Why Christian Congregations Should Not Celebrate a Passover Seder
Now that we are through Holy Week, let’s reflect on a few practices that have arisen in recent years and examine to what extent they truly do serve the best interest of the Gospel. One of these is Christians having a Passover Seder. I would say that while perhaps some kind of demonstration with explanation of a Passover Seder is an interesting teaching tool, I think that a congregation that institutes a regular practice of having a Passover Seder during Holy Week is making a mistake. We have no indication from the New Testament that after Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, the Church continued to observe the Passover. The whole point of the “new” testament is precisely that, in Christ, everything the Passover pointed toward, has been fulfilled. Rev. Dr. Daniel Gard raises a number of very valid objections that I think are well worth our time and attention. Let me know what you think of this practice, in light of Dr. Gard’s concerns.
“Is it appropriate for a Lutheran congregation to celebrate a Passover Seder? This is not an unimportant question since the practice has become rather widespread in our Synod. In fact, it has even been promoted (complete with Eucharist!) by the Synod’s Board for Evangelism (A Passover Haggadah for Christians , ed. Bruce J. Lieske, no date). But can it be historically or theologically sustained?
“The historical question is rather complex, as the history of liturgical forms generally are. To begin with, we have no manuscript of a Seder Haggadah which is early than the tenth century A.D. (Siddur Rav Saadya Gaon ). Nearly a millennium exists between the time of Jesus and the earliest extant text. Passover Haggadoth have never been standardized but have always been shaped and reshaped by circumstances and time. The ritual has been extraordinarily versatile since the tenth century A.D. and in all likelihood was just as versatile in the preceding centuries. The claim that any ritual now in existence is identical with that used by Jesus is both anachronistic and historically suspect.
“The theological questions are equally complex. Even if it were proven (which it has not been) that a specific extant Haggadah is identical with that used by Jesus, these problems remain. The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Jesus with the words “the blood of the new covenant.” He commanded that we “do this in remembrance of Me.” But, to do what? Celebrate a Seder? Or celebrate His Sacrament? The two are simply not the same. On the night in which He was betrayed, the Blessed Savior gave His disciples something new. All that came before converged and found fulfillment in Him. All that has happened since that night has grown from that same point of convergence and fulfillment. The Galatian Christians failed to understand the radical nature of the new order found in Christ; as a result, St. Paul found it necessary to correct their Judaizing error.
“It makes no more sense for Christians to gather around a Passover Seder than it does to gather around another sacrificial lamb. The very Lamb of God has been slain, once and for all. We would not and could not offer another sacrifice. The final Sacrifice was offered on Calvary. We now celebrate only that Lamb’s own feast as instituted and commanded by Him. It is the Passover of Jesus, and only the Passover of Jesus, which the Church legitimately celebrates.
One final question might be asked. Why, given the historical and theological questions, do some parishes regularly or even occasionally sponsor a Seder? Two responses have sometimes been given. First, to teach Christians about the context of the Last Supper. But given the historical uncertainties of the Haggadah , what anachronisms are being taught as historic facts? Simply teaching our people a biblical and Lutheran Sacramentology and Christology is difficult enough; why confuse the issue?
“A second rationale is to reach out and build bridges to the Jewish community. But is a “Christian” Seder not as offensive to Jewish people as a “Jewish” Eucharist would be to Christians? Communication with any group of people is rarely enhanced by misappropriating their beloved traditions. Those Lutherans who use a Seder do so with commendable intentions. But the inherent problems of the practice result in more harm than good.”
The Seder comes from the tradition of rabbinic Judaism. Dr. Gard also points out that this was the Judaism that survived past the first century, and was the Judaism practiced by the Pharisees. They’re ceremonies and rites were developed as a way to observe temple practices when not actually at the temple, which became the only way after its destruction in 70 A.D. So to practice a Seder is actually to practice the piety of Pharisees and try to imbue it with Christian meaning.
