Enjoy these testimonies from our recent Passover Seders!

Thank you so much for the beautiful evening we spent at the seder dinner - the food was superb and the ceremony was spiritually very meaningful to us! At the end of the dinner, we were asked to fill out an address card. Our table was one card short, so my husband Dave was missing his. A friend insisted he fill hers out, and after some back and forth, he acquiesced. During the drawing to receive a seder plate, the winning card, to our delight, was Dave's!

We arrived home after midnight and Dave placed the plate, along with several Haggadahs, on our dining room table. The following afternoon, we had some neighbors over. Abigail (name changed) saw the plate, and asked with shock, "What are you guys doing with a seder plate?"

What followed was an interesting "God-incidence." Abigail was raised in a Reform synagogue, although her grandfather was an Orthodox Jew. She has been a serious student of Buddhism for years. She asked about our church and wanted to know what "evangelical" meant, and we talked for a long time about our beliefs. I know we have established a basis to revisit our sharing again – soon I hope!

- April and Dave K.

I was invited to conduct a "Messiah in the Passover" banquet at Folsom State Prison in California on Resurrection Sunday. The audience included 300 inmates (about half of them believers in Jesus). Speaking on bondage, redemption and God's grace in the midst of sharing the Passover elements with the inmates, I received a very positive response. Many inmates responded to the powerful message of Messiah in the Passover. At the end, I led the men in the sinner's prayer and was blessed to witness twenty inmates who made a decision for Yeshua (Jesus)! They all got very excited when I told them that they would be with God in "The New Jerusalem." L'Shanah Haba B'Yerushalayim - Next Year in Jerusalem!

- Olivier Melnick
Chosen People Ministries - California

I was able to attend a seder at the Yale Club in Manhattan sponsored by Chosen People Ministries. In the middle of the meal, the leader asked someone at each table to take a broken piece of matzah (unleavened bread) and to hide it. Towards the end of the meal, a child went to find the hidden piece. In response, all of us rejoiced in its finding and subsequently shared in the matzah.

This wasn't the only instance of group involvement in the seder. We also recited numerous Psalms together and sang a few hymns. This being my first seder, I was impressed with the community-oriented aspect. Although we each had individual plates on which to eat, we passed community plates of food. In order to eat this way ("family-style"), we had to share with one another. It was different from a typical benefit dinner, in which we would order individual portions with our own preferences – for me, no gefilte fish!

Yet which mimics God's community more accurately – the seder or individual plates? The seder is a more accurate representation because it recognizes our need for covenant relationships that lies deep in our hearts. Paul prays for the central requirement for such relationships, namely, love:

"And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13)

- Bethany Jenkins is a recent graduate from Columbia Law School who has started a non-profit called The Park Forum

It has been a very busy month; this season always keeps me hopping, doing one Passover teaching presentation after another. I have been traveling from Maine to Georgia and from one end of Texas to the other. Each meeting seemed to have its own personality, but every single one saw the hand of the Lord upon it!

I was doing one "Messiah in the Passover" presentation in a small West Texas oil field town. After the close of the service, I was approached by a man who was clearly overwhelmed, and gave me the biggest hug I have had in a very long time. We sat down to talk, and I saw that he had tears in his eyes. This man had clearly seen his Messiah as never before. Witnessing the impact that the Messianic Passover presentation had on this man makes me to look forward to the next presentation and wonder how the Lord will touch the lives of those attending.

Dr. Al Reichman
Chosen People Ministries
National Ministries Representative

When I speak, I often ask that church members invite Jewish friends to hear the message - and this is most often true when I speak about Passover. After all, it was a message about Passover that prompted my father to begin his spiritual journey to the Messiah. This Passover, a Jewish man came with a friend and heard me speak at a church. He heard me assure him that he doesn't have to stop being Jewish if he believes that Jesus is the Messiah. After two lunchtime discussions, he was ready to receive Jesus. This is what I live for!

