RBWords

     I feel sure that some of my Beloved Congregation has at one time or another attended a "Seder Meal" either at the home of Jewish friends, or at a local synagogue or even at their local parish [although this would be more by demonstration than celebration in many cases]. Most often this will occur during Holy Week.  This meal marks the pivotal experience of the "Exodus," which took place after the last plague the Lord sent on the Egyptians - the death of their newborn males but before they left for the Red Sea.   They had to eat quickly and get moving.  By the time this story was put into writing, the event had become an annual celebration which assumed the status of a divine command.

 

     It is this event that forms the background of the Last Supper.  Although scripture scholars debate whether or not the account in the Gospel of John was a Passover meal, the setting during the week of Passover serves the purpose as well.  The early Christian community placed the meaning of the Last Supper within the meaning of the Passover meal and Christ became identified as a "paschal Lamb" that was sacrificed for us and which we consume in memory of his deliverance of us from our slavery to sin.   At the Easter Vigil, we particularly insist on reading the part of the Exodus event that concerns crossing the Red Sea, but the story of the deliverance of the Children of Israel is bigger than that dramatic moment.  That story becomes OUR story in our celebration every day of the Eucharist!  The Old Testament lives on in the new.  AMEN