Taste, See, Remember

This Saturday evening at sundown, the annual celebration of Passover will begin, as Jewish families and communities around the world gather for the first Seder meal. The ancient story of the liberation from slavery in Egypt will be retold around a multi-course meal, with symbolic foods representing the bitterness of the time of enslavement, the rush of escape, and the sweetness of freedom. Although John and I don’t normally host a full Seder meal, we have incorporated elements of the tradition in the past; one year I attempted to make charoset, the sweet paste-like spread made of diced apples, cinnamon, walnuts, and sweet wine, which represents the mortar used by the Israelites as they built brick monuments during the time of enslavement. Although I followed the recipe closely, it didn’t turn out quite how I thought it was supposed to look, and the consistency was definitely off. Still, it tasted good and we ate it with matzah bread that evening.

My attempt at making Passover food was not quite the success I was hoping it would be, but it did remind me that there is beauty in the imperfection, and that liberation is often messy—not a perfect banquet with nothing out of place, but a feast shared on the run—unleavened bread, imperfect spreads, and the reminder that no matter what, God is with us.

In our Morning Manna bible study class on Sunday mornings, we’ve been studying the book of Revelation—a part of scripture that is often ignored, misunderstood, or used to stoke fear. But as we are discovering together, these words written to a fearful and oppressed people are words of liberation and hope, a promise that in the midst of struggle, God’s people are remembered and God’s kingdom will triumph. Revelation draws heavily on images and themes from the Exodus story, so it seems especially appropriate to be reading these words while our Jewish siblings remember the ancient story of freedom in Egypt.

Allan Boesak, a South African theologian who came to prominence as an anti-apartheid activist, wrote a commentary on Revelation from the perspective of the South African experience called Comfort and Protest, in which he envisions those earliest followers of Jesus, Jewish disciples steeped in the stories of their people and who knew the Passover story intimately. He writes,

“Clustered around a little lamp in the darkened room, they share bread and wine as the Master has taught them…every time they broke that bread it was in remembrance of him who loved them and whose broken body is the guarantee of forgiveness and mercy. He, this Jesus, is the faithful witness. His very life and death and resurrection are the realization of the promises of God. In him the promises of the exodus and of the prophets came true. Remember the exodus, John says…

The people were reminded that even though for Egypt they were mere slaves, chattels, cogs in the wheels of Egypt’s economy, for this God of heaven and earth they are a kingdom of priests, chosen for service of the Living One.”

Remember the promise. Break the bread. Share the cup. And know that our Liberator lives.