HOLY WEEK -- Thursday

This is my favorite day of our Holy Week family devotions (at least so far!). It is the day that we remember the Last Supper and the Passover, and enjoy a wonderful meal that is "similar" to the one that Jesus and His disciples may have eaten the day before He died. Besides the obvious benefit of reminding us of Christ, celebrating Holy Thursday with a Passover-type meal is a tradition that I did in my family growing up. I love sharing this with Eric, Avery & Ella.

Eric started by reading the story of the Passover from Exodus, as well as the Last Supper with Jesus and His disciples. It was really neat to talk about these events with the girls, now that they are old enough to imagine it and discuss what it might have been like. As you can see, we are sitting on the kitchen floor. Avery thought it would be better to sit the way that Jesus and His disciples would have -- not on chairs!


We started with unleavened bread (saltines -- the Matzo didn't go over very well last year). This symbolizes the bread that the Israelites took with them from Egypt. In their haste, they did not have time to let it rise.

Next we ate "lamb" (actually chicken because lamb was soooo expensive and I knew they wouldn't like it!). The lamb was killed so that the blood could mark the doorposts of the houses of the Israelites. When the angel of death saw the blood on the doorpost he would pass over that house and not kill the first born child. Jesus is our Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We tasted horseradish as a reminder of the bitterness the Israelites experienced while they were slaves. We remember how bitter our lives are when we are slaves to sin.

Haroset (apples, nuts & honey) is eaten as a symbol of hope. Jesus is the hope of the world. He is sweeter than the honey in the honeycomb. This was the girls' most favorite part of the meal and it was always my favorite as a little girl too :)

We dipped parsley into salt water and tasted it. This reminds us of the tears that were shed in Egypt. The parsley is a symbol of new life. We are reminded of the sorrow we feel when we think of Jesus dying on the cross. But the green reminds us of the new life that we have in Him.

I forgot to take a picture of the grape juice, but that was our drink. Jesus said this cup was a sign of His shed blood for us on the cross. Whenever we drink it, we should drink it in remembrance of Him.

As we finished up our dinner, I got the Bible back out and read the passage where Judas was entered by Satan and agreed to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. What a sad story. We talked about what it must have felt like, to Jesus, to have a good friend betray you. And still He showed Judas love and respect at the supper. We had a couple of sweet "silver" coins for our dessert.