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A Little Child Shall Lead Them!
A
Passover Parable
By Christine Darg
Jerusalem Channel
I invite you to
follow this riddle wrapped in a mystery:
There is a
“gentile” (Greek) word that has mysteriously been incorporated into the
Passover ritual:
Afikoman {“that which comes after”} is a piece of unleavened matza bread
broken off from the middle matza of the three matzoth set in a decorative cloth
bag before the leader of a Passover Seder.
The broken piece
is hidden by the leader and later searched for by the children, with the
finder, usually the youngest, receiving a reward.
This 1-6 April
2018, we held a “Moveable Passover” tour going from Tel Aviv to Bethlehem to
Nazareth to stay in various hotels because there was no room in the inns of
Jerusalem!
Jerusalem was
too crowded with Jewish and Christian pilgrims for Holy Week consisting of
Passover/Palm Sunday/Holy Shabbat/Resurrection Sunday/First Fruits during the
Festival of Unleavened Bread.
While we were in
Bethlehem, we were “refugees” with Canon Andrew White, who spoke to us from
John 20: 6-7:
“Simon Peter… entered into the tomb [of Jesus], and beheld the linen
cloths lying, and the napkin that was upon Jesus’s head, not lying with the
linen cloths, but apart, having been folded up, in one place…”
Holding up a
handkerchief, Andrew reminded us that Jesus’s resurrected body had passed
through both his linen burial shroud and a linen facial napkin, and that Jesus
had folded the facial napkin and left it separately in the tomb.
Andrew said the
rabbis teach that after the Passover meal, if the napkin (British
English=serviette) is left neatly folded, it means Messiah is coming again!
As a sweet and
profound “souvenir” of the evening together in our worship service, Andrew gave
me the folded handkerchief that he had used to illustrate his point.
Then, a couple
of nights later, when we held our 21st PROPHETIC Passover seder, this time in
Nazareth, I was inspired to use this same handerchief as the “burial”
shroud/napkin in which to wrap the Afikomen, the broken second piece of
matza from our Passover table, and to hide it somewhere in the banquet hall.
The stripes and
piercings in the matza bread represent the piercings and scourging of
Messiah on the day he died to crush out our sins. We make this important
observation at every seder that we are privileged to conduct.
Afikoman is a Greek word that has evolved in the Passover seder’s liturgy
to symbolize the meal’s “dessert” to be eaten after the traditional seder meal
that commemorates and rehearses Israelite deliverance from Egyptian slavery.
In the Upper
Room in Jerusalem on the night before he died to make Atonement for our sins,
Jesus “upgraded” the ancient seder, which was his Last Supper, to the Eucharist
meal, symbolic of our deliverance from the slavery of sin and to remember His
sacrificial death until He comes again.
At a traditional
seder, the children enjoy the game after the very lengthy Passover meal to find
the Afikoman. This is a mysterious “game” that, though the
centuries, has been incorporated into the Passover family experience.
The Jewish
people do not know why they are searching for the broken matza bread, the
second of three pieces of matza, wrapped in a shroud and hidden away [i.e.
“entombed”], but it is a parable written by the Holy Spirit into the ritual — it’s
a parable of the Messiah.
Why? Because when [Jesus] is found, He truly is our dessert – we eat him
(the eucharist: “do this in remembrance
of me”—“O, taste and see that the Lord is good!”)
This year only
adults were seated at our seder table in Nazareth.
However, a
pregnant Israeli guest was holding in her womb the youngest person at table,
and because her baby was obviously not yet able to go on the search for the
Afikomen, the baby’s father conducted the search instead.
This on its own
was profound–that the baby in the womb was participating in its first seder.
After searching
for a while, the Dad-to-be found the Afikoman. The following day, he thanked
me and told me how very much he had enjoyed our seder meal, but especially searching
for the Afikoman.
He said, “It
reminded me so much of my childhood. I called my parents to tell them I had
found the Afikoman!” Friends, isn’t this precious and profound?
Just like in
Matthew 18, Jesus told his disciples to be humble and childlike in accepting
His Kingdom in all its simplicity.
God says when
you search for me with all your heart, you will find me.
The Lord Bless You out of Zion!
Christine Darg's
Exploits.TV and Jerusalem Channel programmes are produced in Israel, Europe and
worldwide, giving a timely perspective on Bible prophecy and the ministry of
reconciliation, healing and the Gospel, beginning from Jerusalem according to
Acts 1:8, "You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you
to be My witnesses from Jerusalem...to the ends of the earth." Exploits
Ministry is a prophetic ministerial group who carry out End-Time exploits and
prayer assignments including tent outreaches, conferences and prayer journeys
under the leadership of Evangelist Christine Darg. "The people who know
God will be strong and do exploits." (Daniel 11:32b)
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