I wondered why there is no evidence of Christians celebrating passover or Seder in the first centuries of the Church. The reason why is the New Testament in Christ’s body and blood. To celebrate a Passover Seder when you have access to the real thing in Jesus is a bit like meeting your wife at the door and then bending down to kiss her shadow.
Christians would do much better to practice the Easter Vigil during the Sacred Triduum. It’s very “seder-like” in its ritual (especially in the proper preface and service of readings) and has plenty of ceremony to go along. And it is all for the praise of Christ our Passover, who has been sacrificed.
In the interests of being ecumenical, why don’t we require our male babies to be circumcised on the eighth day. The practice is much older than Passover, the secular medical community approves of this practice and consider how large a bridge we would build to the Jewish community. Is this not a small price to pay for such an enormous gain in goodwill?
Yes. This needed to be said.
Dr. Gard’s article is an important and gentle approach to correcting the “new Galatians” through education, not judgementalism. Thank you for posting it. A Holy Week “Seder” commemoration serves only to diminish the grace and mercy bestowed upon us through Jesus Christ. Although “old”, it is another “new thing” of human-imposed good works that allows Antinominism to creep further into Christians via the church.
Based only on observations over the years, it would appear that the most common purposes for this practice by Lutheran churches are to instill empathy with the Jewish community, and to teach an interactive lesson about the historic Passover (not so much the historic Last Supper). I think the criticisms in this article are valid, so then the question is always whether the practice is doing more harm than good. If I were the one choosing whether to devote any of a church’s resources to putting on a Seder meal, I would probably vote against it unless someone could convince me that its value significantly outweighed its potential for harm, but I also have no doubt that there are many Lutherans who enjoy it as a teaching tool and as a relational tool, who probably would vote against giving it up.
I have long been concerned about the practice of reenacting the Passover Seder in our Lutheran settings as something that seemed to me to an oxymoron, but I never invested the time and energy to thoroughly study and write about the issue. THANKS MUCH! to Dr. Gard for doing so in such a winsome and understandable way. While information about the Passover Seder is certainly beneficial to a better understanding of the Blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion that Jesus instituted on the night He was betrayed (even as information about circumcision is beneficial to a better understanding of the Blessed Sacrament of Holy Baptism), to reenact the Passover Seder in our New Testament settings to better understand the background and context of Holy Communion makes about as much sense as reenacting a circumcision to better understand the background and context of Holy Baptism.
Dear Pastor McCain:
I agree. In addition to the concerns you raise, I would also add an argument for respect of the neighbor. Conducting an “imitation” service based on the practice of another faith has always seemed disrespectful to me. For Christians to conduct a Seder meal strikes me as comparable to Jewish congregation conducting a service of Holy Communion. In either case, by emptying the meal of any genuine faith-integrity (as a divine promise “for you”), it suggests to me an clear lack of “ecumenical” respect.
I think many Christians hunger for authentic ritual and ceremony, and a meaningful connection to ancient custom, including Israelite practice. The impulse is commendable.
However, I think the “Christian Seder” risks overshadowing the Lord’s Supper in the imagination of poorly catechized Christians who may find it novel and interesting relative to the “same old” Lord’s Supper.
Secondly, the point made above about anachronism is a good one: are we really emulating a medieval rabbinic judaism that has never been part of our spiritual heritage?
Thirdly, the jews that I know do find this practice deeply offensive, immature and inauthentic. I can’t imagine anyone converting to something that looks like a poor imitation of their former religion.
I have never been comfortable with this, and have never attended one. The first time I heard about this sort of thing was in the seventies (but, then, that was when I entered the ministry, so wa first exposed to some of these “innovations.” This cetainly smacks of the seventies! I appreciate the questioning of the theological underpinnings for this. It smacks of the idea “we have to do something new!” My own discomfort really resonates with Steven Kings comments (#7). It shows tremendous disrespect for those for whom this is a sacred rite. What other rite of another religious system to we try to imitate? And as I see how the good people of our congregations prepare for this, it is indeed a cheap imitation of the real thing. Christ instituted His Supper at the Passover, but it was the consecrated bread and wine which are His body and blood that we are to receive. The “this do” does not apply to the entire Passover meal. As has been said, one can do a teaching thing to explain the background to the Supper. No need to imitate it!
