TO THE JEWS

Thirty-five hundred years of slavery, tyranny, dispersion and the Holocaust have never stopped the miracle of Passover

ZOLA LEVITT

Zola Levitt is a Hebrew Christian, lecturer, radio talk show host ("Heart of the Matter," KPBC Dallas,) host of Zola Levitt Live on National Christian Television and an author with over forty books in print. He appears in several Christian documentary films and periodically serves as a tour guide in Israel.

Levitt's books and other study materials are available through your local Christian bookstore. You may also use the order form in the back of this book to order directly from the author.

THE MIRACLE OF PASSOVER

I celebrated my first Passover when I was four months old. In my family everybody was invited.

I learned what it all meant 32 years later when I received Christ.

And now that I understand a few things about what God has hidden in this beautiful experience, I want to share it with the whole world. Believe me, by the time you finish reading this small book you'll know Jesus Christ in a new way, whoever you are.

This book is mainly intended for my Christian brothers and sisters since they are the ones who want to know Jesus better. But my personal prayer is that my fellow Jews read this book. They need to know Jesus better.

Read carefully and remember what this book says because at the end I'm going to ask you to give this book to a Jew.

Please forgive the constant commercials throughout this writing on behalf of my people. Virtually no one in the church witnesses to Jews today, and we have created a new kind of church unlike those churches in the New Testament. We have made a wholly non-Jewish church today, and this was never God's plan. I take every opportunity to encourage witnessing to the Jews because the Jews need the church and the church desperately needs the Jews.

This book is organized just like a Passover service, or seder. The sections follow the activities at the Passover table just as they happen. If there is a certain unique joy to reading this book, it's because there is a certain unique joy to Passover itself.

God always loved festival days, and He could really plan a party! Sit back now and get ready for one of the finest spiritual blessings in all of God's revelations, the Miracle of Passover.

WHY STUDY PASSOVER?

There are any number of good reasons why Christian people should understand Passover. The first and best is that the Lord did this. We sometimes don't consider to what trouble Jesus went to keep the Jewish feasts, but they were obviously important to Him. And of course we seek to do what He did.

Jesus and His men walked 75 miles or so from Galilee to Jerusalem for each of these occasions (the feasts had to be observed at the Temple in Jerusalem, according to the law). There were 7 feasts each year (given in Lev. 23, with appropriate dates and worship activities for each) and they required at least three trips to the Temple annually. Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits, which all occur within an eight day period in the early spring, could be gotten into one trip. Pentecost, scheduled 50 days after First Fruits, required a second spring trip near the beginning of June. Finally, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles, occurring within a 22-day period in the fall, might be accomplished in the third trip. The Jews made these arduous pilgrimages faithfully for 1,500 years.

Those living in or near Jerusalem had an advantage, of course, but reverent Jews attended these holy convocations even from far-off foreign lands (Acts 2:5, e.g.). The law was very clear and fearsomely strict about these special feast days (see Lev. 23:29-30 for example; the very privilege of belonging to the chosen people could be taken from one who violated the feast day laws!).

Jesus more than kept the law. The scriptures do not require the observance of the national Israeli festival Chanukah, the feast of dedication, but the Lord graced the Temple with His presence even on this relatively minor occasion (Jn. 10:22).

It should be appreciated that the remarkable Teacher from Galilee endured special hardships in traveling to these feasts. There was virtually a price on His head through a large part of His ministry, and He was obliged, on occasion, to travel incognito. In John 7 Jesus' brothers taunt Him about attending Tabernacles, expecting that He will discreetly omit the feast under the circumstances. But the Lord sent them on ahead and then went Himself, "not openly, but, as it were, in secret."

And so Passover, as well as the other feasts, takes on the sacred distinction of having been commemorated by the Messiah Himself. We sing in church, "I have decided to follow Jesus," not always realizing that following Jesus might involve long trips through hostile country, as well as appreciating the significance of ancient feast days.

The Lord took the bread and wine that Passover night, the night before He died, and bade us, "Do this in remembrance of me." We should certainly fully understand what He was doing.

What would you do tonight if you were going on trial for your life in the morning? Our Lord must have really valued this feast!

Another reason for studying Passover is that we gain a marvelous insight into the very essence of Christianity—the sacrifice of the Lamb. This will be explained more fully below, but we can see clearly that the crucifixion was a kind of repeat performance.

God had already shown that a sacrificed lamb ("without blemish, a male...” Ex. 12:5) was sufficient for the redemption of an entire people back in Egypt. Both the Jew and the Christian can say, "I was delivered from slavery by the blood of the lamb."

John the Baptist laid stress on this point for the benefit of his Jewish audience when Jesus approached to be baptized. John could well have said, upon seeing the Lord, "Behold the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace, the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the World, the Son of God..." and on and on through Jesus' many titles. But instead he chose to say, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world."

That statement was loaded with meaning for the Jews. The idea of "the lamb" immediately marked Jesus as appealing to God as a sacrifice; the lamb had been God's preferred sacrifice since Abel. But lambs had previously only covered the sins of the Jews. This lamb, as John detailed, was sufficient to take away the sins of the whole world!

Understanding Jesus as a sacrificial lamb, in effect, is to understand the very heart of Christianity. All of His magnificent sermons, all of His miracles and the sum total of His wonderful teachings taken together would not save the best of His disciples (Peter actually denied Him when the chips were down, after having witnessed all these things). But His blood saves us all. His sacrifice pays off our debts to God in full.

Acting like Jesus won't get you salvation. Emulating His moral character, His unique way of doing things or His high principles will make you a better human being, to the degree that you are able to mimic Jesus. But it is His blood that cleanses, and that's all. That's the simple difference between genuine Christianity and a great deal of religion that merely goes by the name of Christianity. In the simplest terms, our realization that we need to be cleansed and our going directly to Him for that cleansing results in our salvation.

Passover is a living picture of how salvation is properly obtained, as we shall see.

Thirdly, we ought to study Passover so that we can better witness to the Jews. It is surely the greatest tragedy of history that the very people from whom the Lord came are largely unsaved. Paul said, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved" (Rom. 10:1). He assured a young church, "Hath God cast away His people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew" (Rom. 11:1). And finally, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16).

Paul went to great pains to point out that he himself was Jewish, after all, so God must still have been interested in saving the Jews. But despite all his appeals the church stopped witnessing to the Jews, from whom came all Christianity. The situation hasn't really changed today.

