Untitled Sermon (29)

Each element of the festival is a visual aid to help us understand the message of the exodus of the Jewish nation from Egypt[1]

The Seder plate contains a lamb bone, representing the sacrificial lamb; bitter herbs, as a reminder of the bitterness of slavery; parsley in salt water, representing freedom; a mixture of apple and nuts shaped to resemble a mud brick; and a hard-boiled egg, a symbol of life and a reminder of the ‘voluntary peace offering’ from temple times. In addition there is matzah—the unleavened bread—as a reminder of the haste in which the children of Israel left Egypt; and four glasses of wine, representing aspects of the redemption from slavery.

It was no accident that it was at the Passover meal that Jesus gave His followers instructions for the communion service we celebrate today. Passover is the Jewish festival of redemption, when Jewish people remember with thankfulness how they were set free from the physical and political slavery in Egypt.[2]

[1] John Jacobs and Gill Jacobs, Around the Table of the King: Meditations on the Communion Service from a Jewish Perspective, First Edition, Reflections (Leominster: Day One, 2021), 47.

[2] John Jacobs and Gill Jacobs, Around the Table of the King: Meditations on the Communion Service from a Jewish Perspective, First Edition, Reflections (Leominster: Day One, 2021), 47–48.