary atop the rack really smelled nice.  We rubbed that in as well while the oven pre-heated.

We covered the bones in foil so that the bones wouldn't burn, placed on a roasting pan and put in the oven.

When the meat tested 140 degrees, it was ready to eat.  We cut the rack into individual lamb chops.

And then we feasted!  We were so ready to eat, I didn't get photos of the sliced chops.

Passover is always a memorable event - a family tradition we look forward to each year.

The Passover

1 Corinthians 5:7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

We are not Jewish, but each year we celebrate the Passover from a Christian perspective.  Tricia always cooks a big meal of roast lamb and potatoes, beets, sweet peas, wild rice, and cheesecake.  We have appetizers of olives, hummus, haroset and matzoh.  We feast!  But the main point of the night isn't the meal - it is the story.  What an amazing story it is!

Passover is a remembering.  The children of Israel were called to remember.  They were to mark this remembrance with a yearly feast in which they were to recall the LORD's goodness in delivering them from bondage of the Egyptians.  Moses led the people from slavery into a land flowing with milk and honey.  We go through a little book called the Haggadah "the telling" and read the story.  Each Jew was to tell his son about the Jews' liberation from slavery.

When the plagues struck Egypt, the firstborn son in every household of the Egyptians died.  However, the children of Israel were called to kill an unblemished lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their home.  If they did this, the Angel of Death would "pass over" their home.  Wailing could be heard across all of Egypt as the Egyptians awoke to find the dead in their household.  The Pharoah told Moses and his people to GO!

This night of Passover is very important to a Christian as well.  As the verse at the top of this blog post asserts, Jesus is our Passover Lamb.  He was a sinless sacrifice.  If we believe Him to be the Messiah, the Son of God, we have placed His Blood on the doorposts of our hearts and we are delivered from the bondage of sin and from the penalty of death.

We are called to Remember.  This Sunday we'll also celebrate Christ's Resurrection from the dead and His victory over sin and death.  Halleluhah!  Christ Is Risen!  PAt the end of our Passover meal, we took out an old hymnal and our family sang "Low in the Grave."  It is a song that starts off somber and melancholy and then erupts in victorious exultation!:

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior, 
waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave he arose; 
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; 
he arose a victor from the dark domain, 
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. 
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus my Savior, 
vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord! [Refrain]

Up from the grave he arose; 
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; 
he arose a victor from the dark domain, 
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. 
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior; 
he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave he arose; 
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; 
he arose a victor from the dark domain, 
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. 
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Making Haroset

Last Friday was Passover and although we aren’t Jewish, our family has long celebrated Passover from a Messianic Christian perspective.  We have a Passover Seder and have a big family celebration.  One of the favorite parts of the meal is eating the haroset.  Haroset comes from a Hebrew word meaning clay or mortar and in the Seder meal, it is meant to remind the Israelites of when they were slaves in Egypt and were forced to make bricks.  Haroset is a sweet dish made with apples, lemon juice, mango, pecans, honey and cinnamon.

In one part of the Seder, we eat bitter herbs (horseradish) on top of matzos to symbolize the bitterness of sin/slavery.  Our eyes fill with water as the horseradish clears our sinuses and we think about the bitterness of being in bondage – as a slave or as a slave to sin.  Then the very next thing we do in the Seder is to put more horseradish on top of matzos, but this time we cover it with Haroset and then eat it.  The sweetness of the haroset overwhelms the bitterness of the horseradish.  This symbolizes the Hope we have in Jesus as He covers our sin and gives us FREEDOM.

It is one of those times where the meal lasts for a couple of hours, filled with good food, fellowship, and meaningful storytelling.  We eat lamb (we hardly ever eat lamb), have great leftovers for a couple of days and that means the lady of the house doesn’t have to worry about cooking all weekend!  But one thing we always say every year is this, “Why is it that we only eat haroset on Passover?”  It is so good and spread on top of matzos is a great breakfast or snack.

There is no rule that states that you can only eat haroset during Passover.  In fact, I read online that Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream makes a haroset flavored ice cream.  Interesting!  If you’ve never tried it, here’s how we make it.  You can make it, too.  We follow the recipe from here: Splendidtable.org and here’s what you need to make this simple, but delicious dish:

v  2 Granny Smith apples

v  Juice of 1/2 lemon

v  1/2 cup fresh mango, peeled and diced

v  1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

v  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

v  1 tablespoon honey

v  1 tablespoon Port or sweet wine (we substitute grape juice)

Peel, core, and dice the apples and sprinkle with lemon juice.  Place all the ingredients in a food processor.  Pulse a couple of times to break it up and mix and then sit it in the fridge for a few hours for the flavors to meld.  Then it is time to eat.  Enjoy!

Haroset on Matzo

Haroset.  It’s not just for Passover anymore!

Removing the Chametz

Chametz is derived from Hebrew and refers to leavened foods that are forbidden during the Jewish holiday of Passover.  Specifically, chametz refers to leavened bread or products containing it.  The Torah explains in Exodus 12:14-15 what the Israelites were commanded to do:

Feast of Unleavened Bread

14 ‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

Now, we are not Jews, we're Christians, but years ago, we began to celebrate the Biblical holidays from a Christian (Messianic) perspective as we realized that all of the Biblical holidays can be rich in revelation as most of the Old Testament points to Jesus, the Messiah.