Look at it this way: Jesus is Jewish. The disciples were all Jews. The apostles were all Jews. All the people saved at Pentecost were Jews. The first Christian church in the world, the Church of Jerusalem, was entirely Jewish. That church sent missionaries throughout Asia and the Mediterranean and, at great pain and expense, brought the first Gentiles to salvation in Jesus Christ. Every Gentile saved today, every church we have built, every seminary, every missionary society—all can be traced back to the original courageous efforts of the Jewish believers of Israel who took the gospel of Jesus Christ, on pain of death, throughout the known world.

You're reading this book because of the Jews and their witness. It's time to return the favor.

The Church would surely have God's blessings if it ever undertook a real witness to His chosen people. This is the way He chose to bring Jesus to the world, after all— through the Jews. Paul, a missionary to the Gentiles, went to the synagogues first, the Book of Acts relates, in order to witness to the Jews. He practiced what he preached in those early times, firmly establishing the faith in Christ among the Greek Jews, the Roman Jews, etc., and then exhorting them to take the good news to the Gentiles. "To the Jew first," was his method of operation as he traveled, guided by God.

If we would do that again—get the Jews into the church —there is good reason to suppose that God would bless us now as He did before. He said plainly, "I will bless them that bless thee," to His friend Abraham (Gen. 12:3), and "I will curse them that curse thee." He made the Jews what they are—good salesmen, influential people—in order that they might take Christ to the world, rather than jewelry, mortgages and garments.

We are failing to enlist in the cause of Christ God's hand-picked workers. As a result the Jews are languishing without faith in their own Messiah and the Church has made a new sort of Christianity that lacks basic knowledge (like the knowledge of Passover). I have to write this book to teach Passover to Christians. The apostles would have been stunned to know that the Church would someday be almost entirely Gentile and not really understand Passover.

God's ideal church is described in Ephesians 2—"Jew and Gentile, one in Christ." That's the way He planned it; men have put it together differently.

My point is this: You should witness to your Jewish friends, and a knowledge of Passover will help you do it. The witness is failing today because there is not enough common ground between Jews and Gentiles.

We have nothing to say to them. A Jew is not interested in your saying, "Be washed in the blood," because he has no idea what you mean. But if you come to a Jew with a real knowledge of Passover, then you do have something to talk about. Almost every Jew celebrates Passover to some degree or other, even agnostic Jews.

The witness to the Jews fails for other reasons of course. Gentile Christians think Jews don't belong in their churches (what if the Jews had thought Gentiles shouldn't come to church back at the beginning!). And some Gentiles actually curse the Jews, despite God's clear warning on this. Christians are a dime a dozen who look down on Jews and even hate them. God loves the Jews, as He has repeatedly said. Don't offend God by hating them.

This book will help you, whatever your position. When you understand Passover you'll be in a position to at least communicate spiritually with the Jews. Godspeed!

The final reason space will permit me to list here is that studying Passover will help prepare you for the Kingdom to come. Christianity isn't just for now, of course. What we see is not all we get. We expect happier days by and by. When the King comes He will act as He did before. He will celebrate the Jewish feasts (see Zech. 14:16, e.g.).

And in the case of Passover, so beloved by the Lord, He clearly stated that He will commemorate it again with us in the future: "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom" (Mt. 26:29).

Well, if we're going to celebrate Passover with the Lord in the Kingdom to come, we might as well go through it thoroughly so that we can be ready!

"PURGE OUT THE LEAVEN"

Passover doesn't just happen. It takes a lot of preparation.

The house must be clean—sterilized—in honor of this great occasion. Every family member participates in this one-of-a-kind housecleaning.

Particularly, the house must be free of all leaven. Leaven is simply yeast, the stuff that makes bread rise, and it's found in bread, cake, cookies and so forth. In the Bible leaven is symbolic of sin.

Father plays a game with the children concerning getting out the leaven. While mother is busy in the kitchen, bringing out the special Passover dishes and tableware, father hides crumbs of bread throughout the house—on the bookshelves, behind the furniture, on window sills. Then the children come like an army, ferreting out all the crumbs. When they find some leaven they shout for father, who comes with a feather and a wooden spoon. He carefully brushes the crumbs into the spoon with the feather, carries them to the fire and throws them in. Thus all those little sins and bad works are burned up ("And the fire shall try

every man's work of what sort it is." I Cor. 3:13).

How beautifully symbolic of the sacrificial fire back in the Tabernacle and the Temple. The sacrifices were burned up, that men's sins might be covered. Paul alludes to this symbol:

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (I Cor. 5:7-8).

That scripture, opaque to those who don't understand Passover, was written to the church of Corinth in the full knowledge that the Jews in the church would make it clear. Every Jew was once a child who hunted down those little "sins" and saw to it that they were gotten out of the house that Passover might be held in all purity. How clear a picture of true sanctification!

Throughout the New Testament, the apostles, studied in Judaism of course, allude to the Jewish feasts. They assumed that their writings would be understood in the foreign churches since they had personally brought the Jews to Christ in those lands. But now that there are so few Jews in the church anywhere, the very same writing becomes puzzling. It is invariably frustrating to the Jewish Christian to have to explain the ABC's of Christianity to those who choose not to witness to the Jews but have no other way of acquiring this knowledge. This writer has had the experience of explaining to learned seminary faculty members with doctoral pedigrees the simple Judaism once understood by any fisherman, tax collector or tent maker in Israel.

The principle of cleaning out the leaven so that the house is purified for Passover is greatly extended in II Kings 22-23, where it is recorded how a determined King Josiah raged through Israel like a tornado cleaning out the pagan altars from the land. The language is terrifying, and people really sat up and took notice when Josiah tore through town. The net result was a wonderful Passover, held in a land at last cleansed of false worship and apostasy. Even God was duly impressed, and gives credit where it's due:

"Surely there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah!" (II Kings 23:22).

You might win a Bible quiz with the question, "When was the best Passover held?"

WHITE LINEN, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF SAINTS

Though Passover tends to vary from village to village, and even from house to house, the next procedure in the preparation is to get out the special white linen artifacts that go with the meal. (The Jews, like the Christians, tend to vary in their observances, some backsliding away from the basics, some redoubling their efforts to be very exact.)

White linen is symbolic of righteousness in the scriptures, (Rev. 19:7-8) and the cleansed home is trimmed with it for the service. The table is set with a white tablecloth and white candles, and father dons a white robe, called a kittel, and a white crown. White dishes may be used, but in any case these dishes are very special. They are not the dishes used throughout the rest of the year but are kept away from the others for exclusive use at Passover. The proper kosher housewife keeps four sets of dishes: two sets keep meat and milk meals separated during the year; two others keep milk and meat meals separated during Passover.

The splendid white artifacts, which include the various linens used on the table as part of the service, the napkins, etc., lend an atmosphere of purity and festivity to the meal. Father's costume is that of the High Priest in the Tabernacle, who wore a pure white robe, and the effect is that part of the official Temple worship has been brought home for Passover. Father also symbolizes the risen Christ, the High Priest, Who glowed white after His resurrection.

