Holy Cross Lutheran hosts celebrates first night of Passover

Passover began on Thursday April 6, and the Holy Cross Lutheran in Seeley Lake hosted a Seder Dinner to commemorate the Jewish tradition and recognize its place in Christian belief.

The Passover Seder is an annual tradition that marks the beginning of Passover, a week observing the freeing of the Jews from Egyptian slavery and the plagues which God passed down upon the Egyptians to punish them.

Passover particularly pays homage to the final plague, when God sent the angel of death to take the first-born sons of the Egyptian families. Moses told the Jewish homes to mark their doors with the blood of a freshly slaughtered lamb in order for their home to be passed over by the angel of death.

Although the Christian version is slightly different from the traditional Jewish ceremony, such as not being read in Hebrew and not necessarily setting a place for the prophet Ejijah, whom the Jews believe will herald the coming of the Messiah, since the Christians believe the Messiah has already come.

The event features a plate of specific objects of meaning to the story, and goes through a reading of the tale with steps for communal participation.

Pastor Erik Iverson led the ceremony's reading which explained the symbolism of each step and item. While a traditional Jewish Seder will have a specific plate set with the different foods in a certain order for the ceremony, the Christian version is simplified with less steps and less food.

After the ceremony a meal of lamb was served.

The tradition of Passover is not commonly observed by Christians as a religious ceremony, but the story itself is still Biblical canon and as Iverson explained, if the Jews had never escaped from Egyptian slavery, then there never would have been Christians to follow.

 

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