Messiah in the Passover

As Easter approaches, it was interesting in Church during worship on Sunday, to once again go through the Passover Seder and see how the symbolism points to the Messiah.  Dr. Mitch Glaser (Isaiah53.com) gave the presentation in a very engaging and humorous style.

In Leviticus 23, where the Jewish Festivals are described, the Feast of the Unleavened Bread lasts for 7 days and Passover is 1 day.  The first 2 days of the festival is the Seder, detailed in the Haggadah, retelling the story of the Exodus and briefly described in Luke 22.

• First is the preparation, cleansing the house (or Upper Room) of any leaven, which represents sin -> There must be purity before worship
• To start the Seder, the father looks around for any remaining leaven and removes any that are found, then declares the house clean
• The mother lights the candle, which represents the Shekinah glory filling the home
• The leader wearing the white robe as a symbol of purity represents the priest leading the family to God, and the supper table thus becomes the altar
• There are 4 cups of wine.   The first is the Cup of Blessing or sanctification (Luke 22:17) -> being set apart for God
• The second is the Cup of Plagues -> dipping the pinkie in the cup and dropping onto the plate with the associated plagues represents the blood of judgment and the reminder that disobedience leads to judgment.   Yet the song that is sung with the many verses of how God has blessed His people shows His abundant goodness.
• Then come the elements of the Seder Plate: 1) parsley (life) dipped in salt water (tears); 2) charoset - sweet brown mixture of apples with cinnamon- represents the mortar used when they were slaves in Egypt; the sweetness indicates that when redemption is near, even the bitterness of slavery is sweet; 3) horseradish (bitter); 4) egg in salt water representing the destruction of the temple; but the hope that when God comes back the temple will be rebuilt; 5)shank bone of lamb, represents Exodus 12 where the blood was put on the door posts so that the angel of the Lord would  Pass-Over.
• After the meal, the Matzah would be taken from a pouch with 3 compartments, representing the Trinity.   From the middle compartment, the matzah was broken and half is wrapped, hidden, brought back out, and then passed to all.   This represents Christ's death, burial, and resurrection; and then communion (vs 19)
• Then comes the third cup - Cup of Redemption (vs 20)
• And the fourth cup - Cup of Hallelujah or Praise (Matthew 26:5)
• They sing a song for Elijah, although, John the Baptist was representative of Elijah who prepared the way for the Messiah
• The Seder ends with "Next year in Jerusalem", though what they really are waiting to hear is that the Messiah they await has already come