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Each leader, please take the time to review these ideas, and pray and discern where you feel the Lord wants you to camp out on. No one knows your group better than you do. Perhaps take one question / idea from each Passover and Easter.

Pray - invite Jesus; open your hearts and minds to His voice. Let's sit at the Rabbi's feet.

Passover / Good Friday

How was the experience of Passover on Good Friday for you? When we connect with the Jewishness of our faith, and how each piece of the Passover pointed to Jesus as our Messiah, and the fulfillment of Exodus (this time Jesus, not Moses, leads all humanity out of slavery to sin, not just the tyranny under the Egyptians. He is our Moses, our deliverer, our Passover Lamb), our faith is enriched.

Share how God spoke to you, touched your heart, through what you heard and experienced on Good Friday.

To help you remember some of the teaching I have provided some highlights below.

1. Cup of Completion.

There are two cups mentioned in the Gospel account of the Last Supper. The second Cup, or The Cup of Plagues, is not actually mentioned, but this is the point in the Seder where bitter herbs are eaten. In the Gospel, this is where Jesus says He will be betrayed by one of His disciples. (Matthew 26:25) This cup is usually drunk after the story of the Passover is read, and right before the matzah is broken and eaten. In the Gospel, Jesus tells them that the broken matzah represents His body, broken for them.

The third cup of wine, or The Cup of Redemption, is drunk right after the Matzah. In the Gospel, this is where Jesus takes the wine and announces the New Covenant, the forgiveness of sins through His blood. (Luke 22:20 ).

Jesus does not take of the fourth cup of wine, The Cup of Completion, at this time.

In the Garden, Jesus prays to the Father, if it be His will to, “Take this CUP from Me.”

According to the Gospel of John, right before Jesus died, and knowing that He had taken on all the sins of the world, He says, “I am thirsty”. Soured wine was soaked into a sponge and raised up to his mouth, using a hyssop branch.

The hyssop branch was the very branch used to spread the blood of the lamb on the door frames of the Israelites, in the book of Exodus.

After Jesus takes this, which represents the fourth cup of wine, The Cup of Completion, Right before He breathes his last breath, He utters the words, “It is finished”. Jesus dies. (John 19:28-30)

On the cross, Jesus becomes the spotless, sacrificial Passover lamb of the world. The Messiah has fulfilled the promises of God. Man is rescued from sin.

2. Mikvah - The Jews would wash their hands, feet, head and heart before going into the temple to worship. In order to connect with God they had to be cleansed of their sin. Jesus washed his disciples feet, with Mikvah in mind. He was about to perform Mikvah for all humanity. This time not with water, but with his very own blood flowing from his hands, feet, head and heart, on our behalf. We are invited to receive God's forgiveness and cleansing, and identify with his broken body and shed blood for us. As the Isrealites trusted in the blood of the Lamb to save them, so we trust the work of Christ to be saved, rescued, reconciled, and redeemed.

3. 3 Pieces of Matzah - there would be three pieces of Matzah. Each piece would signify one of the Old Testament Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The trinity with Isaac in the middle. Remember Isaac. He was the one who was sacrificed on the altar...just about. But God rescued him, but the idea was that Isaac was pointing to the One who would be broken on our behalf...laid down this time on the altar of the cross. The Jews would break the middle piece (Isaac) and would wrap one piece in a white cloth and hide it. Later in the service the children would be sent out to look for the bread, and bring it back (ask and it will be given, seek and you will find...). When they brought it back they all received a prize, a ransom. Now think about the trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the Son broken on our behalf. Wrapped in linen and spices and laid in a tomb...and three days later found with those with child-like faith.

Share how these truths speak to you and enrich your faith and understanding of God. And just how great is this salvation we have in Christ.

Easter

 1. Talk about this Upside (right side up) Kingdom. A Kingdom so not of this world. A Kingdom full of paradoxes. How many paradoxes do you see in the Kingdom?

2. Easter and the Hope of our resurrection.

Jesus raised Lazarus to life and said these words in Jn. 11.

 “Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[a] Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?

 Living life on the Upside, which is available to all of us, means death no longer has the final say. What does this mean to you? What implications does this have on the way you live?

3. The movie Intersteller. Great quote on Newton's 3rd Law.

As the two pods are separating Cooper responds. “Newton’s 3rd Law – to move forward you’ve got to leave something…”.

Newton’s 3rd Law – simply states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

This is the same law that comes into picture when rockets are propelled into space. The gases that come out of the rocket in the downward direction provide it the thrust to move upwards.

Something standing still cannot be propelled forward without force acting on it. What is left behind is the energy required to create that force.

Jesus taught, “If you cling to your life you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”

In order to move forward we need to let something go. In order to change your trajectory, there will need to be a force pushing against you to move you.

But what if we’re stuck; immoveable? What if we resist?

Are you stuck?

Stress fractures occur when the object is unmoving or unbending.

The night Jesus was betrayed, and died, and rose from the dead was a stressful time for all involved.

It would have been easy to think that God the Father had abandoned them all; but God was at work amidst it all.

God was applying pressure; pushing people out of their religious comfort zone – changing the world.

For some it caused incredible stress fractures; for some it brought life long change and transformation.

Maybe we need to have a different perspective on our pain and suffering.

Ever realize it may be God applying the pressure so you can experience true freedom? Move you to a place where you discover life in Him? Jesus as the true source of forgiveness and life.

But just like Jesus, before we experience a resurrection there has to be a death. And the process of dying, grieving what has been, in order to embrace a new bright future is difficult.

Maybe you’re in that place of tension. Where you have a sense that there has to be so much more to life than you are presently experiencing. That can be a hard place.

Richard Rohr in his book “Falling Upward” says “Before the truth sets you and I free it tends to make you miserable.”

Being out of your comfort zone isn’t a bad thing; because life often begins at the end of your comfort zone.

This was true for Jesus and His disciples; it is also true for you and I.

Maybe you’re in that place right now. You need to know God’s got you. He hasn’t let you go. But don’t rescue yourself out of the tension. Take God’s plan; His way is better.

In order for God to set all creation on a new trajectory, there had to be incredible energy, pressure, stress; God had to let go of something.

Read Phlp 2

There we read that Jesus did not cling to equality with God. He let go and became a servant...washing feet sort of servant. Laying down your life sort of servant.

Talk about this idea of letting go of something idea, in order to experience new life; our own personal resurrection in Jesus.

Can you think of any examples of this from your personal life?

Share.

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