In another example, I am the leader of a young adult group in New York City and we have an annual Passover seder meal that is attended by both believers and seekers. This year we had over sixty young adults, five of whom are not yet believers, and heard me clearly express the Gospel through the Passover. I am currently meeting regularly with one of these young people and will be meeting with more as the weeks go by.

It is so encouraging because God has been faithful to share the Gospel with the Jewish people through the Passover for two millennia since Jesus, and I have the opportunity to highlight Messiah in the Passover for Jewish people to see. It is a great privilege!

- Ryan K., Chosen People Ministries - New York

Dear friend in the Messiah,

Shalom from New York City! We are rapidly approaching the Passover/Easter season, and I pray that this will be a great time of spiritual enrichment for you and your family!

During this time of year, I am often asked if I still celebrate the Jewish holidays now that I am a follower of Jesus. Since I grew up in a fairly traditional Jewish home in New York City, this is a deeply personal question for me and for many Jewish believers in Jesus.

The answer is an unequivocal yes! Zhava and I continue to celebrate the Jewish festivals as fulfilled in Yeshua (Jesus) the Jewish Messiah. But beneath the question of our continued commemoration of the feasts of Israel, there is another underlying issue. It is the question of whether a Jewish person who receives Jesus is still Jewish—and if so, whether this makes a Jewish believer different from a Gentile believer. I recently had a dialogue with a Jewish believer on this subject, and I would like to share some of the ideas I wrote to her in a letter. We must begin with Scripture, as this is the basis for the answers to all our spiritual questions.

Jewish Believers – A Special But Not Superior Heritage

In the first few verses of Romans chapter eleven, we read that Paul considers himself to be a Jewish believer in Jesus. In verse five, we see that he recognizes that he is not alone, as there are other Jewish people who believe in Jesus as well. Paul identifies this minority as a remnant. In chapter nine, verse six, Paul says, “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.”

In this instance, Paul is not speaking about Gentiles becoming Jews, but rather contrasting Jews by way of nationality with Jews born Jewish and born again by believing in Jesus. It does not mean that Jews who do not believe in Jesus are not Jews, or that Gentiles who do believe in Jesus are Jews. He simply means the same thing he says in Romans 11—that there is a remnant of Jewish people within Israel who follow Jesus. In other words, Jewish people who have received Jesus have the blessing of being Jewish on the inside (spiritually) through knowing the Lord, as well as nationally by being identified through the covenant that God made with Abraham.

Essentially, Messianic Jews are part of two entities established by God in the Bible—Israel and the Church. This is a great privilege. Messianic Jews are born Jewish and are part of the Jewish people, and that does not change when we receive Jesus as our Messiah. On the other hand, because we have received Jesus, we are also part of the Church, which is made up of people who love the Lord and is built upon the chief cornerstone, Jesus the Messiah.

In order for the Church to be the Church, there must be both Jews and Gentiles in the same Body. The Church is described as a mystery in Ephesians chapter five, and part of that mystery is that Jews and Gentiles are part of the same spiritual community, receiving the gift of life from the same Savior and sharing in the common life of the Holy Spirit.

So as Messianic Jews we are part of the Jewish people—and therefore part of the remnant—and also part of the Church, which makes us one with our Gentile brothers and sisters. How we keep all this in balance throughout our lives is a great question!

I believe that the ground is even at the foot of the Cross! In all of the passages in Scripture (such as Galatians 3:28) where we see Jews and Gentiles declared as one, we also learn that true spiritual unity is an even stronger and a more powerful testimony in light of our God-ordained diversity. If we handle our diversity with elitism or arrogance, then that is sin. But if we seek to live as the people God made us to be, we will find how good and pleasant it is to dwell together in unity (Psalm 133).

Passover – A Future Feast Celebrated in the Present

Will I be celebrating Passover this year? Of course—because as a believer in Jesus, the festivals are more meaningful to me than ever before!

