Okay, here goes. This is long and it's a little complicated, so please bear with me as you read it. But like I said before, Rob, it changed how I will view what we in the Protestant faith call "Communion" for the rest of my life. It also prompted me in a general sense to look more carefully at Scripture going forward, to try to figure out why Jesus said certain things, why events happened at certain times, and so on.

For example, have you ever wondered why Jesus' recorded ministry didn't really start until He was 30? It's probably because under Jewish tradition, a man can't become a rabbi until he is 30 years old. Hence, Jesus' ministry began when He became a rabbi. Before then, He wouldn't have been given an audience among other Jewish rabbis and scholars of the day. Interesting, no? Also, it might possibly explain why the only mention of Him as a child was when He was 12 years old, the very age at which a Jewish boy is recognized as a man by his Bar Mitvah ceremony.

Anyway, back to the seder story. Last year, I attended a Good Friday service at a church in south Memphis. It was billed as a "Christian Seder," and was hosted by a Jewish couple who came to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
As you probably know, the Hebrew word seder means "order." Seder dinners have been conducted by Jewish rabbis in the exact same way (i.e., order) for thousands of years on Passover night.

The rabbi follows a published script called the Haggadah. The dinner itself typically lasts for hours, with the rabbi reading from the Haggadah, and all the participants at the table responding with phrases. Each participant's placesetting is laid out on the table in a certain way. There is a set menu consisting of parsley which represents life itself, bitter herbs or horseradish representing the children of Israel's bitter life in Egypt as slaves, an apple dish called kharoset, boiled eggs, roasted lamb and, of course, matzoh or unleavened bread. According to the Haggadah, the significance of the bread being unleavened is the children of Israel didn't have time for yeasted bread to rise before having to leave Egypt.

Importantly, there are also 4 goblets of wine in front of each placesetting. Three of these are drunk at specific moments during the dinner as directed by the rabbi. (This was a Baptist church, so this particular seder used good old Welch's.) The fourth goblet, however, is never drunk. The reason is because it is reserved for the Messiah who, according to Jewish faith, "is yet to come." This becomes important later in the story.

Also, a quick word about matzohs. The look and texture of traditional matzoh is nothing at all like what we see here in the United States. In the US, matzoh crackers are bought at the supermarket and look like sheets of saltine crackers. But a traditional matzoh looks like a big pancake or pizza crust. It is still made the same way today in Israel and other parts of the world as it was thousands of years ago. This is what gets used in a Passover seder. This too becomes important later.

At at early point in the seder ceremony, the rabbi will lift a pouch from the table containing 3 round matzohs. The significance of these 3 matzohs is to represent God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Messiah "which is yet to come." The rabbi breaks the 2 outside matzohs and passes the pieces around the table. But the middle one -- the one representing the Messiah -- is placed back into the pouch and not eaten because the Messiah hasn't yet come. This matzoh is called the Afikomen (pronounced "AFF-ih-ko-men" with emphasis on the first syllable). When the rabbi places the Afikomen back in the pouch, he removes the pouch from the table for the rest of the dinner.

(Incidentally, over the past few hundred years, rabbis began tearing half the Afikomen and handing pieces of it around, supposedly because the "spirit of the Messiah has entered the world." He then places the remaining half inside the pouch and hides it somewhere in the room for all the children to go find. Jews refer to it now as dessert. But traditionally, the whole Afikomen was placed back inside the pouch and taken off the table entirely.)

The Passover seder concludes with the fourth goblet still not drunk, and the uneaten Afikomen still in its pouch.

Now back to this seder I attended. It was this fourth goblet and the Afikomen that made my eyes pop open. First of all, recognize that Jesus was the disciples' rabbi. As their rabbi, He would have been the one who conducted the Passover seder that night and read from the Hagaddah, just like any other rabbi conducting Passover seder around the world on that very same night. But Jesus did something completely different. He broke tradition.

Bear in mind that these 12 guys (11 at that point) had attended Passover seders every year since they were 12 years old. They had heard the ceremony many times. At that po

Thank you for posting the significance of the AFTER the supper. Upon reading your first comment I read all about a Christian Seder and the special Jewish procedures but upon reading those websites I was still missing the ultimate connection! That you for taking the time to
speak in depth about the final significance. I find it fascinating why this has never come up about communion other than Christians would hardly ever take the time to concern themselves with Jewish customs for fear of it being all to familar to the Law. Which is overlooked as law and not the love that God had originally intended it to mean. But knowing more about Christ as we grow closer to him also means knowing what he knew or has grown up doing. Good stuff!

Kristi:

I just posted a note on Rob's FB page in response to another person's post. In my response, I said that I always blindly accepted Jesus' comparison of His body and blood to bread and wine as if that somehow made sense. But the comparison He made doesn't really make sense until you understand what He was doing that night by handing around the 4th goblet and the Afikomen. It's pretty cool stuff.

I think I may have come up with an explanation for something else He did that night if you're interested.

Hello, Kristi. This blog of Rob's allows longer notes than the FB page. I just hope he doesn't mind us using it.

This "revelation" that I had over the Afikomen and 4th goblet made me want to study the Gospels' account of that particular evening more carefully. Like a lot of people, I had read the story many times over the course of my life, but kind of glossed over certain things that didn't quite make sense to me. One example is when Jesus washed the disciples' feet. He said it was to set an example for serving others. But the question that leaps to mind is, why did the disciples' feet need washing in the first place?

I am aware it was customary in those days for people to wash their feet upon entering a home before supper. But go back and look carefully at John's account of WHEN during the evening did Jesus wash the disciples' feet. In John 13:2, he says "The evening meal was being served..." and in John 13:4, it says Jesus "...got up from the meal...." What this tells you is that the supper was already served by the time Jesus started washing the disciples' feet. In other words, their feet would already be clean since they would have washed them when they entered the home BEFORE supper was served. Therefore, if you follow the logic, Jesus washed them a second time.

So why is this important? I believe there had to be some reason why Jesus washed their feet a second time. He had to be demonstrating an important point. I believe the answer lies not in the act itself, but in the verbal exchange between Him and Peter. As Jesus began to wash Peter's feet, Peter asked, "Not just my feet, but my hands and head as well." Most of us are amused by what appears to be yet another over-the-top comment by Peter, and we sometimes miss Jesus' reply. He said, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet."

What did He mean by that?

Consider this possible explanation: Peter had been called to discipleship by Christ Himself. When he accepted this call to follow Jesus, he was transformed. His soul became clean. In other words, his soul "had a bath." But even though Peter was now clean on the inside, Jesus knew his feet would become soiled, metaphorically, as he trod this sinful world. His soul would never again need washing, but his feet would.

Are you starting to see the answer? Just like Peter, when we decide to follow Jesus, our souls are given a "bath" to remove our sin. And yet we still sin. This seeming paradox can only be explained by the fact that even though our souls are clean, we continue to live in -- and walk on -- this earth. While our souls remain clean, our earthly walk causes our feet to become soiled by sin.

Jesus knew this. He is fully aware that His children have a tendency to get our feet dirty. They need to be washed frequently. In His words, even though we have "had a bath," we still need "to wash our feet" in order to remove sin we pick up along the way. In so doing, our feet -- and thus the feet of the Body of Christ -- stay clean.

I know it's a stretch in logic. But it's the only explanation I could come up with for what Jesus said that night to Peter. Make sense?

This is amazing! It makes perfect sense to me. Thanks for sharing...I would have kept on "glossing over it" and never thought of it this way :(

Thanks Brian for your insights; I enjoy contemplating these thoughts.