Letter for April 2025

Dear Friends, Some meals are not just food and drink. They have a greater meaning. The Jewish Passover meal is full of meaning. And Jesus chose the Passover meal in which to show the meaning of his death. That is meaning upon meaning. We can be clear on the meaning of Jesus’ death because the Passover is clear. If you wish to be clearer on the meaning of Easter, what food helps most? Some might say Hot Cross Buns, like we eat on Good Friday, before the Walk of Witness…………. They are tasty and they remind us of the central position of the cross in understanding Easter. But hot cross buns don’t help with the meaning of why Jesus died on the cross. Some might say eggs, like the chocolate ones we give on Easter Sunday. Easter eggs are hollow and might remind us of the empty tomb after Jesus rose from the dead. But eggs don’t get us much further with the meaning. Truly the food which helps us best to understand why Jesus died, is the Jewish Passover meal: the Seder. In particular, there is a moment in the Jewish Seder when the leader takes the bread (Matzah), in three pieces, but still an essential unity (in the one bag) three-in-one. The second piece is taken out, wrapped in a linen cloth and hidden away, so that the children may run and find it later. Having been found, the Afikomen, this second piece of the Passover bread, is broken and distributed to the people. The Passover is not complete until this bread is broken and shared out.

At the Last Supper, Jesus was the leader of the Passover meal. At that time, he talked of the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: ‘I and the Father are one’, ‘The Spirit will take from what is mine’. He identified himself as the second person of the Holy Trinity, the three-in-one.

Jesus took that bread in his hands and he said ‘This is my body’. It was his body which would be hidden outside the city and broken (on the cross), wrapped in a linen cloth (in a tomb), and then brought back from death, even as the followers ran to where it had been left.

It was that bread which Jesus broke into pieces, and was received by those sharing the meal. This was the clear meaning which Jesus gave to his death, in order that his disciples could grasp why he was to die and rise again. The food of the Passover meal tells us powerfully the meaning of Jesus’ death for us.

There are also several cups at the Passover Meal. Four cups of wine are the markers of the progress of the meal. It is when the third cup is drunk, the one after the meal, that Jesus said ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you’. Jewish people call this cup ‘The Cup of Redemption’. This is the cup which Jesus said would provide the meaning to understand his death. The bread and wine of the Passover tell us powerfully the meaning of Jesus’ actions at the first Easter. Jesus, the second person of the Godhead was broken in body, his blood poured out, so that all of his followers might know redemption and salvation. His death was not some wasteful mistake or symbolic political statement. He makes that clear in a meal. Jesus’ death was an action by him which achieved redemption for all of his prople, as a gift from his hand, to be received by his people. That is what Jesus wants us to remember as we receive the broken bread and the wine poured out.

Come to our special Holy Week and Easter services and receive God’s redemption, offered by Jesus during a meal.

With heartfelt Easter greetings, Yours in Christ, Rob