On a pop culture note, this smacks of the discomfort I feel when contestants on the Amazing Race are forced to participate in the “cultural” (actually religious) rites of HIndus an Buddhists and others in order to advance. This shows great disrespect for both the faith of the contestant and the people of those cultures by turning it all into play-acting. Our participation in a mock Passover Seder is quite similar.
Thank you, Dr. Kettner, for your excellent and helpful observations.
I just want to add a few things to what has already been said so well. If we really wanted to put the institution of the Eucharist into historical, biblical context, a much better source would be the Books of Moses, the Pentetuch. Pasover was a celebration that began at the Temple and ended at the home. So there probably was some kind of Seder type meal celebrated during the days of Jesus, but as Dr. Gard so well pointed out, we have no way of knowing that it was anything like the Seder of the 10th century. In fact, it very likely was not, since much of the tradition placed into that Seder was a teaching tool to remind children of the things that used to take place at the Temple. However, they are a 10th century Jewish interpretation of the things that took place at the Temple. These were a people who had a thousand years to reinterpret their faith so that it did not point backward to Jesus Christ.
On top of this, we cannot even be certain that the meal celebrated by Jesus and His disciples was on the night of the Seder. While the three Synoptic Gospels allude to this meal being “the Passover” meal, they do not say so explicitly, and John is quite clear that Jesus was crucified on the day that the lambs would be sacrificed in the Temple. This means that the Passover was on Saturday, and that the meal Jesus shared with the disciples was part of the feast of unleavened bread, and not a Seder at all. If it was the intention of the Synoptics to suggest that the meal was the Passover meal, it is also quite clear, by their wording, that the purpose was to show that the Passover is now fulfilled in Jesus, and a new tradition is replacing it, the Eucharist or Sacrament of the Altar.
I have heard several well-intentioned lay people who had developed really bad theology concerning the Sacrament because of their interpretation of what they heard and saw at such a Christianized Seder meal. It was nearly impossible to dislodge their misunderstanding because it had been enshrined in a ritual of the Church, taught with the authority of the Office of Holy Ministry, and so was, to them, more true than the Word of God itself! Does such a misuse of the traditions of another faith cause more harm than good? Almost certainly, and all the good it is supposed to bring about could easily be done by methods that are not so fraught with error.
This article and the comments have given me much to ponder. Several years ago I was in Toastmasters. One of our members was Jewish. He was offended that Christians would have a Seder meal which he considered inauthentic and mockery. Unless it was conducted by a Rabbi, then in his opinion, it was not genuine at all and was highly offensive. We do not build bridges with the Jewish community when we reenact their traditions and rituals.
I attended a Seder in a church in 1992. The pastor who acted as the Rabbi used it to show how it pointed to Christ. It was interesting and informative. However, I have to agree, that Jesus left the command for us to celebrate the His body and blood that was given for us and no where in scripture do I find that he told us to observe Seder.
In my worship class at Boston University, we were discouraged from incorporating Seders because of how disingenuous it can be. It is too easily seen as subverting the Jewish custom and taking it over for our own purposes – not theirs. And that doesn’t even really step into theological issues. If you truly want to experience and learn about a Seder, you are probably better off to find a local Jewish community and ask them if you can attend.
I am very grateful for this article. I believe that Christians who have been bombarded with premillenial dispensational books and television broadcasts are starting to identify more with national Israel than with Israel as Christ’s church.
I also have many questions as to how many of these people are really celebrating medieval eastern European customs and not actual Biblical practices.
As I understand it, the directions for the Seder come from the Talmud; with respect to the words of St. Paul to the Galatians, I could not imagine being more under the law than to be a gentile trying to use the Talmud!