passover begins
This Monday, April 22, is the beginning of the Jewish Festival of Passover. It ends on Tuesday, April 30. Passover is the annual celebration of the Exodus, when God set Israel free from over 400 years of slavery in Egypt. They eat the Passover (or seder or paschal) meal in commemoration of that event. There are symbolic foods that are eaten and a few ritual glasses of wine.
For us Christians, this is significant because it was at the Passover on Holy Thursday night, when Jesus was in the Upper Room with His Apostles, that He took bread, blessed, and broke it, and handed it to them saying, “Take and eat. This is my body which will be given up for you.” He then took a cup of wine, blessed it, and passed it to the Twelve, saying, “Take and drink. This is my blood, which will be poured out for you.”
This particular Passover comes at a time of great crisis for the people of Israel and the entire Middle East. The war between Israel and Gaza has raged on for over six months, and now Iran has attacked Israel, and we wait to see what Israel’s response will be. Will there be a cooling of the tensions, or will the conflict escalate?
For us Christians, this is significant because it was at the Passover on Holy Thursday night, when Jesus was in the Upper Room with His Apostles, that He took bread, blessed, and broke it, and handed it to them saying, “Take and eat. This is my body which will be given up for you.” He then took a cup of wine, blessed it, and passed it to the Twelve, saying, “Take and drink. This is my blood, which will be poured out for you.”
This particular Passover comes at a time of great crisis for the people of Israel and the entire Middle East. The war between Israel and Gaza has raged on for over six months, and now Iran has attacked Israel, and we wait to see what Israel’s response will be. Will there be a cooling of the tensions, or will the conflict escalate?