It is during the Feast of Unleavened Bread that I am reminded of the Lord’s sinless nature. I will be reminded of His purity and innocence all week, as my family and I will eat matza and avoid leavened bread for seven days.

The Passover Seder itself will be magnificent, especially as we lift the shank bone on the Seder plate and remember Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And as we eat the Bread of Affliction, a symbol of Messiah’s suffering, and drink the third cup—the Cup of Redemption—we will remember His words to His disciples: “Drink... For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Mt. 26:27-28).

As I share this special moment with my family and loved ones, I will remember that the Passover is also a time for the stranger to draw near to the presence of the Lord. I will remember, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the beloved Gentiles to whom God had called him, that although they were once far off, they have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13). My Gentile brothers and sisters in the Lord have been brought into the household of faith to share in the same promises of Messiah in which I rejoice. I look ahead to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, which is the fulfillment of all earthly symbols. One day, all of reality—including you and me—will be transformed in the final restoration of all things.

The Passover also reminds us of one more important truth: that redemption is incomplete without the coming of the Messiah. The Jewish people who are waiting for Him also understand this—and it is our task to show them that Jesus is the One for whom they
have been waiting all along.

Thank you for your prayers and giving that have enabled many Jewish people to find the Lord! Be sure to pray for our Passover outreaches this month!

In the Messiah,

Mitch

Purim, one of the most festive celebrations, has a special place in the yearly cycle of Jewish religious life. The Scroll of Esther, which is read during Purim, is one of five megillot (scrolls)—along with Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Ruth and Song of Songs—that are publicly read at various Jewish festivals and observances throughout the year.

The name Purim (“Lots”) is derived from Esther 3:7, where we read that lots were cast before Haman to choose the date to destroy the Jewish people in Persia. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to some of the most intriguing and colorful characters in the Bible. We meet our heroine, the beautiful Esther (“Hadassah” in Hebrew), who is used by God to save the Jewish people from annihilation. We are introduced to her venerable cousin, Mordecai, who has the spiritual “knack” of always being in the right place at the right time. We also meet King Ahasuerus, who comes across as a bit thick between the ears, although he is evidently quite in love with Esther and turns out to be a fair-minded king. Finally, we meet Haman, the perpetrator of wickedness who seeks to destroy the Jewish people.

Who is Haman? He is identified as an Agagite (Esther 3:1), a descendent of the Amalekites, whose history of enmity toward Israel goes all the way back to the time of Moses, when the Amalekites opposed the children of Israel. From that day forward, Amalekites have been Israel’s foe “from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16).

Although the actual ethnic identity of the Amalekites has been lost to history, the spirit of Amalek is very much alive in the same blind hatred that drove Haman. Throughout the generations, tradition has identified the “Amelekite spirit” with the antisemitic powers that have sought to destroy the Jewish people, culminating in  the decimation of Europe’s Jewish community through Hitler’s “Final Solution.

Deuteronomy 25:17-19 tells us, “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget."

As students of the Scripture know, Haman’s plan was thwarted by the bravery of Queen Esther, who was encouraged by her older cousin Mordecai. The celebration of Purim features special foods, such as a tasty pastry called hamantaschen (Haman’s pockets, or Haman’s ears) and hilarious skits called purimshpiel.

The rabbis have identified four main traditions to be observed on Purim by Jewish people wherever they might live. The first is the reading of Megillat Esther (Scroll of Esther), which is done aloud in the synagogue service. The children in the service bring their groggers (noisemakers) into the service, and whenever the villain Haman’s name is mentioned, they make as much noise as possible to blot out his name and his memory. The other three traditions are sending food gifts to friends, giving money to the poor, and eating a special holiday meal in celebration of the deliverance of the Jewish people. Another Purim tradition is called the Fast of Esther: many Jewish people fast from dawn until the dusk of Purim eve in commemoration of the three days of fasting enjoined by Esther (Esther 4:16).

