In my family, we enjoy a meal of symbolic foods to remember the history of the Passover, while focusing on the Last Supper. It gives us a clearer understanding of some symbolic aspects of our worship, particularly the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, commemorated weekly in the church we attend. This tradition has helped us better understand Jesus' atonement. It has become an intimate time each year, as we imagine being with Jesus, both in those past moments we remember from His life, and the ones we anticipate with Him in His coming kingdom.
Ideally, we like to hold this special meal on the Thursday night before Easter, to correspond with the timing of the Last Supper. We normally recite the following readings just before we eat together. With our children learning to read, it has become a delight to pass it around and take turns reading during the meal.
Menu:
• Lamb
• “Unleavened bread” – Pita, lightly toasted and brushed with butter and garlic
• “Bitter herbs” – Spring mix, or another lettuce salad, with horseradish on the side, preferably dressed with Hendrickson’s brand sweet vinegar and oil
• “Sop” – Balsamic vinegar in small dishes sprinkled with olive oil and herbs, and/or gravy made from lamb drippings
• Dried figs or Fig Newtons
• Olives
• Grape Juice
Together we read:
Let’s go back more than 3,000 years, to the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (or Israel). One of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, was sold as a slave by his brothers. Joseph quickly grew in the favor of those around him, and eventually ruled in Egypt with great authority. Joseph’s family traveled down into Egypt as a famine in their homeland forced them to look for help from Egypt’s stores of food. After arriving in Egypt, the children of Israel grew into a large nation, but were placed under slavery to the Egyptians.
(Genesis 37 – Exodus 1)
2. Moses was an Israelite who lived in Egypt. As a baby he was placed in a basket by his mother and sent down the Nile River to find a better life than slavery. He was found by an Egyptian princess and raised in Egypt’s royal courts. Thoroughly trained in Egyptian culture and government, he was converted to the religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and became the Lord’s prophet after speaking with Jehovah at the burning bush and receiving priesthood authority from his father-in-law. Moses grew in power as the Prophet and received many revelations from God, including directions to go and ask Pharaoh repeatedly to let Israel out of Egypt. They had been promised the land of Canaan for an inheritance and felt great desire to leave Egypt to claim their blessings.
(Exodus 2 – 6)
3. Pharaoh repeatedly refused to let them go. In response, The Lord gave Moses power to curse Egypt with frogs, lice, and flies, the death of Egyptian cattle, boils and sores on the people, hail and fire on Egypt, locusts, three days of darkness, and finally, the death of every firstborn child and firstborn animal.
(Exodus 7 – 11)
4. For Israel to be protected from the death of their firstborn, they would need to observe a few rituals to allow the destroying angel to pass over their houses and leave their families safe. God told them that each family was to take a young male lamb without blemish and kill it, placing the blood of the lamb on the door frame of their house as a sign. They were to roast it whole, without breaking any bones, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They were to eat quickly, standing, dressed ready to go at a moment’s notice.
(Exodus 12 – 13)
5. After they escaped from Egypt, they were to commemorate this event each year. When children asked the reasons for the meal and the symbolism of its foods, they were to teach them the history of their people and recount the events leading them out of Egypt, as we are doing now. The bitter herbs reminded them of the pain and sorrow they felt in bondage to Egypt. This Passover meal was to be part of a longer period of worship and celebration which lasted for a week. This time is known as the feast of unleavened bread. No leaven was to be found in any of the Israelite houses.
(Exodus 12 – 13)
6. The feast was held every year at the time of the first full moon after the beginning of spring. This tradition continued down through the centuries as Israel was trained to look forward to the coming of a Messiah to deliver them from spiritual bondage. He would come as a firstborn son and would live a sinless life. In dying, none of His bones would be broken. By suffering for the sins of the people, He would make an Atonement that would allow them to be cleansed from their sins by His blood. His blood would save them from destruction. The yearly feast was in addition to the regular sacrifice of animals otherwise practiced as part of God’s revealed religion starting in the time of Adam and Eve.
(Exodus 12 – 13; Isaiah 53; Psalm 22, 34; Moses 5:5-10)
7. Let’s move forward now to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Born as the first child of Mary, Jesus grew up as others do, and learned the ways of Judaism in His time. He lived in accordance with the will of God as it was taught to Him by righteous teachers. Jesus learned that He was the firstborn Son of God the Father spiritually, and the literal Son of God physically. This unique condition allowed Him power over death to be resurrected; it allowed Him to endure infinite suffering and pain without dying, and it allowed Him to avoid sin in every temptation.
(Matthew 1 – 3; Luke 2; Hebrews 4:15)
8. Jesus lived simply and worked hard to bring the blessings of righteousness to all He could. His teachings enable us to follow in His path of peace and experience the abundant life He enjoys. His example of goodness and charity is ours to follow. He humbly did what His Father asked of Him. He warned the hypocritical people around Him and showed the people a more excellent way. He taught us to avoid the “leaven of the Pharisees,” meaning we are to be careful to guard ourselves against corruption and pride, which can puff us up like bread dough.
(Matthew 16)
9. Many of the people living in Jesus’ time had lost sight of the true meanings behind the symbolic religion they practiced. They strictly observed what they thought to be the law God gave them, but they had lost the spirit of that law, which was to point them toward the true Messiah. These same people repeatedly pressured and persecuted Jesus because of His teachings that He Himself was the great One they had been seeking for centuries.
