Seder, Last Supper, Crucifixion, Resurrection
The Israelite heritage of the Catholic Church tells us that we live in a continuous stream of salvation history. Some Protestants suggest that salvation history is like a two-stage rocket; the first stage lifts the rocket up to a certain point, then falls away to destruction when the second stage ignites. From Adam to John the Baptizer, our Father in heaven lovingly prepared His covenant children for the time when their Messiah would come. The Messiah's public revelation completed the teaching and would remain until the end of time. As we prepare ourselves to follow the Messiah in His crucifixion and resurrection, let us see how Moses (Hebrew: Moshe) pre-figured God's Messiah (Hebrew: Moshia).
Three thousand years ago the Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians under the rule of the Pharaoh Rameses II. Passover, as we know, commemorates the freedom and exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.
Moses and Rameses were polar opposites. Moses had been named for the survival of his birth; the name meant "born of." (Exodus 2:10) "She named him Moses, for she said, 'Because I drew him out of the water.'" Drawing-out is a birth process. Moses was born of water, pre-figuring, (John 3:5) "... born of water and the Spirit." Rameses, considered divine in Egypt, was named Ra-Moses, "born of the god Ra."
Moses, born of slaves and raised a prince, became a humble shepherd. Rameses II, the false god-man, by contrast, was so filled with pride that he constantly built monuments to himself. He also removed his predecessors' names from their monuments and inserted his own name instead. Rameses even put his name on any building he repaired. The Greek historians called him Ozymandias; we recall Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem.
God commanded Moses, a simple Jewish shepherd, to go to Rameses and demand the freedom of his people. Rameses ignored Moses' repeated plea, "Let my people go." Moses warned Rameses that our Father would send severe punishments to the people of Egypt if the Israelites were not freed. Again Rameses ignored Moses. In response God unleashed a series of ten terrible plagues on the people of Egypt: Blood, Frogs, Gnats, Flies, Cattle blight, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, and finally Death of the First Born.
God chose these plagues to show His power over the false Egyptian gods. The Egyptians worshiped the river Nile. The first plague turned the Nile to blood. The Egyptian god Ptha had a frog's head, so our Father's second plague was aimed at showing his impotence. And so on. But above all, the Egyptians worshiped Pharaoh as a god. His first-born son was "made divine" in a special ceremony. Our Father completed His destruction of the Egyptian gods by killing Pharaoh's son. (Numbers 33:4) "... upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments."
We read, (Exodus 11:4) "About midnight I will go forth in the midst of Egypt; and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sits upon his throne, even to the first-born of the maidservant who is behind the mill; and all the first-born of the cattle. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever shall be again."
God commanded the Israelites to mark their dwellings with the blood of a sacrificed lamb. He told them, (Exodus 12:7) "Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses..." The blood was to be on the horizontal beam above the door and on each of the vertical beams framing the door. We can imagine Christ crucified in the doorway, His head touching the blood on the lintel, his hands touching the blood on the doorposts. (Deut. 6:9) "And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Seeing the blood on the lintel and doorposts, and the Israelites inside eating the sacrificed lamb, God "passed over" their homes. In that way, the body and blood of the sacrificed lamb protected the Israelite families.
Rabbi Yeshua was God's Messiah. We know Him by the Greek translation of His name, Iesous. (In English, Jesus.) Yeshua, Hebrew for "Yahweh saves," was the name He used every day. His blessed mother called Him Yeshua. His Apostles called Him Yeshua. He was the most Jewish Jew of all. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 578)
As Moses was opposed by Rameses, Yeshua too had a false god-man opposite. When Pilate asked the Sanhedrin who they wanted to release, they asked him to release Barabbas (Hebrew: Son of the Father). The New Revised Standard Version even tells us that his name was (Matthew 27:16) "Jesus Barabbas," though other New Testament translations omit the "Jesus." The Sanhedrin deliberately chose the false "Jesus Son of the Father" instead of the true Jesus, Son of the Father.
Hebrew calendar days run from sunset to sunset. At the beginning of the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month Nisan (Exodus 12:6), Thursday evening after sunset, Yeshua celebrated His last Seder with the fishermen, tax collectors, etc., whom He chose as His Apostles. He dipped matzo in the bitter herbs (a regular part of the Seder), gave the matzo with bitter herbs on it to Judas to eat, and told him (John 13:27) to leave quickly. After Judas left, Yeshua commanded the eleven to love one another, not (Leviticus19:18) "as yourself," but much more, (John 13:34) "... as I have loved you." And He celebrated the Sacrament of His Body and Blood so that all of the eleven might be strengthened for the trial to come, and so that they might celebrate the sacrament in remembrance of Him. Then, as the fourteenth day of Nisan was approaching its end (Friday afternoon), Rabbi Yeshua on the Cross gave His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity to the Father to reconcile us with the Father and open His kingdom of heaven for us. In that way, the Body and Blood of the sacrificed Lamb of God redeemed us all.
To this day, Jews all over the world celebrate Passover beginning on Nisan 14. The Hebrew calendar is lunar, while the Gregorian calendar we use is solar, so the Gregorian equivalent of Nisan 14 bounces around from one year to the next. But in the Hebrew calendar it is consistent. Although the Seder feast is celebrated only on the first two nights, Passover continues for eight days in all. Only foods that are "Kosher for Passover" are in the home. In particular, no leaven is used; instead, Jews eat matzo. In Orthodox homes, special dishes and kitchen utensils are taken out of storage, cleaned, and used, instead of the dishes and utensils used during the year.
During the Passover Seder, the head of household takes three pieces of unleavened bread, reminding us of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He breaks in half the second piece, reminding us of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity crucified. He then wraps one of these two pieces, called the afikomen (Hebrew: festival procession, reminding us of Yeshua's constant call, "Follow me,") in a white linen napkin, like Yeshua's linen burial cloth, and hides or "buries" it, as Yeshua was entombed. Later the youngest at table finds, or "resurrects" the afikomen as Yeshua rose from the dead. The head of household then takes the afikomen, blesses it, breaks it, and passes it around for all to eat. These are Yeshua's four great Eucharistic actions. He took matzo, blessed it, broke it, and distributed it to all at table. Then He told His apostles, (Lk 22:19) "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In that way, through the Seder, Yeshua calls us to follow Him into His death and resurrection.
During Lent we travel from the ashes of our sins along a pilgrim journey toward holiness. On Good Friday we stand in dim light below the crucified Christ and follow, silently and solemnly, as He is buried in the tomb. On Easter Sunday we rise with Him as befits redeemed creatures, that we might live with Him for all eternity.
The Easter Vigil Mass, celebrating the risen Christ, begins with the Exsultet, Rejoicing. Its words, "O truly necessary sin of Adam ... O happy fault ..." highlight for us a most remarkable truth. Our far-seeing Father knew from the beginning that we would fall from grace. He closed paradise on earth and barred the way to the tree of life to prepare us through constant spiritual exercise for the day when the Messiah would invite us to the tree of life.
The cross is the tree of life through which we pass to reach the resurrection. Rabbi Yeshua told us, (John 16:33) "In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We who follow Him need constant spiritual exercise to conquer the darkened intellect and weakened will that we inherited from our first parents. When we persevere to the cross, we receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, (Revelation 2:7) "To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."
Copyright © 2003 Martin K. Barrack. All rights reserved.
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