It’s Easter – a time where we often spend more time acting Jewish than Christian (sort of!). Today we had our 2nd ‘Cedar Meal’ or passover feast…
Topic: Celebrating what God did and has done!
Scripture(s): Exodus 1 – 14:4
Notes: The story of the Passover (and indeed all of Israel’s history) is incredible and riveting to adults and children. There is so much to learn about what they did (and how we do the same), the consequences they suffer (which we do too) and God’s character of love and forgiveness despite our constant bad choices. As there is a lot to this story it is not a lesson you can give in a short time. As a frame of reference, I estimate that we as a family have read, studied, listened to and acted out the story of the exodus for well over 100 hours over the years. We’re not close to finished – but the more we go through it, the more we see amazing things in it.
I would suggest that you use Exodus 1 – 14 as a daily family reading for a while. You will find that the older children will start to pick up deeper aspects (such as types & shadows, character traits of God etc) as the younger ones are simply learning the good and bad of being on either side of God.
Description:
This year, Sharmini has been extremely sick for weeks so the planning was, shall we say, non existent!
We came in at 6pm after finishing building a bird aviary, and all ran around getting things ready. We had about 30 minutes to figure out what to do, make it & eat!
We had no lamb, but mum had made us some veal parmigiana which had been thawing. That was put in the oven, the Charoset was made by the J man – apples, pears, honey, almonds, sultanas and honey. Cold re-heated chips from two days earlier(!) was a perfect stand in for the baked potato cakes. We had Brahmi in the place of parsley for the bitter herbs, lettuce in place of vegetables and tortilla wraps in place of Matzo bread.
The kids had listened to Exodus (audio Bible) the night before and this morning we had been through the story and background of the Exodus and the plagues in sections. I had told the kids that tonight we would act out part of the story – and go for a hike ending up camping without tents…they were very excited as you can imagine!
The passover meal was a prelude to our little trek. We followed the Roses ‘Christ in the Passover’ leaflet short Cedar meal which is a great start and very cheap. It also has recipes for some of the meal items (it is available in the Bible Study App [Olivetree] for your iPhone / iPad or as a pdf online). We just changed a few bits here & there.
A rough outline:
There are different phrases & blessings you all do together, with the leader reading out different passages & asking questions. A few of the main points below:
– To start the kids (usually the girls / hong women) light candles
– Everyone lifts the first cup (Sanctification) and says together:
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine” and drinks a little. This is done for each cup through the meal.
– Time for the bitter herbs which represent life that God gives and the salt water to remember the tears of the Israelites as slaves. Everyone dips & eats
– One of the children asks questions about the herbs & bread etc (the Haggadah)
– Time for the Afikomen – the middle piece of Matzo bread which is broken and represents what Jesus went through for our sins. Then one piece is hidden and later the children get to look for it – whoever finds it must be paid in order to redeem it for the next part of the meal.
– Horseradish is next eaten on the Matzo bread and then the Charoset. The Charoset reminds us of both the mortar used by the slaves, but it is sweet to remind us that no matter how bad things are God is with us, giving life!
– The Passover story is read / summarised then the Second cup (Plagues). This is fun everyone dips fingers into the wine & the says the plagues 3 times will shaking the wine from their fingers onto the Matzo!
– Then the lamb shank reminding us that a lamb had to die in order for the blood to be splashed over the door frames of the house to avoid death and that Jesus is the Passover Lamb.
– The first part of the Hallel where everyone recites(!) Psalm 113 & 114 – we read it as don’t know it off by heart (yet?!)
– The meal is next followed by the children looking for the Afikomen.
– The Third cup is next (redemption) and is the cup Jesus used when He said “this cup is the new covenant in my blood”
– Elijah’s cup is next – a place is set for him before the meal starts. The jews are expecting him to come, but we know He has already been in John the Baptist. The door is opened for his return but we open it for the second coming of Jesus!
– The second part of the Hallel leads with the Forth cup (praise) and a verse and Psalm are read together.
– The end is celebrated with the phrase “Next year in Jerusalem!” – we used Zion (a term symbolising Heaven) as that is where we’d like to be next year…
The whole of the Passover meal that has been celebrated by Jews for thousands of years, points to and elevates Jesus. While the Jews do not recognise Jesus as the Messiah, they often have a deep understanding of parts of God’s character. They know His law, but have missed why the law was given – to show people how sinful they are (Romans 3:20, Galatians 3:19). They try to keep the law in order to be made right with God (like nearly every religion) – where as a Christian knows that it is impossible to live up to God’s Holy standard for even a second. We rely on the fact that Jesus, being perfect, was sacrificed on our behalf – punished and tortured for us – killed in our place. His death as the Lamb of God, took away the sins of anyone who believes, for good! The Cedar meal is a great way to engage with a small part of this amazing event.
My main goal this year was for the kids to engage with what it would be like to be a slave on that last night (after seeing the plagues & getting treated more harshly, then having to up & leave everything you knew at quick notice and not knowing where you are going or what would happen) so the Cedar meal was rushed and ‘light’. Last year we took 3 hours or more!
After the meal I put the kids to bed and I pretended to be an Israelite family member who was skeptical of Moses’ claims and actions.
me – “why should we believe Moses – every time he speaks our job gets harder” and things like “the Pharaoh’s magicians could do the same tricks as Moses”
kids – “but dad it would be pretty hard to fake the hail stones or the eclipse”
me – “ahh but they happen naturally sometimes – just very amazing coincidence?”
kids – “what hailstones and darkness though out the land but not over us?”
me – “good point”
It was interesting and revealing to hear their responses – it is easy to gauge what they believe and have learned / interpreted by their responses! Needless to say they convinced me that we *should* kill a perfect lamb and put the blood on our door. We didn’t actually act this bit out due to lack of planning but next year God willing we will.
Off to sleep – this is maybe the first night ever I haven’t prayed with them…
After they were asleep I ran around putting money everywhere. Just coins – so that when they got up they could ‘plunder’ the ‘Egyptians’ and have some money to use later. Then the clean up, dishes, feed the fox (don’t ask!), lock up the chooks, attend Sharmini, get a sleeping bag and write this!
The plan after this is to wake them, explain the money and trek around the property then ‘camp’ out. We won’t have the pillar of fire – but we’ll make do!
I’m a bit disappointed that we can’t do the ‘crossing’ of the Red Sea – I wanted to go to Moore River & wade across (assuming God doesn’t part it for us!) but Sharmini is too sick…
The Passover has so much symbolism about what Jesus accomplished, and the kids absolutely love the celebration of it…I can’t recommend it highly enough. Seriously it doesn’t matter the details, but the excitement and depth of who God is and what He did for us is something worth celebrating.
Conclusion: Jesus really is the Passover Lamb – His blood takes away the sins of the world!
NEXT: The EXPEDITION!!