A Passover Seder for Christians

A free resource for believers in Jesus/Yeshua who wish to celebrate the Passover.

For those who are familiar with my story, you know that I stopped celebrating “easter” somewhere around 2006.

In my studies of the bible, I saw the importance of, and felt the pull to begin celebrating Passover.

Passover is the biblical feast – an appointed time of God.

We know and are taught that Yeshua is our Passover lamb.

I will not go into a whole study on the prophetic importance of Passover, and how Yeshua fulfilled it in this article.

However, if you would like to learn more about the prophetic importance of Yeshua (Jesus) and ALL of the biblical feasts, I highly recommend THIS BOOK.

What I am going to share however, is something that I am frequently asked about lately. That is a Christian Seder resource for celebrating it.

There is no biblical example of how to keep Passover, with the exception of a few short portions of scripture, such as Deuteronomy 16:1-8:

 “Observe the month of Aviv, and keep Pesach to Adonai your God; for in the month of Aviv, Adonai your God brought you out of Egypt at night. You are to sacrifice the Pesach offering from flock and herd to Adonai your God in the place where Adonai will choose to have his name live. You are not to eat any hametz with it; for seven days you are to eat with it matzah, the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste.

Thus you will remember the day you left the land of Egypt as long as you live. No leaven is to be seen with you anywhere in your territory for seven days. None of the meat from your sacrifice on the first day in the evening is to remain all night until morning. 

You may not sacrifice the Pesach offering in just any of the towns that Adonai your God is giving you; but at the place where Adonai your God will choose to have his name live — there is where you are to sacrifice the Pesach offering, in the evening, when the sun sets, at the time of year that you came out of Egypt. 

You are to roast it and eat it in the place Adonai your God will choose; in the morning you will return and go to your tents. 

For six days you are to eat matzah; on the seventh day there is to be a festive assembly for Adonai your God; do not do any kind of work.”

As you can see in the scripture, there’s lamb cooked by fire, bitter herbs and matzah. Passover then launches the next feast, which is the Feast of Unleavened Bread – matzah.

The Seder (“order”) is the script and order of a ceremonial Passover meal. It involves a Seder plate with specific items, scripture being read and symbolic traditions.

Today, rather than serving lamb, many will simply get a lamb shank bone from the meat department and have it on the decorative seder plate as a symbol of the Passover lamb.

Many others choose not to have lamb at all, because Yeshua was the final, perfect sacrifice. His blood is what covers us and spares us from death.

“Get rid of the old hametz, so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 (CJB)

Many practicing Jews will also not have lamb, because there is no temple, and as the scripture above stated, the lamb was only to be sacrificed in Jerusalem.

Many Christians will serve a big, festive meal and simply incorporate the Seder ceremony in with it.

Don’t stress about keeping it perfectly. Every year I have kept Passover, it has looked a little different. Some years it has been big and “fancy.” Other years, like last year when we were in the middle of moving, it was very simple.

Study, pray about it, and do what you feel led to do.

Many believers wish to do a Seder meal in the celebration, and so I am sharing a Messianic (Christian) Seder for you as a resource.

Below you will find a Seder ceremony (“Haggadah”) that has been adapted from one that was written by dear friends of mine, and shared with their blessing.

It was inspired by a traditional Jewish Seder, but with scriptures that point to Yeshua, and incorporate the symbolism of what He did for us. They originally wrote this version to teach about Passover at a local church.

Please feel free to use it for your own Passover celebration, or use this as a launching point to come up with your own!

(The scripture references in the Seder Haggadah below, are quoted from the ESV translation of the bible.)