So, the night before Passover, we perform a ceremony where we remove the leaven from the house, symbolizing removing sin from our midst.  Tricia takes pieces of bread (symbolizing sin) and hides them all over the house. We turn all the lights off and I lead the family by candlelight (symbolizing the Word of God) to find the leaven (sin).

We use a feather (symbolizing the Holy Spirit) to sweep the leavened bread into a wooden spoon (symbolizing the tree of crucifixion) and then put it into a paper bag (symbolizing the grave).  We then take the paper bag full of bread and burn it.  This represents the fact that due to the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, our sins have been paid for and are remembered no more.

Sweeping the bread into the wooden spoon with a feather

We then put the bread into the paper bag with the wooden spoon.

Putting the bread into the paper bag

We go all throughout the house repeating the process until we've rid the entire house of leaven.

Found another one!

Then we take the bag of bread outside and burn it in our fire pit.

Burning the bag of leavened bread

We watch as the bread, symbolizing sin, is burned up and dealt with.

Leaven is removed and destroyed

Pretty soon there is nothing left but ashes.

Sins are dealt with - never to be remembered.

On the very next night, we celebrate the Passover from a Messianic perspective.  You can click here: The Passover to learn about how it's done and the meaning of this rich celebration.

Next Year in Jerusalem!

The Passover

This past Sunday was Resurrection Day, a day very important to all Christians.  On the previous Monday, April 25th at sundown, Passover began.  We like to celebrate the Biblical holidays with a Messianic, Christian perspective since all the holidays are a foreshadowing of Christ.

We didn't see it this year, but normally we watch Charlton Heston playing the role of Moses in "The Ten Commandments" around this time.  The show does a pretty good job of showing the Israelites in bondage in Egypt and of God hearing their cries and using Moses to deliver His people from Pharoah.  Who can forget, "Let my people go!!"?  A very interesting part of that show is the plagues and eventually Passover when the Angel of Death went through the land, taking the life of the firstborn male human or animal, unless, of course, there was the blood of the lamb on the doorpost.  Then the Angel of Death would "pass over" the home, leaving the firsborn male untouched. 

Each year we have a dinner celebration called a Passover Seder, which is a meal with special foods, practices and Scripture readings to remind us of two special true stories - how God delivered the Hebrew people and how Jesus died for our sins delivering us.

The reason we celebrate is from Exodus 12:14 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance."


Sonnier family celebrating Passover 2013

During the Passover Seder, there is a seder plate with special foods that symbolize part of the Passover story - a story of both physical and spiritual deliverance. 

Foods on the seder plate include:
Shank Bone of a lamb: symbolizes the lamb eaten before they fled Egypt, but also symbolizes Jesus, who is the Lamb of God-our Passover Lamb.
Matzah: made with no leaven to remind us that the Hebrews left Egypt in a hurry, but also symbolizes Jesus, the Bread of Life who is without sin.
Bitter Herbs: represents the bitterness of slavery, but also represents the bitterness of the crucifiction Jesus went through for our sins.
Haroset: a mixture of apples, nuts, grape juice, and cinnamon that represents the mortar used to build Egyptian cities and the sweetness of a better world and also symbolizes how the sweetness of Jesus can overcome bitter sin.
Karpas: symbolizes the new life for God's people.  The non-bitter vegetable is dipped into salt water representing the tears of slavery and the tears Christ shed over His people.

Below you can see the elements of the seder plate:


Passover Seder Plate

Here is the matzah.  Jesus was broken for us.  Note how the matzah is striped and pierced, just as Jesus was for us:

Matzah

The leader follows a program called The Haggadah which means "the telling" and all participants follow along with it, through special prayers, ceremonies, stories, and songs.  The Passover celebration especially centers around the children so they can hear about the things God has done for his people.

"And it shall come to pass, when you come into the land which the LORD will give you, according as He hath promised, that you shall keep this service.  And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, 'what mean ye by this service?  That you shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses."  - Exodus 12:25-27

(I like the word smote.  We need to use that more in modern English!)

We also drink of four cups (well, really only 3) that represent:

The Cup of Sanctification
"I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians."  Jesus sanctifies us.

The Cup of Deliverance
"I will rescue you from their bondage."  Jesus delivers us.

The Cup of Redemption
"I will redeem you with an outstretched arm."  Jesus redeems us.

The Cup of Praise
"I will take you as My people."  Jesus is our Joy!


Passover Haggadah

We read the Passover story and relate it to the story of Jesus.  The entire Passover story is a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ.  We especially celebrate Jesus being raised from the dead.  We rejoice in His victory over death and how he gave us eternal life if we believe and follow Him.


Tricia at the Passover Seder

At the end of the Seder, we always conclude by saying (or attempting to say):

L'Shanah HaBa'ah B'Yerushalayim, which means: Next year may we be in Jerusalem!  It is a special time for us and a meaningful family tradition.