Seder and Maundy Thursday

Holy Week began with the procession of the palms on Palm Sunday with skies that were crystal clear with few small billowy white clouds to accent the vivid blue. The service began outside and after the opening liturgy all processed in sing Hosanna in the highest. Filled with excitement and anticipation it was a morning much like that in Jerusalem over 2000 years ago. Then on Thursday night the mood shifted with the Seder dinner and the transition from a joyous supper to the stripping of the altar.

The Seder dinner was similar to the one that Jesus would have had with His disciples. The Seder plate was filled with symbolic reminders of the Israelite history and how God redeemed them and how they are now symbolic to the believers in Jesus. Each item on the plate points to how Jesus is "Y'shua ha-mashiach" Jesus the Messiah.

In all about 75 people attended the Seder and then after the dinner many came to the Maundy Thursday foot washing service. Each was encouraged to place themselves in the sandals of the disciples...as the altar was stripped to reminded themselves that on that night Jesus was carried away and arrested.

For those walking through the three days it is a journey of highs and lows as Jesus goes to the cross to die and on Sunday we see the evidence of the resurrection.