Our First Passover Meal

Our CG leader and host, Chor Hon and May Foong, invited us to their home this evening for a Passover or Seder meal, on Good Friday today. For most of us, including the host, it is our first.


The table is prepared.


Our meal is simple. Since it is difficult for us to replicate it exactly, our host did a great job in preparing it as close as they can. We had unleavened bread in the form of biscuits, raw parsley in salted water, fruit and nut mix, roasted lamb and hard boiled eggs.


We had the privilege to share this special wine in the meal: Cana, Wedding Wine of the Holy Land.


We take our seats. We perform a reading of the Passover meal and Scripture passages, and partake the meal together.


May Foong lights the candles and prays:
Blessed art thou, O Lord God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us by Thy commandments and hast commanded us to kindle the festival lights. Blessed art Thou, O Lord God, King of the universe, who hast kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this season. May our home be consecrated O God, by the light of Thy countenance shining upon us in the blessing and bringing us peace.

Chor Hon introduced the meal:
What is the passover meal?
A Jewish celebration of freedom from the oppression of slavery in Egypt. The story of escape from bondage.
The Good Friday celebration: a Christian celebration. Remember we were captive to death from sin, an eternal separation and condemnation from God. Yet we have been set free by the precious blood of Jesus.
At the ancient Passover meal, the son asked the father four traditional questions about the Passover. It is to carry on a discussion about the symbolic foods.
In more recent times the same four questions have been asked at the
Seder. The questions we ask tonight are similar but have been adapted to bring to mind the relationships between the Old and the New Testament.

Alvin: Let us eat this unleavened bread.
Matthew: Why are we eating unleavened bread?
Alvin: Leaven which represents yeast symbolizes the sin in us. This sin makes us puffed up inside and turn us away from God. Take the "s" and "n" . See the big "I"? We need to be rid of the sin inside us.

Cheng Han: Observe the holes in this bread.
Tim: Why are there holes in the bread?
Cheng Han: These holes symbolizes the thorns that pierced Christ's brow and the nails that pierced His Hands. It was for us He did it. Jesus is the Bread of Life and as we partake of His Bread, He will abide together with us.

Pearlie: Let us eat this parsley dipped in salt water.
Jun Ming: Why are we eating this parsley in salt?
Pearlie: Like the bitterness of the Israelites' life under cruel slavery in Egypt, we remember the bitterness of our lives under the ugly bondage to sin. We remember how we cry because life is bitter without a relationship with God.

Miranda: Let us eat this sweet sticky raisin nut mix, the Horoseth.
Rachel: Why are we eating this sweet pleasant dessert?
Miranda: Life is bitter sweet; the smell and pleasant taste of the Horoseth impresses upon us that, no matter how bitter and dark the present appears, we should hopefully look forward to better days. Now we have hope. Now we wipe away our tears, for we have new life in Christ.

Ee-Tan: Let us eat this lamb.
Kaylene: Why are we eating this lamb?
Ee-Tan: On the Passover night in Egypt, death was forced to pass over the door posts of the houses who were marked with the blood of lambs . The sons of Isrealites were spared but the Egyptian sons died.
As Jesus hung on the cross, His blood has forced God's judgement to pass over us. Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, was killed and His death was a sacrifice to pay for the punishment for our sins . For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

Peih Venh: Let us eat this boiled egg.
Carolyn: Why are we eating this egg?
Peih Venh: The egg, a symbol of mourning (as eggs are the first thing served to mourners after a funeral), the Jews mourn over the destruction of the Temple. Yet through Jesus, a new temple is in each of our hearts instead to worship God.

Chor Hon: Let us drink this cup of wine.
Matthew: Why are we drinking this cup of wine?
Chor Hon: So that we remember three things:
a) This is the cup of the new covenant. "This is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day," says the LORD. "I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (Jer 31:33).
b) It is the cup of praise: we praise God here on earth and we look forward to drink this together in Heaven.
c) It is the cup to remind us that others are looking for the Saviour. We need to share this cup with those who thirst for the living waters of Christ but have not found it yet.

May Foong: Why are we reclining and drinking?
Richard: Tonight we remember that we are no longer slaves, but children of the very King of Kings. Freemen, royalty, reclined while eating. So, as Jesus who reclined at the Last Supper, we too lean back this night, for we are free to come before God who is upon the Throne.

We close with a reading together of Psalm 118.


Fellowshipping in the Seder meal - it was a truly blessed time of sharing the grace and goodness of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ His Son with the presence of the Holy Spirit. We remembered the work of Christ through the partaking of foods and meeting together as the body of Christ.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. (2 Cor 1:3-5)

pearlie
Photos: Pearlie Ng, 2014