FOR WOMEN ONLY

Now the candles are lit, as the preparation continues. Interestingly they are lit by a woman.

Women do very little in Judaism, and almost nothing in orthodox Judaism. They are seated apart from the men in the orthodox synagogue, in a balcony or shielded downstairs section, and they do not read the scriptures nor pray. The Jewish wife properly consults her husband for requests to be made to God, and the single girl, her father. At the "Wailing Wall" in Jerusalem a smaller section for the women is separated by a high fence from the men's section.

But women light the candles. The mother of the house is supposed to do it.

The symbol there is obvious. It was a woman who brought us Christ, the light of the world. Jesus could have come down from heaven a mature man, certainly. This was within the powers of our God, who made Adam from dust and Eve from a bone. Jesus could have sprung from a tree, come walking down from a mountain, or anything else imaginable when God sent Him. But instead He was born of a woman, like every one of us. The message is, of course, that He had human flesh like ours; he grew tired and hungry, he wept. God chose a woman, Mary, to bring us Christ our Passover, however; and so a woman still brings the light to the Passover celebration.

THE FIRST CUP

Four cups of wine will be drunk as part of the Passover festivities. The first cup is called the Cup of Sanctification, and it simply sanctifies the table and all of the preparations. Note that the service has still not begun—everything is still being made ready.

There is almost a mood of father certifying that all has been prepared in strictest accordance with the law as he pours the first cup. He approves, as it were, the whole family's labors, and he gives the table itself his blessing with his prayer over the wine.

THE HIDDEN BREAD

After the first cup the father takes three loaves of the unleavened bread and places them in a special white linen envelope which has three compartments. A "loaf^1 of unleavened bread looks like a big soda cracker, rather than what we now think of as a loaf. It is flat, marked with stripes from being grilled and pierced with holes from the cooking process.

In a special ceremony of his own, father removes the middle loaf from its compartment, breaks it, wraps it in a separate piece of white linen and hides it away. He "buries" it behind the cushion on his chair, usually, though some fathers prefer to put it away in a drawer or under the table. (Father, and sometimes everyone else, is seated on pillows for the Passover meal.)

THE FOUR QUESTIONS

Now the youngest member of the family who can read asks father the Four Questions. These questions have undoubtedly been asked since the Exodus from Egypt and have to do with the particulars of that great event.

(This is part of the tradition of every family member taking part in the worship. Since everybody was once the youngest child, everybody has asked these questions and listened to the answers. Thus every Jew knows at least a little bit of Passover, whatever the strength of his religious views.)

The questions are very general and give father a chance to hold forth with the whole story of the Exodus:

1.    Why is this night distinguished from all other nights? On this night we eat only unleavened bread.

2.    On all other nights we eat any kinds of herbs, but on this night only bitter herbs. Why?

3.    On all other nights we do not dip, but tonight we dip twice. Why?

4.    On this night we all recline in our chairs at the table. Why?

In reply father begins to chant the whole of the Haggadah, the Passover book. As the story unravels the questions are all answered.

For convenience here I'll answer them now. The unleavened bread symbolizes purity, of course, since leaven is sin. As we saw, Paul stated in his letter to the church at Corinth, "Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (I Cor. 5:8). On the very night of deliverance, Passover, unleavened bread is completely appropriate.

The bitter herbs reminds us of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. Other foods, which are displayed on a center plate at the beginning of the meal, also symbolize parts of the Exodus. We will explain them as we come to them.

The dipping, by which Jesus identified His betrayer, Judas, ("The one who dips after me") has several traditional meanings. The one I always liked best concerned the traveling across the Red Sea on dry land. Since the parsley is dipped twice in salt water the image is most telling. The first dip is Israel, going into the Sea and coming out unharmed. The second dip is for the Egyptian army who tried to follow them—the parsley is dipped and then immediately eaten. Down the hatch with Pharaoh's persecutors!

There are other versions of this dipping, and also of the dipping into the charoses, a sweet mixture of apples, nuts and spices, which we will presently discuss.

As to the fourth question—the reclining in the chairs— this has to do with freedom. The Jews are no longer slaves and so they can relax (though being a Jew through the ages hasn't proved so very relaxing after all). If being delivered out of slavery is symbolic of redemption, then sitting on a pillow is symbolic of what it feels like to be assured of your salvation. Just feel it! Put a nice soft pillow on a nice soft dining room chair and sit on all that nice softness. That's salvation, brother!

I can't help imparting a story I heard which illustrates the dangers of having only a little knowledge of Judaism and trying to be a learned Christian. A seminary student once taught an acquaintance of mine that Jesus and His disciples lay on the floor at Passover! It seems they were lying like spokes in a wheel with their feet toward the center of the table, or maybe the table was set on the floor, too. This incredible picture evolved from the student trying to define the term "reclining" without asking a Jew.

Those are the answers to the Four Questions in simplest form, but of course father goes to more trouble than that. He tells the wonderful story right from the beginning —"When our people were enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt..."

THE EXODUS

If you have a Bible you already have the best version of the Exodus possible, and there's not space here to do it any justice. It begins in Exodus 12 and is doubtless one of the most stunning moments in the entire Old Testament. The delivery of a nation to freedom has ever inspired the world (the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is inscribed with Lev. 25:10, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." This happy duty accrued to the chosen people as a direct result of the Exodus from Egypt; the American forefathers saw the connection to their own exodus for religious freedom).

The real meaning of the story is in just how God chose to deliver His people. Remember, we are dealing with Almighty God: He could have swept away the land of Egypt with His mighty arm and had the chosen people miraculously transplanted to Israel.

But no, He decided on a more arduous course, with the people taking an important part in their own deliverance.

He had them select that young, male lamb, without blemish, four days before Passover. They were to examine it carefully over those days, a lamb to each household or two, and be absolutely sure that the lamb was perfect. (And which of us did not examine Jesus Christ with great care before we entrusted Him with our own salvation?) Jesus completed this symbol when He came into Jerusalem riding the donkey four days before Passover. The people examined Him and many said, "Hosanna..." (Save us!")

Then God had them sprinkle the blood of that lamb on each house back in Egypt.

We're still doing that, except that in the New Testament the body is the house ("The house of the Spirit"). We each place the blood on ourselves, as it were, instead of on our doorposts.

God said that the avenging angel, passing over Egypt and killing the first-born in each Egyptian household, would see the blood of the lamb on the Jewish houses and would pass over those houses. The Jews would be spared by the blood of the lamb (as is now true for everyone, the Lamb now being Christ.)

