In Jewish tradition, the Seder meal is a very big occasion. In fact, the meal itself can take several hours. This is because of all the elements and scripture reading that goes into it. While we don't do this now, one of my hopes is that as my children get older, we will be able to do a full Seder meal with all of the elements and all of the readings. Right now, however, we do a very simple Seder. One other difference between the Seder that we do and the traditional Jewish Seder is that we do a Messianic Seder. This means that we talk about how the different elements point towards and are fulfilled in Jesus.
The outline for the Seder meal is presented in what is called The Haggadah. Below are some pictures of the Haggadah that I own. It is the Hazin edition, complete with artwork. While I do not use it in its full version now, as I said earlier, I hope to one day.
What's involved with a simple Messianic Seder? It is very easy. In fact, there are even Messianic Haggadahs online that you can print off and use. Even if you have never done this before, these step by step guides make it easy. Indeed, it does require a little planning, but the execution of a simple Seder is, well, simple. Below are some steps to a simple Messianic Seder:
1) Seder Dinner: It can include the basics: Broiled lamb, bitter herbs (horseradish or raw turnip greens) matzah bread, and celery or parsley. In fact, you don't even have to have lamb. Sometimes my family and I just use regular red meat (What do you expect, we are Gentiles!)
2) Read the Passover story.
3) Explain how Jesus is the Passover lamb.
4) Explain the elements. You can do this by reading a Messianic Haggadah which will explain to you about the four cups of wine, unleavened bread, etc.
As far as my family goes, we do an abbreviated, traditional Messianic Seder. What that means is that we do all of the elements in order of the traditional Seder, but we leave out some of the readings and catechisms. As we go through each of the elements, I explain to them how these both represent Christ and were fulfilled in him. If anyone is interested, below is the pdf version of the basic Messianic Haggadah that I use with my family. You will find it on pages 36-47. In fact, most of what I have learned about the Jewish feast and their Messianic fulfillment come from this book and this website. Both of which I would highly recommend.
In the next post we will look at the Feast of Unleavened Bread.