Community on Columbia

We celebrate Passover this year on Saturday, April 2,  by first sweeping away any spiritual leaven from our lives, and then reading through the Haggadah and to experience the seder meal with an explanation of the Passover elements, and how each points to the Messiah – Jesus.

Notes on Passover

Then, on Sunday, we will celebrate Jesus’ resurrection by reading the Passover homily by Melito of Sardis, dating from around 150-190 A.D.

Read Melito of Sardis’ Passover Homily “On Pascha”

The Ten Plagues in Exodus 7:14-12:36 were each directed at “disenchanting” the gods that the Egyptians worshipped. They would also help get Israel ready to leave Egypt. But the plagues are also described as being on Pharaoh’s “heart.”  So they should also reveal any idolatry in our own hearts before we observe our Passover seder.

Notes on the Plagues

The Jews were commanded to rid their homes of anything leavened before Passover, and eat only unleavened bread during Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Jesus expounded on the meaning of this symbol: “…beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6) “… and of Herod” (Mark 8:15). The pre-Passover elimination of leaven shows the importance of sweeping out from our lives anything that “puffs us up” in these different ways.

Notes on the Search for Leaven and the Meaning of the Afikomen

Observed a month before Passover, the focus of Purim is simply reading the Book of Esther. This feast is probably the original “morality play” with audience participation. A mysterious part of the Purim feast is the rabbinical command to drink enough wine so that you can’t distinguish between “Yay Mordechai!” and “Boo Haman!” – and the fact that God is never mentioned.

Notes on Purim

… Even More Notes on Purim

The Connection Between Purim and Yom Kippur