Elisabeth Adams

The order of service for the Passover meal is called the Haggada, which means “telling” because it’s designed to provide a multi-sensory retelling of the Exodus story.

A few years ago, I wrote a Haggada of my own, taking the skeleton of the traditional order of service, and weaving in the Bible, both Exodus and Gospels, in a parallel account.

Here it is.

Haggada

The Seder meal is time travel to two stories of God’s redemption: Exodus and Calvary. Knowing that Jesus’ Last Supper was a Passover meal like this one, we look for echoes of that evening: the foot-washing, the dipping in a shared dish, the broken bread given to all, the blessing and the cup, the time of teaching, and the closing hymn.

Note: Cited Bible passage are only quoted in part. The four “I wills” of Exodus 6:5-7 appear in bold, one for each cup. Actions from the Haggada appear in brackets.

<<Removal of leaven/sin>>

Remove leaven out of your houses. (Exodus 12:14-15)

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)

<<Introduction: the four “I wills” of Exodus 6:5-7 >>

I will bring you out…

I will deliver you from slavery…

I will redeem you with an outstretched arm…

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.

<<Cup 1: Sanctification = set apart. Marks entry into sacred time.>>

I will bring you out…

You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:17)

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” … And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Luke 22:7-18)

<<Wash hands>>

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. (Psalm 24:3-4)

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. …When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  (John 13:3-5, 12-15)

<<Dip parsley into salt water = tears>>

The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help…God heard…God remembered… God saw…God knew. (Exodus 2:23-25)

<<Four questions: “How different this night is from all other nights!”>>

When your son asks you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?” then you shall say to your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.” (Deuteronomy 6:20-23)

1. Why do we eat matzah?
Matzah = bread of affliction.

Seven days you shall eat… unleavened bread, the bread of affliction–for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste–that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 16:2-3)

He was wounded…he was crushed…he was oppressed…he was afflicted. (Isaiah 53:6-7)

He took bread…saying…“Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)

<<Leader: Remove third matzah, break, and hide one piece.>>

<<All: eat a bite of matzah.>>

2. Why do we eat bitter herbs?
Horseradish = bitter herbs

…with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. (Exodus 12:8)

<<Eat matzah with horseradish.>>

3. Why do we dip our food twice?
Charoset = mortar.

They ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. (Exodus 1:13-14)

And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. (Mark 14:18-20)

<<Eat matzah with horseradish and charoset.>>

4. Why do we eat reclining?  Reclining = freedom in contrast with original haste.

In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. (Exodus 12:11)

One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table close to Jesus.   (John 13:23)

<<Tell the Passover story>>

You shall tell your son on that day, “It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:7-8)

<<Cup 2: Plagues. Do not drink yet!>>

I will deliver you from slavery…

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.” (Exodus 10:1-2)

When your children say to you, “What do you mean by this service?” you shall say…”He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.” (Exodus 12:26)

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles… (Proverbs 24:17)

<<Drip one drop on plate for each plague as leader reads: Blood, frogs, lice, flies, plague, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death of firstborn>>

<<the Passover Lamb>>
On the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. …Your lamb shall be without blemish…and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:3, 5-8, 12-13)

“The L-rd took us out of Egypt,” not through an angel, not through a seraph and not through a messenger. The Holy One, blessed be He, did it in His glory by Himself! Thus it is said…”I will pass through the land of Egypt,” I and not an angel; “And I will smite every first-born in the land of Egypt,” I and not a seraph; “And I will carry out judgments against all the gods of Egypt,” I and not a messenger; “I- the L-rd,’ it is I, and none other. (Passover Haggada)

The LORD…saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation. (Isaiah 59:16)

“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep”…declares the Lord GOD. “I will seek the lost.” (Ezekiel 34:15-16)

The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.…I am the Good Shepherd. (Luke 19:10, John 10:11)

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53)

Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. (John 8:31-36)

He saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

<<Drink second cup>>

<<Sing/listen to “Dayenu” =”It would have been enough for us” if God had brought us out of Egypt — but He kept on adding blessings.>>

<<Eat supper>>

This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. (Exodus 12:14)

<< Afikomen = dessert. Find and eat the broken matzah>>

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.… I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. (John 6:49-51)

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)

<<Cup 3: Redemption>>

I will redeem you…

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

And [he took] likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt 26:27-28)

<<Show place setting for Jesus. (Traditionally this place setting is for Elijah)>>

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)

<<Open door for Jesus>>

<<Cup 4: Praise.>>

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9)

What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.

The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly, the right hand of the LORD exalts, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!”

I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.

I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Hosanna: Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.

The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (selections from Psalms 113-118)

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Matt 26:30)