Why did God do it that way? Would the angel have made a mistake if someone had failed to put the blood on his doorpost? Would that family have lost its first-born son and not be taken in the Exodus out of Egypt? Would they have chanced that?

Nobody would have taken that chance. They all put the blood on the doorpost, you can depend on that. And by that demonstration God taught them something they were never supposed to forget—the blood saves, everyone must have the blood. To fail to acknowledge God's admonition, "I have given you the blood for the remission of sin," was to court certain death. All of those who did not put out the blood that night (the Egyptians) spent a horrible time of mourning when the angel had finished the slaughter.

The unleavened bread and the bitter herbs were part of it, too, as the biblical chapter relates. The chosen people may have felt it was a lot of trouble, and that Jehovah was certainly acting too suddenly and inconveniently for such a time but they most surely obeyed the commands, and profited by them.

It must have been a time of near panic as the Jews fled Egypt by the millions, hearing the wailing of the Egyptian mothers and bearing their heavy burdens toward the coast of the Red Sea.

They weren't too sure about crossing the Sea but, of course, God had a plan. Of the mighty miracles of the Bible, the crossing of the formidable Red Sea by that entire nation must stand alone in its wonder.

Father goes on for his spellbound Passover table audience, recounting the giving of the law at Sinai, the wandering in the wilderness and finally, the entering of the Promised Land at Jericho. As the story is told, the ceremonial foods on the center plate are eaten. For example, as the father is telling about the bitterness of slavery, he serves each person horseradish from the center plate. As he talks about the lamb, he gestures to the unbroken shank bone of a lamb, which is on that plate. A roasted egg, also on the plate, has no clear meaning and the Jews differ as to its symbolism. It is as hard as a billiard ball, having been roasted in an oven, and it is said to sometimes represent the hardness of Pharaoh's heart. Others say it represents the lamb, being a symbol of life, but of course the egg is "dead"—roasted—and useless. And the bone represented the lamb anyway.

Personally, I rather favor the interpretation that says the egg doesn't belong on the plate at all. It has probably crept into Passover, like it has crept into Easter, from the Babylonians.

The Babylonians were great egg worshippers. They observed fertility rites every spring, as did so many pagan faiths, and eggs were germane to their rituals. Their goddess, Ishtar, a little reluctant about fertility apparently, was coaxed and cajoled every spring to bring forth a new issue of children to continue the tribe.

Apparently the prayers to Ishtar didn't work out very well, since the Babylonians are long gone. (Then again, they cursed the Jews, along with Assyria, ancient Persia, Greece and Rome, also long gone.)

Fertility prayers, it bears noting, have never been a part of Jewish or Christian worship. God had already told believers, back in the Garden of Eden, "Be fruitful and multiply; replenish the earth." There is no danger of Israel perishing or of the Christian church dying out. We don't need to pray about that, we just need to adhere to the Bible. The Jews, who adhered to God's public health laws in the Bible, were rarely subject to the terrible plagues that swept the ancient, and even the medieval world. They survived all of the unclean, all of the conquerors, all of the pagans, and then they gave the whole world eternal life through Christ.

Ishtar didn't merely leave us her egg, but her name as well. The biblical name of the feast day we now refer to as Easter is First Fruits (Lev. 23:10; I Cor. 15:23). "Easter" obviously comes from "Ishtar".

By not calling it First Fruits we miss the point of the celebration—WE, THE CHURCH, are the second fruits, third fruits, etc., down into the millions. Apparently, we all have a number. Jesus' number was one. "Easter" does not merely celebrate the resurrection of our Lord—that's happy news enough—but it also celebrates our own coming resurrection. The resurrection of the church is barely mentioned in Easter worship services, which tend to be like memorial services rather than looking ahead to our great triumph in Christ over death. That the supernatural Christ rose is wonderful, but mere earthly men will rise—that's the miracle!

So the egg, sitting there on the center plate, has most Jews stymied. They usually don't eat it and they don't paint it; it just sits there. Perhaps God is trying to tell us something.

It should be noted that the idea of eating various foods to symbolize various scriptural lessons impresses those lessons upon the sense of taste as well as upon the brain. Anyone who has partaken of a tablespoon of the Jewish red horseradish will never forget the concept of bitterness, I can tell you.

And here, too, are some wonderful symbols of Passover sometimes overlooked. That bitterness of the herbs is like your life before your salvation. The sweetness of the charoses reflects sin you once enjoyed. The salt water for the dipping represents your tears of repentance when you came to the Lord. The Red Sea is your baptism; you went into the water but you came out again, safely, raised to the newness of life. Now you're wandering in the wilderness of this world, the Sinai desert, awaiting your trip to the Promised Land. Your "time of refreshment" awaits your arrival at "Jericho," which is, appropriately enough, an oasis in the midst of a desert.

You have been promised a new life and a new kingdom by Jesus, whose name in English is Joshua (Hebrew = Yeshua; English = Joshua; "Jesus" is an English transliteration of the Greek letters found in the oldest New Testament manuscripts.) And wasn't it Joshua who took the Jews into their Promised Land?

How did Joshua do that:

"And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him" (Joshua 6:5).

Now, compare your own promise in the New Testament:

''For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:16-17).

There's your Exodus. As surely as the Jews made it into Israel, you're going to make it into the Kingdom to come.

The dead in Christ shall rise first, of course, since they obviously have lower numbers. With God everything is organized.

The Americans who put these biblical symbols together most skillfully were the black slaves we brought over from Africa. God gave those people the wisdom to identify with the Israelites, also slaves, and to accurately sing, "Joshua fit (fought) the battle of Jericho...and the walls came tumblin' down!" Combined with the timeless spiritual lyric, "Swing low, sweet chariot, comin' for to carry me home," the music of those humble ones reflects the purest understanding of one of God's most profound doctrines.

Passover, then, tells your whole story, from your bitter life of slavery before you met the Lord to your final trip to be with Him in the Promised Land. Israel did everything you've done and will do.

But then, Jesus did everything Israel did too. As in the case of Israel, a biological miracle was done on Jesus' mother so that He could be born. Israel's mother, Sarah, had a miracle too, since she was too old to bear a child. Then Jesus, like Israel, was taken to Egypt in His youth. But Jesus came back out of Egypt as did Israel, finding Himself surrounded by enemies, as did Israel.

The enemies of both Israel and Jesus mocked and cursed but God still called both Jesus and Israel, "My Son," (Hos. 11:1, Mt. 2:15). Finally, the Romans crucified Jesus on the cross, and they crucified Israel when they destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

But Jesus rose on the third day, and so Israel, after the past 2,000 years of suffering, will yet rise to be the headquarters of the Kingdom of God on earth ("One day is with the Lord as a thousand years," 2 Peter 3:8).