Jewish communities around the world have developed Purim traditions with a local flavor. In France, children would inscribe Haman’s name on smooth stones and strike them together repeatedly during the Megillah reading whenever his name was mentioned. By the end of the reading, Haman’s name would be worn off the stones. Elsewhere, people write the name of Haman on the soles of their shoes and stomp their feet at the sound of Haman’s name. In the 18th-century city of Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany, Jewish people would fashion wax figures of Haman and his wife Zeresh with wicks inside. As the reading of the Megillah commenced, the wicks were lit. As the congregation heard the story of Haman’s undoing, they could also watch as Haman and Zeresh melted away into nothingness.

The festivities of Purim remind us that our God is faithful. Although the Jewish people have suffered much, we live in hope. We have outlasted all the Hamans who have come against us – and through God's promises, we always shall!

I never really liked Passover when I was a kid. My parents held a seder (the traditional Passover meal) at our house every year with many close friends and family members, both Jews and Gentiles, everyone laughing and reading and eating - but not bringing any kids for my brother and me to play with. The whole thing lasted for what seemed like days.

One thing that made me feel better about our seders was when my mom told me stories about Passover when she was a little girl. For a time, my mom was brought up in an Orthodox home. Every Passover, the whole community would get together at the rabbi's house for a seder that would last until after midnight. Long before the end, all the children would be fast asleep on the floor.

As a child, hearing these stories and participating in Passover, I was torn between the excitement of actually being able to sample the wine - that forbidden juice meant only for adults - and the boredom of having to sit through a seder that lasted all night and some of the morning.

However, as the years and seders went on and I actually came close to memorizing the Haggadah (booklet giving the order of the seder) we always used, I started to realize the importance of Passover. I devoted thought to the connections between the sacrifice of the Passover lamb and the sacrifice of Yeshua (Jesus), the Lamb of God. I realized that as God passed over the Israelite homes with blood on their doorposts (Ex. 12:12-13), the blood of Yeshua also saves all those who believe in Him from sin and eternal death (John 11:25-26).

Recently, the aspect of Passover that has impacted me most has been the great cost by which the people of Israel were set free from their slavery in Egypt. God brought ten crippling plagues against the people of Egypt, culminating in the death of every firstborn child, man and animal alike (Ex. 12:29-30). Then, after the Israelites left Egypt, they were pursued by the Egyptian army. The Lord drowned the entire army in the Red Sea (Ex. 14:28). After hundreds of years, the people of Israel were free from their bondage, but at a high cost.

Most believers would not rejoice in the destruction of life, but would praise God for His deliverance - so I too find myself somewhat conflicted by the dramatic events in the story of Passover. I see the mighty hand of God in those events, working on behalf of His people but also crushing those who would do His people harm. Israel walked out of Egypt free, but Israel's road to freedom was paved with the bodies of the Egyptians.

Just as the story of Passover gives me cause to reflect on the cost of Israel's freedom, I also think of the cost of my own freedom from sin and death, which was purchased with the blood of Yeshua. Like the redemption of Israel in Exodus, the redemption of those who put their faith in Yeshua is not something to take lightly. Yeshua's death was awful and our freedom was not cheap.

I've also been thinking about the images of Yeshua we see in the Passover story. The blood of the lamb keeping death away from the Israelites has always reminded me of Yeshua's blood freeing us from death. I've recently realized that just as God struck down the firstborn of Egypt as a sign of His power and His desire for Israel’s salvation, He later struck down His own Firstborn to give complete and eternal freedom to all who believe. Yeshua's death was the picture of humility and submission, and His resurrection was the ultimate sign of God’s power and plan for salvation.

These realizations have caused me to see Passover, this year, differently than ever before. If God had simply set Israel free, but not destroyed the Egyptian army, "Dayenu!" - it would have been sufficient.  If God had sent His Son without freeing us from sin and death, "Dayenu!" - it would have been sufficient. But this Passover, I've seen in a fresh way that God doesn't simply do what is sufficient, He does what is perfect.

Contributed by Eryn Black