Easter Weekend 2006

This week-end millions of people all over the world will celebrate Easter. When I was growing up, Easter was one of the few Sunday’s my mother, brother, and I attended church. I vaguely remember one or two special outfits which were purchased for just the occasion!! Other memories include finding hidden colored hard boiled eggs, small white wicker baskets (lined with shiny fake grass from the dime store package) filled with chocolate bunnies and eggs and jelly beans. If time allowed, my clever, artistic mother would empty eggs by puncturing the ends with a sewing needle and blowing the contents out. Then she would transform these delicate empty shells into faces, painting on hair, eyes, noses, mouths, and ears! I adored these little egg “people.” Some of my really lucky friends even received live “Easter bunnies!!” I never was that lucky. As I got a little older, maybe 12 or 13, my girlfriends and I became curious about sunrise services, wondering what on earth could be worth crawling out of our delicious warm beds at that early hour?? (And, believe me, in Iowa at Easter, it is still cold at sunrise!!) Curiosity got the best of us, not to mention the fact that we wanted to be a part of more grown-up activities! I can still recall the miserable goose bumps on my bare legs, as I stood reverently outdoors with the (small) crowd, shivering in my flimsy spring dress, (in spite of my short wool jacket), and watching all of the tiny rhythmic cloud puffs exhaling from all of our mouths in that frosty air!! It was a welcome relief to return home and change into warmer clothes and thaw out, comforting myself with warm slices of buttered toast dipped in hot chocolate. I never did get the connection between “Easter” eggs and bunnies with Christ’s death and resurrection??
Thursday evening, Theo, Dad, and I attended a Passover Feast hosted by our hospital chaplains. It was interesting, educational, and meaningful, complete with symbolic, ceremonial foods. The menu consisted of matzo ball soup, small red potatoes, asparagus spears, and roasted “shank bone” (chicken at our dinner), which represented the lambs slain in Egypt and the Passover sacrifice in Temple times. Josephus records the number of lambs slain from 256,500 and later to be no fewer than 3 million!
At the beginning of the feast at least two candles on the Passover table are lit, representing the light of God's face shining upon us, and symbolizing the shekinah glory of God which appeared in the Tabernacle. One of the two candles is for observe, the other for remember, reminding the Jews God is not only their Creator, but also their Redeemer.
The dinner begins with a roasted egg (hard-boiled) in salt water. The egg represents the hardness of Pharoah's heart...the salt water symbolizes the tears of the Hebrew slaves under bondage of the Egyptian taskmasters.
The matzo, unleavened loaves, represent the bread which did not have time to rise that the Israelites took for sustenance on their journey out of Egypt. The unleavened bread, or matzo dough is flattened, and before it is baked, it is pierced and striped with a pointed tool to keep it from bubbling under the flame. The prophecy of Isaiah 53:5 declares: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed."
We were reminded that Jews all over the world celebrate this special family Passover dinner on Thursday evening, before Easter. Hope you all have a blessed Sabbath and week-end as we reflect upon Christ's sacrifice and victory in our behalf. Love to you all.