How wonderful that God has connected it all together so beautifully, and placed it into the Passover service. See what I meant when I said you'd understand Christianity better when you knew Passover?

Just wait, we've hardly begun.

THE SECOND CUP

The second cup is spilled into the individual plates in front of each person, a drop at a time. Each drop remembers a plague God visited upon Egypt while the implacable Pharaoh's heart hardened.

Those ten red drops fall into the empty white plate in front of each person and they are clearly representative of those terrible ten smitings of Egypt. The father somberly chants the name of each plague: "Blood...Frogs...Vermin...Beasts..."—while each person at the table stares into that dripping "blood". It's well to remember what we were saved from.

It might gratify today's Egyptians to realize that the Jews the world over remember the agony of Egypt every Passover night. It is hardly a gloating moment in the service; it is in deep sorrow that the drops are spilled for stricken Egypt. The wrath of God on those who curse the Jews is tremendous.

THE MEAL

The melancholy moment is dissipated quickly as the meal comes out. Mother has prepared quite a feast for the occasion; a big meal is called for scripturally (the whole lamb). Lamb is not the main dish anymore, although it was in the days of the Temple. The Jews feel it would be inappropriate to partake of the sacrificial lamb when the Temple, God's House of Sacrifice, is not in Jerusalem, so they eat chicken or beef, or whatever.

The meal is leisurely and joyful, much like a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. The entire family is assembled, of course, including all the cousins and in-laws the table will serve, and much conversation and good cheer accompanies the feasting. Some two hours may have passed by this time and much prayer and worship (I have not included every detail of the service). The family will probably stay at the table from sundown to midnight, including everything.

THE THIRD CUP

Now comes the most beautiful and touchingly symbolic part of all—the third cup, which is The Cup of Redemption.

It is now time to bring fourth that buried loaf of unleavened bread, which will serve as the dessert to the meal. The afikomin, as it is called (literal meaning = festival procession, or arrival, and it makes one think of Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem under the palm branches) is sometimes recovered by a child. Father must redeem it in silver (I used to get a nickel; it's probably about 75 cents these days).

That buried unleavened bread—the middle piece!—is then eaten with the third cup of wine.

And that is where we get communion.

Now, let's examine this bread and wine more thoroughly.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the three loaves represent the Trinity, and that the: middle one is the Son. It was that one, the Son in the Trinity, which we broke ("His body broken for you"); wrapped in white linen and buried, as was the body of Jesus; and now bring forth to eat with the Cup of Redemption (that is the Jewish term for this cup). Everyone must partake of it ("The bread of life") and it is the last thing eaten, as though the eating of this piece of bread will sustain everyone from here on.

In the actual ceremony Father breaks off pieces from this loaf ("the size of an olive" says one Haggadah) and passes the pieces around the table. Each person eats his piece and drinks the third cup with it.

Father pronounces blessings over both the bread and the wine individually and these blessings have great meaning for us. (There have been many separate blessings over the various cups, the cleaning out of the leaven, and so forth, but I have not given them all. These particular blessings over the bread and wine, however, are central to the New Testament meaning of Passover).

Jesus, as "father" at His own Passover table, also said these blessings, and it should be noted that the Jewish blessings do not change—they have been said the same way for millennia. Look at Matthew 26:26:

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

When demonstrating the Passover in a church I ask at this point, "What did Jesus say in his blessing over the bread?" No one ever knows. Some people answer, "This is my body," but of course He said that after He blessed the bread, as you can see from the scripture.

I shouldn't say that no one in the church ever knows that blessing. Any Jew present knows that blessing. Almost any Jewish acquaintance of yours will know how the Jews bless bread. But you don't, and your pastor doesn't and your pastor's former professors at the seminary probably don't.

Should I tell you what Jesus said?

Or should I say to you, "Go and find a Jew and ask him." That would get you talking to a Jew!

I'll tell you. But talk to that Jew anyway.

Jesus said this, and these were His exact words:

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who bringestforth bread from the earth.

Then He said, This bread is my body.

Get the connection?

He was saying, "Brothers, I know you're concerned about me and all the threats that have been made against me. I know you've heard me say, 'The hour is come.' But don't worry. God has been bringing forth bread from the earth since the beginning of creation, and this bread, as I've just told you, represents my body. God will bring my body forth from the earth!"

Wonderful! Jesus foretold His resurrection in that blessing over the bread!

Why didn't you know that blessing? Why is virtually the entire Christian church without knowledge of that vital scripture?

It's because you don't have the Jews in your church and they're the ones who say that blessing. They could explain to you in a minute, but they're not there to explain it.

Now, really, imagine what a blessing it would be to have this sort of "Jewish" information at your fingertips in church. The Jewish people are not superior in any way, of course, but they're the chosen people and God gave them many special things. I wish the very best for you and your church. Bring a Jew into the fold.

Now, before leaving the bread, we should point out how very like His body it really is It has stripes ("By His stripes we are healed"); it's pierced ("They shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced"); and it's pure, containing no leaven (no sin).

Get a box of the Jewish matzoh, the unleavened bread, and look at it. It's the only picture we have of Jesus. Many churches use this bread in their communion services, which is certainly correct. You can well understand now that an ordinary piece of table bread does not represent Jesus' body because it is full of leaven.

Matzoh is usually available at Jewish delicatessens, or at supermarkets during and prior to the Passover season (March and early April). God has made sure that there's some in every town, and we can now see why.

One spring season I was demonstrating this very point about the unleavened bread in a Bible study at Beth Sar Shalom, the Dallas branch of the American Board of Missions to the Jews. I was not really doing a complete Passover, but I alluded to the bread as part of a different Bible study. I didn't have a piece of it with me. I said, "Oh how I wish I had a piece of matzoh to show you. You would see the Lord!" A Jewish man in the audience got up and said, "I have my Passover supplies out in my car. I just picked them up. If you like, I'll bring in a piece of matzoh for you."

I was delighted, of course, and when the matzoh came in I was able to demonstrate this breathtaking picture of our Lord. The Jewish man watched very carefully.

Two weeks later that man came forward at the Mission and committed his life to the Lord.

From his point of view, of course, Passover had now been finally explained. He had done the service annually for more than forty years without understanding it, but now he saw the truth, and the truth made him free.

Now I only lament the Christian lack of knowledge about Passover! Communion is held far and wide with little understanding of its full background and significance. I'm in a funny position, being a Jewish Christian. I watch the Jews celebrate Passover without realizing it's really communion, and I watch the Christians celebrate communion without realizing it's really Passover.

