Guidelines For The Christian Use Of The Seder

In recent years it has become popular for congregations to conduct the Passover meal, or some combination of the Seder and Communion during Holy Week, particularly on Maundy Thursday. This article challenges such practices, urging Christians to observe the Seder authentically. Full Seder services are usually available through local bookstores.

The Christian use of the Jewish Passover Seder is as much an interreligious (affecting relationships between Christianity and other world religions) as a liturgical concern. Improving Jewish-Christian relations in the post-Holocaust era requires that Christians be especially sensitive to Jewish difficulties with the uncritical Christian use of the Seder, and with the Christianizing of any of its elements in particular. The Seder (order) or Pesach (Passover), celebrated according to the traditional Haggadah (telling), is the key rite of Judaism's central festival. Although the biblical account of Passover (Exod. 12:1–28) is part of the heritage common to Jews and Christians, the Seder Haggadah, while based on the biblical account, evolved into its basic form between the destruction of the temple in 70 of the Common Era (a.d.) and the thirteenth century c.e. Thus, the traditional Haggadah belongs to the Jews; it is not the common property of Jews and Christians. Christians are not free to use or adapt the Haggadah without regard for its Jewish origins. "Good ecumenical (interreligious) relations require respect for the religious heritage of others and the integrity of their rituals" (Alfred Tegels, "Seder Meals and Passion Plays," Worship 60 [1986], 74). The Seder Haggadah used by the Jewish community today cannot accurately be represented to Christians as "what Jesus did" or as the "roots" of the Lord's Supper (Communion). The basic text of the Haggadah did not reach its present form until the thirteenth century c.e. While its primary elements (the Passover story, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, cups of wine) are undeniably from the time of Jesus or before, the Haggadah contains much material that was added after the time of Jesus (including the placing of the questions before instead of after the meal; the sequence and content of the questions; the use of the ceremonial Seder tray and its arrangement; the addition of the haroset to the menu of symbolic foods; the ritual recitation of the plagues as drops of wine are spilled from the second cup of wine; the cup, chair and opening of the door for Elijah; "next year in Jerusalem," and the final songs, including "Dayenu"). None of these elements would have been familiar to Jesus (nor would the terms "Seder" or "Haggadah" been known to Jesus in connection with the Passover meal). Because so many elements were added to the Seder Haggadah after the time of Jesus, it is obviously inappropriate to substitute the Seder for the Lord's Supper on Holy (Maundy) Thursday. It is also misleading (as well as insensitive to Jewish-Christian relations) to conclude a Seder with an abbreviated form of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, as though the thirteenth century c.e. Haggadah somehow represents "what Jesus did" at the Last Supper. The order of the Passover meal followed by Jesus was much less elaborate. After a brief introduction, the meal was eaten with its symbolic foods (Exod. 12:8: lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs) and a cup or cups of wine were blessed and shared. The meal was followed by suggestive rather than prescriptive questions and answers concerning the meaning of the foods, and may have concluded with a form of Grace after Meals (the common Jewish table prayer) and the singing of a Psalm or Psalms. The narratives of the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:23–26; Matt. 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:15–20) mention only bread and wine; the customary word for unleavened bread is not used, nor are lamb and bitter herbs mentioned. The use of lamb at the Seder was discontinued by most Jews after the sacrificial system came to an end with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans in 70 c.e.; it has not been reintroduced. Because the Christian Passover (Pascha) is a comprehensive three-day (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Day) liturgy of Christ's "passing over" from death to life, the Christian equivalent of the Seder is not the Lord's Supper of Holy Thursday, but the Eucharist of Easter day, preferably at the climax of the Paschal Vigil. The Christian equivalent of the Seder Haggadah is not the medieval Jewish Haggadah celebrated on Holy Thursday, but the Great Paschal Vigil of the Resurrection celebrated late on Easter eve or early on Easter day (see Handbook of the Christian Year [Nashville: Abingdon, 1986], 191–209). As the historic and distinctive "telling" of the Christian Passover, the Paschal Vigil begins with the Paschal Proclamation of Christ's Passover Victory (Exulted) during the introductory Service of Light. The Service of the Word consists of Old Testament prophetic readings that rehearse God's saving deeds in history (always including the Exodus) in anticipation of their fulfillment in Christian baptism. New Christians are initiated during the Service of the Water, and the Vigil concludes with the Service of the Bread and Cup which is the Christian Passover meal par excellence. As the Seder Haggadah directs its participants to regard themselves as if they too had come forth out of Egypt, so the Paschal Proclamation at the beginning of the Paschal Vigil involves Christians in the events of their liberation with its repeated reminder, "This is the night … " The Jewish Seder is best experienced by Christians, not as background to the institution of the Lord's Supper in Holy Week, but as an exercise in interreligious understanding. The Seder Haggadah is not primarily a lesson in Christian origins, so much as it is the Jewish understanding of Passover as it evolved in reaction to Christianity and to persecution during the Common (Christian) Era. The questions and answers, for example, originally came in natural sequence after the meal, but between 70 and 200 c.e., they were moved to their present position before the meal, probably to avoid any possible confusion with the new significance being attached to bread and wine during the Passover meal observed by Jewish Christians. The opening of the door for Elijah—unknown to Jesus, but introduced between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries c.e.—may have originally served a purely utilitarian function: it was opened during the Seder to demonstrate to a suspicious and hostile Christian community that the Jews had nothing to hide. As an exercise in Jewish-Christian understanding, the Seder experienced by Christians should be as authentic as possible. Because the Seder is a ritual of home and family around the dinner table, often of several hours' duration, it is most authentically experienced by Christians as the invited guests of a Jewish household where such arrangements can be made. Where it is not possible for Christians to be the guests of a Jewish family for the Seder, a rabbi or other informed Jew should be invited to lead a Seder for the congregation (or to participate actively in the planning of a Seder if such leadership is not possible). The Haggadah should be followed without abbreviation, including the service of the full meal (without lamb). Care should be taken to preserve as much of the Seder's essential family intimacy and informality and length as possible. The Seder is experienced most authentically by Christians with a Jewish family on the first or second night of the Jewish festival of Pesach (Passover), regardless of the dates of the Christian Holy Week. When Passover coincides with Holy Week, the Seder should not be scheduled for Holy Thursday. Where the custom of the Christian use of the Seder in Holy Week persists, despite the interreligious, historical, theological, and liturgical problems it raises, it would be less susceptible to misinterpretation and offense if it were held on Wednesday of Holy Week or earlier, rather than on Holy (Maundy) Thursday.