Intentional Series: Heart

 

Heart.

For those who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, this is a very special week.

And I love how God orchestrated that this was the week that "Heart" was scheduled to be discussed. I just go down the list each week, and Heart was up next and so here we are.

Easter. We can show up on Sunday, dressed in our Easter finest, ready to celebrate Jesus and his Resurrection.

But we will get so much more out of it if we are intentionally preparing our hearts as we walk through this week.

One thing we do in our house is prepare and celebrate the Passover, or Seder meal, on the Thursday of Easter week. However, it's done a little differently than the Passover of the Old Testament, because we now KNOW the Passover Lamb and the Reason that the whole meal was pointing to.

We started doing this a few years back with our kids and it has made the Easter week even more meaningful and real in our lives.  I'll give a quick synopsis if you would like to incorporate a bit of this into your week as well.

There are different elements to the Seder meal:
Lamb The word 'pesach' (pasch, passover) applies to the Lamb of sacrifice as well as to the deliverance from Egypt and to the feast itself.

Unleavened bread (Matzoh) called "bread of affliction" because it recalls the unleavened bread prepared for the hasty flight by night from Egypt. Three large matzohs are broken and consumed during the ceremony.

Bitter herbs (Moror) is a reminder of the bitterness of slavery and suffering in Egypt.

Green herbs to be dipped in salt water. Salt water represents tears of sorrow shed during the captivity of the Lord's people.

Haroseth (or 'haroses') represents the mortar used by Jews in building palaces and pyramids of Egypt during their slavery. (It is a mixture of chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine.)

Wine is dipped from a common bowl.

A Hakishut or a china dinner platter with the following ceremonial foods arranged on it: green herbs (parsley); bitter herb (horseradish); a boiled egg; and haroseth.

There are then four different sections that are read through by different parts of the family. Each section signifies the Four Cups:

I Kuddush - the cup of Thanksgiving
II Haggadah - the cup of Deliverance
III The Cup of Blessing
IV The Cup of Melchizedek

These are the four different words for redemption, spoken by God to Moses.

I just love each year as we read through the sections, share the food with one another, and remember God's plan for Redemption of His people, that all along God's plan was for Jesus to rescue us. And that woven throughout the Bible is symbolism of that plan. And it all comes into focus as we celebrate the Seder meal.

I encourage you this week to intentionally seek out ways to celebrate the Easter week. Whether it's celebrating the Seder meal, remembering through Communion, taking time to remember the sacrifice on Good Friday, and finally celebrating his Resurrection on Sunday. This week is rich with ways to take time with Jesus and remember the events of that final week that truly changed the trajectory of this world forever.

With Intention,
Nichole