We could go on and on about that piece of bread. It started in the Exodus, of course. It continued in the Tabernacle, where God wanted a piece of bread on display at all times (Ex. 25:30), and it's still on display at the local delicatessen. Jesus' life was made of bread; He was born in Bethlehem, in Hebrew Beth Lechem = House of Bread. He continually used the image of bread and growing grain in His teachings: "If a kernel of wheat go into the ground...it bringeth forth much fruit." He was born in the House of Bread, raised in The Branch (Nazareth in Hebrew = Nezteret, branch), was baked in the fire (judged by God on our behalf), wrapped in white linen and buried, and finally "brought forth from the earth." He was the "First Fruits" out of the ground and He now provides life—the "bread of life" to all who partake of Him.

Jesus even managed to be buried on the Feast Day called Unleavened Bread, sundown following Passover (Lev. 23:5,6). That bread was His body, and thus His body was actually buried, like that bread, on the appropriate holy day. It was a case of a dead man dictating the time of His own burial! Some were surprised that He died on the cross in only six hours, but after all, He had a Feast to keep and the Messiah never omitted God's Feasts.

He is finally the "dessert" of life, the final homecoming for those who forage for nourishment in this wilderness.

So much for the bread.

Let's look now at the wine.

That third cup has every bit as much significance as the bread. The Lord said, "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me," and He identified the wine as His blood.

Matthew 26:27-28 records the Lord raising the Cup of Redemption:

And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

What did he say when He "gave thanks"? It's another one of those Jewish blessings and I usually draw another blank when I ask for it in church. (What a joy it is when a Jewish Christian stands up in church and rattles off those blessings in the presence of all those Gentiles. They realize very forcefully that they did a good thing when they let that Jew into the club).

I give it in Hebrew when I demonstrate the Passover and of course, I still draw a blank. Everybody sits on the edge of their seat, like you are right now, wondering what fine truth God has hidden in the ancient blessing. Well, I'm not going to disappoint you. But first I have to explain the marriage custom of the Jews of Jesus' time.

Back in Jesus' day, and before, the Jews married differently than they do now. The young bridegroom would have to approach his chosen bride with a contract, a covenant of marriage, which they would both sign. There was money involved; the groom would pay a bride price. In effect, the father of the bride would get the dowry.

And at the signing the groom would drink a toast with the bride. The cup of wine sealed the covenant.

Then the groom would leave. He would tell the bride, "I go to prepare a place for you," and he would return to his father's house. There he would build a bridal chamber—a little mansion, where the couple would eventually have their honeymoon. Meanwhile, the bride waited at home, consecrated, set apart, "bought for a price," until her bridegroom would come for her.

She would be waiting all the time, every night, because her groom had paid a great price for her and she was loyal (and eager to be married as are all young girls, of course). She would wear her veil whenever she went out so that the other young men would not try to make a contract with her and she would especially emphasize purity and modesty in her time of waiting for her bridegroom.

At home she would keep an oil lamp and plenty of oil standing by, for her groom might well come at midnight and she had to be ready to travel, even in the dark. In fact, that was the idea; the groom would try to surprise the bride by coming at an unexpected hour. All the Jewish brides were "stolen," abducted, and they took great pleasure in the romance of it all (the Jews knew a thing or two about love!).

Over at the groom's house things would progress as fast as the young man could build. He wanted to get married as soon as possible too! But he would have to get his father's approval on the bridal chamber. He took his father's advice about the price to be paid for the bride, the suitability of the chamber and the best time to go for the bride. And so if you asked him, during that year or so while he was building, "When's the big day?" he would answer, "Only my father knows."

Finally, the big day would come and the groom, with his groomsmen, would slip over to the bride's home and steal her away. Now there were rules about that; he couldn't just rush in and grab her without warning. After all, her hair might be in rollers.

There had to be a shout. Someone in the groom's party would shout something like "Behold, the bridegroom comes!" in order to properly warn the bride. When the bride heard that shout she was as good as married. She and her sisters and her bridesmaids would quickly trim their lamps and get going. Her father and brothers might just take a glance to be sure it was the young man with the contract, but otherwise everything would happen very fast.

The bride would be spirited away to the chamber where the couple would shut the door. Wedding guests, friends of the groom's father, would already be assembled. But the celebration wouldn't really begin until the marriage was consummated within the chamber. The groom's best friend would stand near the door and listen for the groom's voice; the groom would tell hem when the marriage was official.

Then the crowd outside would let loose with a seven-day celebration! Getting invited to one of those weddings was like drawing jury duty.

Sometimes they ran out of wine and had to get more (or maybe Someone would stop by and make some from water). Anyway, they all wanted to be present at the end of the week because the bride and groom would come out and there would be a grand feast, called the Marriage Supper.

Now folks with knowledge of the gospel could probably follow all that in the realization that Jesus performed every bit of it. After all, He was a Jewish bridegroom come to take a bride. He carried out the laws and customs of His people to the letter.

Jesus approached us with a contract—the New Covenant, or New Testament, announced in Jer. 31:31-34 and Heb. 8:8-12. This very advantageous contract for the bride stated that all the bride's sins would be forgotten. Jehovah had previously endured a difficult time with His wife, Israel, who was adulterous (see the Book of Hosea) but He, in effect, did what no man would do—He came back to the same bride with a New Contract. How forgiving He really was!

God signed His covenants with men in blood (Abraham and Moses, e.g., had to sacrifice animals at the "signing" of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants). And so Jesus came with His blood, ready to ratify God's New Covenant with Israel. He drank the cup with His bride, stating clearly, "This is my blood of the new testament (or New Covenant—same words) shed for many for the remission of sins."

Jesus found the price very high. He even said to His Father, "Remove this cup from me" (Luke 22:42) but He ultimately obeyed His Father ("Thy will, not mine, be done") and paid the high price anyway, on the cross. We can imagine that some young Jewish bridegrooms were taken aback by the price of the girl they loved, but they invariably listened to their fathers' advice on this. (Luke 22:42 shows how much Jesus had to pay for us).

Then Jesus told His bride, "I go to prepare a place for you," and He went to heaven to prepare our bridal chamber. Only His Father knows when He will come for us, but we're waiting, consecrated, set apart, "bought with a price" (I Cor. 6: 19-20).

