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!

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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! 

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.