Lodi’s Beth Hallel Messianic Fellowship observes Passover this week
Every year, Passover is celebrated from the 15th through the 22nd days of the Hebrew month of Nissan in commemoration of the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt.
This year, Passover is being observed from April 10–18, and Beth Hallel Messianic Fellowship in Lodi will be celebrating today with its 16th annual Passover Seder Service at 5 p.m.
“We will be doing the same Passover service that Jesus participated in,” Beth Hallel Elder Dennis Peck said. “The Passover Seder really hasn’t changed too much over the thousands of years since it started once we escaped from Egypt.”
Reservations for the event were taken in advance, and people from all walks of life were invited to attend.
“Everyone is generally invited who knows about Passover and knows that we represent the Jewish believers in Jesus here in Lodi and locally,” Peck said. “We are the only Jewish believers in Lodi that have a congregation, so we also have our Christian brothers and sisters join us so that they see the importance and symbolism of Passover. A lot of our Christian brothers and sisters want to do it because Jesus did it.”
The traditional activities involved in a Passover Seder will be observed, Peck said. There will be a place setting on the Passover table that represents the story of freedom from slavery.
“Nowadays, Jesus has completed or fulfilled the symbolism in many ways by becoming our Passover lamb,” Peck said. “What is on the table are symbolic items that teach us and remind us of what happened then when we escaped from the slavery in Egypt and what happens to believers in Jesus now who escape from sin.”
Items on the table include bitter herbs to remind followers of the bitterness of their slavery and the sin they’ve been saved from by Jesus, a shank bone that represents Jesus’ death and the sacrifice he made to save his people from sin along with a number of food items that have symbolic representations.
“They represent not only historical events for the Jewish and the Gentiles that lived with them but also represent how Jesus fulfilled these certain events and became our salvation,” he said of the items.
Parsley is on the dinner plate and symbolizes the hyssop branch that was used to place the blood over doors so the angel of death would pass over homes. According to Peck, the parsley will be lifted up and spoken of with the traditional liturgy and everybody will be reminded of the blood that was placed over the door posts of the homes. They also partake of Matzah or unleavened bread and leavened bread is strictly avoided during the entire stint of the celebrations.
During the services all the original liturgy and blessings that Jesus himself would have spoken will be recounted in detail, Peck said
The blessings will be recited both in Hebrew and in English.
In addition to the liturgy and blessing those attending the service will partake in circle dancing choreographed by a professionally trained dance choreographer.
“The Jewish people have always expressed themselves in songs, story and dance, and part of the Passover celebration is circle dancing, traditional Israeli circle dancing. These traditional dances are thousands of years old,” Peck said.
Eight traditional songs will be sung during the service and will be translated from Hebrew to English.
“The interesting things about Beth Hallel Messianic Fellowship is that we have people from all Christian denominations with us and some Jews,” Peck said. “We have far less Jews than we have Christians ... but those Christians have never had the opportunity to learn about the seven holy days that Jesus celebrated. So we are very honored and pleased that the local church community has received us so well.”
Peck said it’s interesting that Jews have continued to celebrate the seven holy days, but what grew out of Jesus became Christianity and Christians no longer celebrate those holidays.
“The Christians of today see the value of these festivals and so they generally do join us,” Peck said. “We have a very diverse congregation.”
Peck said that Jesus did one last Passover before he died and then rose three days later.
“It’s a perfect representation of what happened to him. The Passover lambs were killed at the same time Jesus was killed. He was crucified on Passover so the symbolism and the timing is not coincidental. It’s quite a Messianic prophecy that was fulfilled.”
In addition to observing the seven holy, days Beth Hallel Messianic Fellowship meets every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at. Vinewood Community Church located at 1900 West Vine St.