The Lord will come, as we saw earlier, with a shout, like that shout at Jericho, and even with a trumpet, which announces our freedom at last. Some think that the trumpet means that Jesus will actually come for us on the Jewish Feast of Trumpets, and why not? He was crucified on the day of Passover, buried on the day of Unleavened bread, raised on First Fruits, and He sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. That's four feast days in a row with tumultuous happenings for the church. The next feast is Trumpets, and nothing has happened to us on Trumpets to date. The Rapture of the Church would be a fine fulfillment of Trumpets, equal to the other stunning fulfillments on the feast days. Then, presumably, the Second Coming would occur appropriately on the Day of Atonement (when "All Israel will be saved"—Rom. 11:26) and the Kingdom would start off right on Tabernacles, when the Lord's Tabernacle will be here on earth among us again. And that finishes the Seven Feasts. (See my book The Seven Feasts of Israel for more detailed information).

In any case, we're still waiting for our Bridegroom, listening for that shout. We have oil in our lamps (Oil = the Holy Spirit) and we'll be ready to go at a moment's notice (see Mt. 25:1-13 for the story of those not waiting with their lamps and oil ready).

We have our veils on—nobody around us realizes what sort of covenant we've made and the unbelievers don't realize for now that we're really promised to Someone else. They keep trying to make all sorts of contracts with us that would violate the one we have with our Bridegroom. But when we get back from the wedding they'll know us. When the bride comes out of the chamber she has her veil off and everyone can see just who she was and what the contract was all about.

When the Bridegroom comes for us we'll go into the Judgment Seat of Christ in heaven (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:11-15). How is that like a honeymoon? Well, a honeymoon is where the groom removes the bride's veils and knows her secrets. Jesus will examine our works done in Him and reward us accordingly in the chamber. When we are consecrated as His bride He Will announce that to his friend outside the door. And so John the Baptist told the mystified Pharisees, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled" (Jn. 3:28-29).

Then all of the wedding guests outside will celebrate. They will be the friends of our Bridegroom's Father— Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and all His other friends who are up there waiting for this wedding.

Won't that be a fine marriage supper? Daniel may sit by Jeremiah and say, "You know, I read your book" (Dan. 9:2) (cf. Jer. 29:10).

At last we'll be ready and consecrated, and we'll get to wear that wonderful white linen which is the righteousness of saints (Rev. 19:7,8). We'll be the guest of honor at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Then, as was the custom, we'll depart from the Groom's Father's house. The bride and the groom would leave his father's house after the marriage supper and set up housekeeping on their own. So we'll accompany the Lord back to earth to live with Him in His Kingdom.

We are now the bride of Christ, but we shall someday be the Queen of the Kingdom! We'll reign with Him, submissive to Him, of course, as is the Christian wife to her husband. What a promise!

Now you know how to get married Jewish-style!

All that had to be said in order to demonstrate properly the magnificent blessing that Jesus said over the wine. We were discussing the third cup, the one taken with the hidden bread, and now we can better understand what Jesus said when He "gave thanks."

He really did toast His bride, as was the custom. Here it is:

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the

universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

That's the blessing, in all. its simplicity. But what meaning it has!

You see, Jesus had already said, "I am the true vine." Now He blesses "the fruit of the vine." Well, that's us! The disciples were the branches and we're His fruit. And so He drank a toast to us, the church, the fruit of the Vine, the Bride of Christ.

You might be asking, "How do I get in on this? I'm not Jewish." Well, that's okay. The Jews always brought the Gentiles to church; it's the other way around that seems to be the problem. Actually, you're in on all of it when you receive Christ, the Jewish Messiah. You become adopted, grafted into the Jewish olive tree (Rom. 11). What a blessing you inherited! What a good thing that the Lord chose your best friends as His bride.

People ask me in the churches, "What percentage of Jews is there in the church today?" and I say, "One hundred percent. Some were born that way and some were adopted." Actually, about one percent of all Jews are Christians, according to Jewish figures on this. I often wonder if one percent of all Gentiles are Christians.

Now, after the blessing over the wine Jesus presented it as His blood of the New Covenant, or Testament, certifying for once and for all that all who drank this cup with Him would have their sins remitted. That's just what God promised in the New Covenant: "I will remember their sins no more" (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12). And He went on to spill His literal blood at the crucifixion. It fell to the earth like the blood of the sacrificial lambs of old, setting the new arrangement between God and man in motion.

How much more significant it is to now consider John the Baptist's declaration, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world."

And now we see communion, the bread and the wine, in all its glory.

The main difference I notice between communion as it is done in church and communion as it is done at the Passover table is in the area of joy. Passover is a party, a celebration. Communion is usually a very solemn event. The Jew somehow displays more pure joy at the idea of his ancestors being freed from slavery 3,500 years ago than the Christian does over the prospect of eternal life. That amazes me!

Passover is a celebration because we are now free, but who's really free. I miss the joy of Passover when I take communion, frankly.

Now, why aren't those wonderful blessings written out for us in the gospel? It was certainly worth knowing that Jesus uttered these timeless truths right there at the table, wasn't it? And how much more meaningful that galvanizing Last Supper scene becomes when we know the complete text of what was said.

I submit that the blessings are not in the gospel because they don't have to be. The gospel is a Jewish book, and observant Jews say those blessings all the time. If you were writing a book for Americans and you said, "The Star-

Spangled Banner was sung," you wouldn't feel as though you had to write out all the words, would you?

We have, in the church, practically run off with the Jewish gospel and left the Jews out of it almost entirely. We're now simply paying the price. If we had the Jews we'd have those blessings, the marriage customs and myriads of other gems that are simply part of the Jewish heritage in God. The way the New Testament is written, it's very obvious that a wholly Gentile church was never anticipated. There are too many references to intimately Jewish things for that.

The answer, again (and I never stop harping on it), is that we have to get the Jews back into the church. One church has appointed me "Official Resident Jew," presenting me with a handsome and very funny framed certificate to that effect. But I told that church, as I tell each church, "I can't come back every Sunday. You'll have to get your own Jew."

That church did get several of its own Jews, by the way (God has seen to it that there are plenty of Jews around everywhere. Yours is waiting for you somewhere out there). And the membership of that church grew so plentifully that a new sanctuary had to be built recently. I don't know if that was God's blessing or just a coincidence, but nobody at the church is complaining.

Passover is only one of the joys that would become commonplace if we had the Jews in the church. They have so much to give, thanks to God. God did appoint them to bless the world, after all, and He equipped them for that. I couldn't write in a lifetime all that the average Jew has in his heart that would benefit any church. It has to be experienced.

Try it. You'll like it.

To finish with the magnificent third cup of wine, we need to consider Jesus' statement, "Do this in remembrance of me." We are perfectly obedient to that, of course, when we take communion, but the statement should be realized in its fullness. It demonstrates that we do not need to keep the seven feasts in their original forms in the New Covenant.

Probably Jesus was saying this: "Brothers, you have always kept Passover and it has helped to remind you that God delivered our people from Egypt. But that was a type-symbol. I am the fulfillment of that symbol. I can deliver you from this whole world. So, when you do this from now on, don't do it so much in remembrance of the Exodus, Do this in remembrance of me."

