“If in recounting the Exodus and Passion we forget God, we fail to remember the Exodus and Passion no matter how many details of the story we line up in the correct order. We may tell a story of suffering and deliverance; and it may be a good story, a story of our people and our hero, a story that we find inspiring and that defines our identity. But we will have left out what matters most. For the memory of the Exodus and Passion is not primarily the memory of an exalted example of human victory over suffering and oppression. It is primarily the memory of God’s intervention in behalf of humankind.”
{I highly recommend the audio link to "2013 | Encore: Jesus' Last Passover Meal..." for a full explanation of how Jesus used the Passover Meal to validate and make sense of the Cross.}
It's that season again. It's time to really invest and practice the art of remembering. We do this as church every week but there's something about the Passover/Palm/Good Friday/Easter season that really pulls us into the "painting" of God. I often say, to myself usually because no one else is listening, that these feasts and sacred events are like stepping back from a painting to get a larger picture. The church loves to go into detail, dissecting and explaining, we love to get close to the painting of God and extract each line, color, and texture. We analyze and we discuss what we saw close up, thinking the closer we get the more we'll know and see. But sometimes, we need to step back. Step back a lot more and see the bigger picture. What is this we're looking at? And when you do, you see context, you see sequence and a flow to the art work, you can make out or "hear" a story in what you see. This is what the Church's gatherings do for us. It's God's way of gently placing his hand under our chins, lifting them up, and inviting us to "behold" something, Someone. This is why we do The Passover Seder every year, it helps us to look up and see the big picture, from the left to the right, from top to bottom... this is about God, this is about Freedom, this is the New Exodus... and he was and is the Passover Lamb that was slain for our Freedom. I get it, we get it... and we are again appropriately thankful and moved. We are fueled for the pilgrimage.
“The church claims that divinity took on human flesh— was “incarnated”— in Jesus of Nazareth. The time and the place therefore matter. Christianity follows Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of Cleveland or Jesus of Mexico City; the incarnation dates to the first century, not the twenty-first. Further, the Jewish tradition into which Jesus was born and the Christian tradition that developed in his name were “historical religions,” that is, their foundational events took place in history and on earth, rather than in some mythic time and mythic place; they have a starting point and a vision for the future. To disregard history, to disregard time and place, is to be unfaithful to both Judaism and Christianity... Jesus cannot be understood fully unless he is understood through first-century Jewish eyes and heard through first-century Jewish ears.” -Levine, Amy-Jill | The Misunderstood Jew
Enjoy the video from The Awakenings Movement, "The Passover". So good.
“Memory defines the identities of Jews and Christians. To be a Jew is to remember the Exodus. To be a Christian is to remember the death and resurrection of Christ... history is a matter of intellection, and its vehicle is historiography; memory, at least as “sacred memory”, is a matter of identification, its vehicles are commemorative rituals and liturgies. What memory draws from the past, is not “a series of facts to be contemplated at a distance.” This is what history does. In contrast, “memory draws from the past a series of situations into which one could somehow be existentially drawn.”
Here's a little list of Book Recommendations for You! These Should Help in all Things Passover Study. Enjoy.
{For all things Ekko Passover Seder, Click Here}
Want to do your own Seder?
Here's a simple and easy to follow version from Spangler & Tverberg, authors of the book, "Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus". Enjoy! {Seder Liturgy}