A Family Messianic Passover Seder

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I sat in my scratchy nylons at a long wooden table. All the other 12-year-olds from my Sunday School class sat in similar plastic chairs along the table.

Together, we dipped a green vegetable into a bowl of salt water and scowled as we briefly tasted it. We winced at the bitterness of horseradish and secretly took an extra scoop of the apple/nut mixture.

We raised our glasses of grape juice and broke the flatbread as one.

And then, I forgot all about it.

It was my first glimpse of a Jewish Passover celebration, but because I didn’t see the connection to my Christian faith, it was buried deep in my memories.

Those memories resurfaced a few years ago as I did research on the Passover meal and its deep, metaphorical connections to what Jesus did on the cross and the Messianic Passover meal has now become an important part of our family’s Holy Week celebration.

Jesus celebrates Passover

Matthew, Mark and Luke all refer to the “last supper” as a Passover meal.

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

Luke 22:7

John, however, says that this meal took place “just before the Passover festival” (John 13:1 NIV) and actually sets up the story so Jesus himself is sacrificed the same day as the Passover lambs, drawing a clear connection between the original Passover and Jesus, our Passover lamb.

A note in my Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes that the synoptic gospels and John seem to be in conflict as to when the Passover actually took place. Here are two suggestions as to why they’re different:

Jesus held a Passover meal with his disciples one evening early, whether because he would be dead by the next evening or because they followed an existing sectarian calendar…

Others suggest that John is more interested in narrative symbolism than are the Synoptics, and thus skips Jesus’ symbolic interpretation about Passover and narrates Jesus’s death directly as the Passover lamb.

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, p 1849

It seems clear that Jesus did indeed intend for his last meal to be a Passover meal, with all its rich symbolism.

What exactly is that symbolism, you ask? Let’s talk about that.

The Passover Meal

1. WINE

There are 4 specific cups of wine (or juice) to partake of during the Seder meal. While not specifically mentioned in any Haggadah (Passover script) I found, it seems that the red wine/grape juice represents the blood of the lamb.

In the famous “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,” statement (Luke 22:20 NIV), Jesus is referring to the third cup of wine.

2. UNLEAVENED BREAD

The Israelites were told to be prepared to flee Egypt, so they had to eat the first Passover meal standing up. Because they didn’t have time to add yeast to their bread and let it rise, the unleavened bread normally eaten at Passover is more like a cracker.

This is the bread that Jesus broke, saying “This is my body given for you.” (Luke 22:19 NIV)

3. LAMB

The first Passover lamb died and had its blood placed on the doorframes as a substitute sacrifice for the firstborn son. Each family took their Passover lamb to the temple to be sacrificed and roasted that night.

In the following generations, the Passover lamb was sacrificed at the temple. But since Solomon’s temple was destroyed in 586 BCE and Herod’s temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the Jewish people do not sacrifice a lamb and eat lamb meat. This may be the reason there is now a roasted egg on the table.

4. GREEN VEGETABLE* (parsley, celery, or sometimes even a potato).

The parsley represents new life, and can also represent the hyssop that the Israelites used to paint the original Passover lamb’s blood on their doorways. We dip the green veggie in SALTWATER as a reminder of the salty tears the Israelites shed in slavery.

*This may not have been part of the Passover celebration at the time of Jesus and is not mentioned in the “Last Supper” passages.

5. BITTER HERBS

Horseradish! This represents the bitterness of slavery.

6. HAROSET*

Traditionally, this is mixture of nuts and apples. It symbolizes the bricks that the Israelites needed to build out of mud when they were slaves in Egypt.

*This also may not have been in the Passover in Jesus’ day. It’s not mentioned in the Bible.

Should You Do A Messianic Passover Meal At Home?

Before the destruction of the temple, the central focus of Passover was the sacrificial lamb, offered in the temple and then eaten as part of the meal. When the temple was destroyed, the Jewish people could no longer perform these sacrifices. In response, Jewish leaders developed the Seder and the Haggadah to create a home-centered way to observe Passover.

This means that the Seder, as it exists today, is a later Jewish development, not a direct reflection of the meal Jesus shared with His disciples. Jesus would have had a lamb sacrificed at the temple, and, while there may have been a common set of Scriptures they read or things they said, we don’t know how much of the modern Seder meal is what Jesus actually observed.

As Christians, we recognize that God intentionally chose Passover as the time for Jesus’ death and resurrection. Understanding Passover deepens our appreciation for the biblical story and its fulfillment in Christ. However, learning about Passover and actually observing a Seder are two different things. When Christians adopt the Haggadah and reframe it entirely through a Christian lens, we risk cultural appropriation rather than cultural appreciation. The Jewish Seder is a sacred tradition deeply tied to Jewish covenantal identity, developed over centuries in response to historical events that do not belong to the Christian faith.

Throughout history, Christians have tragically persecuted Jewish people, especially around Passover, accusing Jews of deicide (killing Christ) and even of drinking the blood of murdered children. These false charges led to violence and fear for Jewish communities during a holiday meant to celebrate deliverance and salvation. Given this painful history, our approach to Passover should be one of honoring and respecting Jewish traditions rather than appropriating them. Instead of attempting to “Christianize” the Seder, we can learn about Passover in ways that deepen our Christian faith without causing harm or offense.

If you have a Messianic Jewish congregation in your city, I encourage you to learn from them or ask if you can participate in their Seder meal. A Messianic Seder takes the elements of a traditional Jewish Passover Seder meal and re-interprets them in view of Jesus’s life and death. For example, a Messianic Seder connects the original Passover lamb to Jesus.

In addition, Jews for Jesus has hosted an online, Messianic Seder meal that everyone was invited to participate in. Our family followed it this year and it was very meaningful.

However, if you’d prefer to try something at home, here are two resources:

A Family Passover OR Last Supper Guide

If you are a homeschool family or are looking for something with several days of content, I HIGHLY recommend my friend Sarah Ruth’s family activity guide! It has picture book recommendations and several days of fun learning activities, recipes, and a Seder meal Haggadah. (Sarah Ruth is actually a Messianic Jew, so you’ll be getting your teaching more firsthand than me, who is not Jewish.)

See the Family Passover Guide here.

If you prefer a one-day focus on the Last Supper instead, you can download “Come to the Table” instead, which is a step-by-step, meal-based lesson, including foods to try, Bible passages to read, and questions to ask.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment. Let me leave you with a final word, as written by the Apostle Paul:

“Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 NLT

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