RNA 2003 contest winners: Robin Galiano

A different view on Passover

Jews for Jesus believes feast directly linked to the messiah

By ROBIN GALIANO, Staff writer

The Seder table is set. The candles are lit.

Surrounding the Seder plate are traditional elements of the Jewish Passover meal. Bitter herbs. The roasted shank bone of a lamb. Salt water. A boiled egg. Charoseth, the sweet mixture of apples, nuts and cinnamon. Four cups of wine. And of course, matzo bread.

But this is Passover with a twist. Because this Seder meal is part of a presentation that draws Christian symbolism out of the ancient Jewish ritual meal.

"Christ in the Passover" is a presentation developed by Jews for Jesus, an organization whose members were born Jewish but converted to Christianity by accepting Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

They still retain their Jewish identity, however, a religious conviction that is anathema to fellow Jews who say it's impossible for a Jew to believe in Jesus.

Written in 1956 by Jews for Jesus founder Moishe Rosen, "Christ in the Passover" has been presented in more than 15,000 churches, and mostly for Christian audiences. Staff members are booked at churches across the country each spring, beginning about three weeks before Easter. Jews for Jesus staff explain the link they see between the Seder meal and Christian communion service. The Last Supper, they say, was a Passover Seder led by Jesus.

Karol Joseph, a 12-year veteran staff member with Jews for Jesus in New York, gave the presentation at churches in Longview, Hallsville, Kilgore and Liberty City this past week. She also had been invited to congregations in the Metroplex during March. About 50 to 60 people attended the seminar at China Pearl in Longview last Saturday, hosted by Hope Fellowship.

Joseph said the elements used in the traditional Passover celebration are a visual reminder of Jesus Christ.

"Redemption is the very heart of Passover. Not just the message, but the means. The Passover Lamb," Joseph said, citing John the Baptist's description of Jesus as the "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

A local rabbi, however, says seeing Jesus in the Passover celebration is not just wishful thinking, it's outright deceptive. The Last Supper in no way resembled a Jewish Seder meal, said Rabbi Heidi Coretz of Longview's Temple Emanu-El.

"It's after Jesus' time that the Seder was established," Coretz said. "It wasn't codified until the year 200, and the traditions have continued to evolve. Judaism was a completely different religion at the time of Jesus. Jesus didn't celebrate the Seder or anything like it." Moreover, focusing on the Passover lamb gives a lopsided emphasis to the whole celebration, she said. "Most of the sacrificial systems were offerings to God. They had nothing to do with atonement."

Jews for Jesus staff see it differently. During her presentation, Joseph explained the Jewish Seder recounting the Passover story, then took it a step further by drawing Christian insights from its symbolism. The Israelites, she said, were commanded to always remember the suffering they endured in Egypt before being delivered by God through his servant Moses. Bitter herbs, for example, depict the suffering of oppressed Israelites. Salt water signifies tears. Charoseth represents the mortar used to make bricks for Pharaoh.

But the matzo, or unleavened bread, is a strong visual of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, Joseph said. For one thing, the matzo is perforated or pierced, and has the appearance of being striped. That, she said, is reminiscent of the "despised and forsaken" Messiah prophesied by Isaiah, who wrote: "He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, And by his scourging (stripes) we are healed."

During the Seder, Jews traditionally place three pieces of matzo in the matzo tash, a square, white silk bag that is divided into three compartments.

Contemporary Judaism gives no set interpretation of this unity symbol, Joseph said, but the Christian concept of the triune God in three persons can be extrapolated.

It's the middle matzo wafer, which called the afikomen, that is removed, broken, hidden in a separate cloth or bag, and then brought back after children search for and find it. A picture, she said, of the second person of the Trinity, the Son Jesus, who became incarnate, was crucified and buried before his resurrection.

"The middle matzo is broken, buried and brought back. It is the only part that is visible, handled by men and broken," Joseph said.

And a suffering and sacrificial Messiah completes God's plan for atonement of sin begun by the sacrificial system under the tribe of Levites as established by Moses, she said.

"Without blood sacrifice, how can there be atonement for sin?” Joseph said. “Leviticus 17 tells us that the blood makes atonement. It has always been true that without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. What is the solution for my Jewish friends? Yeshua. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world through the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, Jesus."

Christians, who by definition accept the need for a substitutionary payment for sin through Jesus Christ at Calvary, have responded overwhelmingly to the "Christ in the Passover" presentations, Joseph said. For one thing, they gain a deeper understanding into the role of Christ as Messiah and the Jewish roots of their faith.

And that's a good thing, she added.

"The church sadly made a conscious effort since the early centuries to remove anything Jewish from its celebrations. But Scripture tells us that the Gentiles were grafted in and should not take that for granted," Joseph said. "When believers see it, their eyes are opened to see Jesus as a Jewish man."

Rabbi Coretz, who oversees a Jewish congregation in the Dallas area as well as in Longview, also accepts invitations to lead Seder meals at Christian churches. But she added she is always careful to explain that Passover is a Jewish ritual that has no ties to Christianity.

"There's a great deal of interest in it, and we welcome it. But it has nothing to do with Jesus," Coretz said. "We respect different beliefs, and believe that they will have an equal share in the world to come as long as you are a good person and believe in God. We don't go after them for conversion."

But conversion is the ultimate goal for Jews for Jesus, as stated in its literature: "To make the messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide." Staff are vocal about sharing Christ through street evangelism, distributing gospel tracts and leading Bible studies for their Jewish friends.

And Joseph, born Jewish but now a Christian by faith, says Passover and the Seder meal have had an increased spiritual meaning since her conversion. As a child, she recalled how a cup would be set out for the prophet Elijah, believed to precede the coming of Messiah. Joseph remembers asking her mother to delay ending the Seder for just 10 more minutes, in hopes Elijah might show up.

"Year after year, my Passover would end in disappointment. We would pour out the cup and shut the door," Joseph said. "My mother would say, maybe next year Messiah will come. Today, I know he has come."