At the end of Holy Week, some believers will take part in a Christian seder supper. This is a growing trend among Christians because the event is so deeply meaningful, because it reminds us of whence we’ve come, and because it points us toward and prepares us for the resurrection of our messiah on Easter.
Seder meals are traditionally Jewish celebrations of Passover, remembering God’s deliverance of his people from bondage. The seder is built around a liturgy and a meal, and concludes on a note of hope for the future—“Next year in Jerusalem.”
The Christian seder follows the same formula. However, because we know the messiah has already come and the ancient promises have been fulfilled in Jesus, our seder is slightly different.
We are not waiting for a savior or a city. We have them. For Christians, we look forward now to the second coming of Jesus and the New Jerusalem.
Reasonably, there are some reservations around Christian seders.
Are they purely cultural appropriation?
Do Christian seders respect Judaism—or Jesus, for that matter?
Are they historically appropriate?
All of those are legitimate questions (some posed and explained in this article: “Jesus Didn’t Eat a Seder Meal”). And yet, for many reasons, Christian seders remain appropriate. And not only appropriate—they are beautiful, important opportunities to remember, reflect, honor, hope, and glorify Jesus. Here are three reasons in support of Christian seders.
1. Christian Seders Make Historical and Cultural Sense
Jesus certainly celebrated Passover. We should too.
At Jews for Jesus, Rich Robinson writes that, while Jesus likely didn’t refer to the Last Supper as a seder, it was very much a precursor to the seder. It consisted of many of the same elements and served the same purpose.
What Jesus did was a pre-70 Passover ritual, whether explicitly called a seder at that time or not. There was lamb, matzah and bitter herbs. There were cups; the gospels tell of two, but we know that Mishnaic traditions often went back to earlier times, so we can reasonably suppose that there were four. In any event the presence of “cups” shows that traditions had already accrued beyond the bare essentials mandated in Exodus for the Passover observance. There was the singing of the Hallel, as Matthew 26 reports that the disciples “sung a hymn” and then “went out to the Mount of Olives.” … To what extent they told the story of the Exodus we don’t know, but we can hardly imagine that the origins of Passover were absent from the Jewish observance of that day.
The earliest Christians were all Jews. Christianity comes out of Judaism. The Old Testament is essential to Christian faith and history. So while we gentile Christians do not co-opt all Jewish traditions and practices—and, in fact, the New Testament is clear that we do not need to adopt such things—Jewish history up until Jesus is very much Christian history. It makes historical and cultural sense for Christians to remember and celebrate God’s deliverance of his people from slavery—and to recognize that continued and greater deliverance of his people from our sins.
2. The Seder Actually Points Christians to the Jewishness of Our Faith
Christians who choose to participate in seders should do so in as honoring a way as possible. Many Jews don’t agree with what they see as the Christian-izing of the seder. We must recognize and be sensitive to that perspective.
However, I hope Christian seders can actually build a bridge between Christians and Jews. It isn’t meant to appropriate or tear down relations. (To be sure, Christians have a long history of antisemitism, which we must account for, but historical failures don’t negate the meaning and purpose of Christian seders.)
Bridges can be built because Christian seders done well will actually point to the Jewishness of Christianity. Honest, culturally and historically careful seders will acknowledge the common faith history of Christians and Jews. As important as our differences are to remember, neither should what we share be forgotten or neglected.
As Robinson says:
The Christian faith arises fully out of Jewish soil; to reiterate, Jesus fulfills Jewish hopes, which included the hope of the Gentiles coming to know the God of Israel.
3. The Seder Story Is a Christian Story
Ultimately, Christians can reasonably participate in seder suppers (though they do no need to) because the story being told, in addition to being a Jewish story and celebration, is a Christian story and celebration, too.
In a response to the “Jesus Didn’t East a Seder Meal” article, Christianity Today published a piece explaining why Christians can still celebrate Passover. In it, Mitch Glaser and Darrell Bock explain:
The meal is portrayed as a commentary on Jesus’ forthcoming work, which is the ultimate act of deliverance the Passover anticipated. What started as Israel’s deliverance also had in mind ultimately blessing for the world (Gen. 12:1–3). In places within the meal and service where you would naturally expect to hear about the deliverance of Israel through the first Exodus, we see Jesus pointing his disciples to his substitutionary death for sinners—a second and even greater Exodus deliverance.
Certainly, it is true, Christians adapt the haggadah to account for the messiah’s fulfillment of Old Testament promises. This evolution isn’t a reason to abandon the celebration. In fact, it seems an even greater reason to celebrate.
Gentile Christians have been “grafted in” to the chosen people of God. As we read in Ephesians 2:12-13:
Remember that you [Gentiles] were at that time separated from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.
Gentiles were once far off, in bondage, dead in sin. But God, in the messiah, Yeshua, delivers us.
Remember
Always, a Christian seder should be honoring. We are not pretending to be Jewish. We are not attempting to offend or appropriate. What we’re doing is this: we are remembering our story, our heritage, and ultimately glorifying God for the deliverance he has given us—both from earthly bondage and spiritual and physical death.
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