Passover! The word brings excitement to my mind and emotions. For Christians the Passover has been adapted to become "God will passover my sins and I will have eternal life because of the shed blood of the lamb, who is Jesus Christ, our Savior." It is sheer joy to contemplate life with God in eternity rather than eternal damnation because of the blood of Christ.
The Jewish celebration of Passover is an eight-day feast which begins with a Seder and includes extensive house cleaning and the practice of charity. Seder means "order" and is a family meal with the telling of the story of Passover. At the Seder, each person should have a "Haggadah." Haggadah means "the telling" and is a guidebook for the Seder. Different parts are assigned to family members and each follows in the Haggadah. Besides the reading, certain foods are served to aid in the telling of the story of Passover.
This article has ideas for developing your own family "Haggadah." Christians can choose scriptures or adaptations (some of the stories are long) to read at a meal. We have done this as a Sunday lunch since Sunday is our special day of worship. We have followed a similar meal plan, also.
The original Passover is from the history of the Hebrews in Egypt. The story begins with the death of Joseph and the enslavement of the Hebrew people in Egypt. The slaves were treated cruelly by the Egyptian Pharoh, but nevertheless, the Hebrews grew in numbers. Such numbers frightened the Pharoh (there might be an uprising) and the Pharoah ordered all newborn Hebrew males to be killed. Now into the story enters Moses, the Hebrew child who was hid in the reeds of the Nile River and found and adopted by Pharoh's daughter. As a young adult Moses was drawn to his own people and was angered by their treatment. So much so, that he killed one of the taskmasters he caught beating a slave. Moses then fled the area, but was called by God to return and lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt.
Moses sought out the Pharoah to ask for the release of the Hebrew people. Pharoh repeatedly refused despite the number of plagues God sent as punishment for not letting them go. Finally, God sent the worst of the plagues, the death of the firstborn children in each household. The Hebrews were spared this plague. They were instructed to mark their doorposts with lamb's blood. Their homes were "passed over" because of their obedience to mark their homes with the lamb's blood. A heartbroken and frightened Pharoah allowed the Hebrews to leave. But Pharoah also ordered the Egyptians to follow in pursuit - he thought he would their God by letting them go, but he wanted them back to continue serving as slaves. The fleeing Hebrews encountered the Red Sea and the water parted, allowing them to "passover" on dry land. Behind them, the walls of water crashed down on their pursuers. (See Exodus chapters 1 through 14.)