(Luke 4:16-30; John 8; 2 Nephi 25:15-17, Jacob 4:14-15)
10. In the spring of Jesus’ last year on earth, he entered Jerusalem and spent the last week of His mortal life giving His final teachings to His faithful followers. This was the time of the yearly Passover. He gathered His Apostles on Thursday evening to eat the traditional meal with them. It was an intimate setting in that “upper room,” and was the last time Jesus would enjoy a meal with His Apostles before His death. Jesus knew something of the great pain He would soon suffer, and was therefore solemn and heavy.
(Luke 19; John 13)
11. This meal was marked by great sadness, for Jesus knew that among His Apostles was one who had promised to betray Him. He told them that this was the case, and one by one they started to ask if they were the one who would betray Him. Peter had John ask the Lord who it was, and Jesus said it would be the one to whom He should give “a sop.” This was done as Jesus dipped a piece of bread into some liquid, either the broth from the lamb, or perhaps some kind of prepared sauce. As He gave it to Judas Iscariot He said, “That thou doest, do quickly.”
(John 13)
12. The other Apostles assumed He was telling Judas to take care of some temporal need for the meal, as Judas was the one who kept the money for the group. After Judas ate the bread from the Lord’s hand, he left to tell the leaders of the Jews where to find Jesus, so they could arrest Him. During the course of the meal, and probably before Judas had left, the Lord instituted the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper by breaking bread and giving it to the Apostles, telling them to eat it in remembrance of Him. He likewise took a cup of wine and blessed it, giving it to them as a token of the new covenant that He would establish by His blood being shed for them.
(John 13; Matthew 26)
13. The pronouncing of blessings as a cup of wine is drunk was not unusual to the observance of the Passover. But this was it! This was the real Passover! The Messiah had finally come! This was the Lamb of God! This was the Anointed One, the Christ!
14. After Jesus had washed the feet of the Apostles and they had sung a hymn together, they went out into the night to the Garden of Gethsemane. This spot was often used by Jesus as a place of peaceful retirement when he was in Jerusalem. It was a place where olives were grown, and the name means “oil press.” Into this place He went. Falling on His face in prayer, “sorrowful unto death,” Jesus took upon Himself the punishment for the sins of all mankind and felt every pain possible in mortality.
(Mark 14; John 18; Alma 7)
15. After a few hours, Judas came to the Garden with a group of men who arrested Jesus and took Him to trial. This trial was rushed, illegal, and filled with false testimony and accusations. The court determined that Jesus was to be put to death, and condemned Him for blasphemy because He taught that He was the Son of God and would be resurrected from the dead. Since the Romans had power to execute by crucifixion, they went to the government leaders and told them that Jesus had been encouraging sedition and committing treason against Rome. Pontius Pilate, having found nothing worthy of death in Jesus, nevertheless had Him brutally whipped and crucified the next day, Friday.
(Matthew 26 – 27; John 19)
16. Jesus stayed on the cross for several hours as His body was gradually drained of strength and He felt the horror and pain of Gethsemane return. His only complaint was a cry that He was thirsty, and in response a soldier gave Him a drink of vinegar from a sponge. His suffering reached its climax when He cried out to His Father, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” He felt completely alone in these final moments and learned how we feel when we sin and cut ourselves off from God’s sustaining presence. When the suffering was enough, finally and mercifully it was finished. Jesus commended His spirit to God and gave up the ghost.
(Mark 15; Jeffrey R. Holland, “None Were With Him” April 2009)
17. The Jews thought it was inappropriate to leave a body hanging on a cross over the Sabbath, so they asked the soldiers to break the legs of those who were crucified that day to hasten their deaths. Before they got to Jesus, He had already died, and so they left his bones unbroken. His body was taken down, then partially embalmed and placed in a nearby tomb. It laid there through Saturday, the Sabbath, as Jesus went to the spirit world and opened up the teaching of the Gospel to those in prison there.
(John 19; 1 Peter 3:18-22, 4:6; Doctrine & Covenants 138)
18. The following Sunday morning, Jesus returned to this body and took it up in glorious resurrection, never to be separated from it again. He showed Himself to many of His family, friends and followers. They touched the wounds in his hands and feet and side. That first Easter Sunday was the greatest day this world has ever seen, and will only be matched by His glorious return to the earth, where He will take His place as King of kings and Lord of lords, sharing a meal of bread and wine with His faithful followers to celebrate His great triumph over evil.
(John 20; Revelation 19; Isaiah 63; Doctrine & Covenants 27)
19. As we eat this lamb, we think of the perfect and holy Lamb of God, Jesus Christ our redeemer. The figs remind us of the Fall of Adam and Eve, which brought pain and death into this world. The bitterness in the salad reminds us of the sorrow we feel when we are in bondage to our sins. The vinegar is like the drink Jesus was given on the cross. The olives make us think of Gethsemane, where He took upon Himself all our sins and sufferings and was crushed under them as an olive is crushed to release its oil. That oil reminds us of the Savior’s position as the Christ, or “Anointed One.” When we are sick, we can be anointed with olive oil as a reminder of the sufferings Jesus endured for us. Someday, if we are faithful, we will be anointed and given the great blessings of eternal life, because of what Jesus has done for us.
(Genesis 3; Alma 36; James 5:14; Doctrine & Covenants 124:39)
20. Oil and wine have long been used as soothing ointments for healing wounds. The symbols we have here help us remember Christ as the great Healer who offers us peace and help. At this sacred time of the year, let us renew our faith and our desire to follow the Savior, the Bread of Life. He lives! He is the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer. He loves us. May we love Him and honor Him in all we do and say. He is joyfully waiting to come to us again and share His eternal life with us. As the Red Sea parted to let the Israelites out of Egypt and into their Promised Land, so will God move great obstacles out of our way as we follow Him and keep His commandments. Let us be ready when He comes again!