Dr. Thomas S. McCall, a masterful missionary to the Jews and editor of this book, explains it this way. "I have a picture of my family that I take with me when I travel. But when I'm at home I can look at my family, so I don't look at their picture. The feasts are a picture of Christ, but now that Christ has come, we can look directly at Him."

So, we should know the feasts—they're God's feasts, after all—but we should celebrate Jesus rather than observing His mere symbols. Thus we don't keep the feasts but we are aware of them and their significance.

We do what we do always in remembrance of Him. THE FOURTH CUP

Jesus didn't drink the fourth cup, and there's a good reason why He didn't.

The fourth cup—the Cup of Praise—is sometimes called Elijah's Cup. It is at this point in the Passover service that the Jews look for the literal fulfillment of Mal. 4:5,

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."

An empty chair has been left at the table throughout all these proceedings, and even a wine goblet. Elijah is expected to enter, on some Passover night, take his seat, drink his cup and say, "Well, the waiting is over. The Messiah has come!"

The wine is actually poured into Elijah's cup, as well as into all the other cups. At my house we even set a plate, silverware and napkins for Elijah, assuming that he might be hungry after his arduous journey through all the Jewish homes in the world that night.

The youngest child goes to the door to see if Elijah is making his way down the street at this electrifying moment. The family waits, breathless, until the report comes back from the front door—either, "I don't see him," or "Wait! Here he comes!" (And thus the youngest child learns to anticipate the coming of the prophet, and the Messiah as well).

I used to go to the door fully expecting that Elijah would be there, and when I didn't see him I would walk out into the street, leaving the family waiting, to see if perhaps he was down at the corner (Gentiles lived between us and the corner and my private theory was that Elijah might not have known we were there, down the street a bit). I was certain that if I looked hard enough I would find him (and how true a concept—if we look hard enough we'll find a prophet of the Messiah, and the Messiah Himself. "No man seeketh after God," but every Jewish youngster seeks after the announcer of the Messiah).

Jesus and His men didn't partake of that cup because the Messiah was already there, of course. And Jesus had stated that John the Baptist had come in the spirit of Elijah and had already announced the Messiah.

Jesus made it very clear that the third cup was the last cup He would drink. When He put down that cup of the new testament He said, "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom."

By that He meant, as we have already discussed, that Passover in some form would be a part of the Kingdom, but also that the third cup—His blood—would be sufficient to get us all to the Kingdom. No further sacrifice would be necessary, no further ritual, no further coming of prophets. "It is finished," He was to say on the cross as His blood was actually spilled.

The Jewish reading of Mal. 4:5 doesn't take into account that the Messiah has already come, of course. If you don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, then you wait for someone else to come. But Isaiah 53 and a host of other Old Testament scriptures testify of the Messiah's coming "as a lamb to the slaughter," as "intercessor for our transgressions," etc., and this can hardly be reconciled with Malachi's description of "The great and dreadful day of the Lord." By missing out on the Messiah's original coming, the Jews wait unscripturally and hopelessly for a different kind of first coming—a coming in triumph.

Jesus will come in triumph, and will be announced by Elijah, we understand, but He will come to those who have drunk His Cup of Redemption and trusted in His blood for salvation. The "great and dreadful day" refers to the second coming, obviously.

So, Elijah does not appear on Passover night. That night is, to the Jew, the night of salvation, accurately enough, and if Elijah does not come then another year must pass until the Messiah can reasonably be expected to come. Father says, in a melancholy way, "L'shanah haba'ah b'yrushalayim"—"Next year in Jerusalem."

That's a rather fascinating prayer—"Next year in Jerusalem." It is still said today, as if it were not possible for the Jew to just go to Jerusalem next year. An actual appeal is made to God for something that is already granted.

The Jews have Jerusalem now, though of course more Jews could gather there. The vast majority of Jews are still dispersed, rather than gathered in the holy land. But, except for the Jews behind the Iron Curtain, they are all free to go to Jerusalem. Why, then, is the traditional appeal, much more appropriate through the long centuries of total dispersion, still made? Why do the Jews still ask God for what He has already given them?

Well, it may be just tradition. A prayer of some 1,900 years has a lot of momentum. But in view of all the other unconscious worship of the Messiah included in the Jewish Passover today, we might speculate that the Jew is really saying, "Next year in the New Jerusalem!" (Rev. 21:2). Perhaps today's Jew is unconsciously praying for the Kingdom and eternity to come, in the manner that he unconsciously honors the Lord by taking the bread and the wine.

If the Jews are saying, in that unique plea, "God we've had enough! Bring on the Millennium!" then we certainly join them in that prayer! Amen, come Lord Jesus!

THE HYMN

In the gospel it says, concluding the Passover, "And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives” (Mt. 26:30).

My family did better than that. We didn't sing just one hymn—we sang eight or ten! And I mean we really sang!

"Hymn" is hardly the term for the Passover songs, at least the way we did them at my house. A proper Passover hymn might have the neighbors bringing in the cops! We rocked the whole block with our singing and our downright happiness. We gave Passover a send-off that would last a whole year!

My father didn't have a great voice but in his 70 Passovers he probably shouted out more hymns than are found in the heaviest hymnal you ever fell asleep over. How we sang!

That singing is a testimony to Jewish courage, I think. Remember, it follows the sad news that the Messiah has not come. Another year must pass before He can be expected again, and, after all, He probably won't come then either. Being Jewish is a hardship, and yet the Jews praise God in mighty song even though He has left them to fend for themselves again.

It's one thing to sing the praises of the Messiah who has already come and guaranteed your salvation, and quite another to hang in there like the Jews with no guarantees. You've got to hand it to them--they've kept their faith.

Am Yisroel Chai! The Jewish people live!

GIVE THIS BOOK TO A JEW

And that's Passover, in all its glory!

You can see now why I'm so enthusiastic about it. You can also see how frustrating it is for me to stand between two groups who understand it only vaguely and yet faithfully celebrate it, either at the table or in the Communion.

So, give this book to a Jew.

Passover is fulfilled for you in Christ, and now if you're a Christian, you understand just what goes on in this magnificent celebration and what it all means. But your brother the Jew, the one who wrote your Bible, brought your ancestors to Christ and preserved the Passover for you over these thousands of years is completely in the dark about Passover.

Question him and you'll see that he has no better answer than "tradition" for the many intricate ceremonies that make up Passover. Ask a rabbi and you'll see that the answers he does have fail to match up with Passover so precisely as does the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's sad. Do something about it. Give this book to a Jew.

And to all of you, Shalom!

NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM!

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