Identity Theft (21 page)

Then He shared it with them, each one taking a piece.

“Was that the Afikomen? At our Passover Seder that is the very last thing we eat.”

“Keep watching David. I will explain everything in just a minute.”

Next, Yeshua picked up a cup of wine and said, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:27-28) and they drank.

“Wait a minute! Communion was instituted at a Passover Seder? Unbelievable!” I found myself saying that a lot. “When I think of communion, which I hardly ever do, I always envision Roman Catholics lining up to receive a wafer and a sip of wine from their priest. I definitely don’t associate it with Passover!”

“David, the blessing of bread and wine has been a Jewish tradition for millennia. You just did not make the connection with the Lord’s Supper because the Church has so religisized the practice that it hardly bears resemblance to a Seder meal and the fellowship and warmth of friends sitting around a dinner table. But yes, the Lord’s Supper was inaugurated at the last Seder that Yeshua enjoyed before He gave His life as a ransom for all humankind.”

“Eh… religisized. Is that a word?”

“I’m an angel. I can make up words. Haven’t you ever heard of the tongues of men and angels? Ah, forget it. What I mean is that they so dressed it up in religion, that it hardly resembles its original intent or context. There is so much more I want to unpack with you concerning this subject. I think we need to take this back to the classroom.” Ariel’s voice trailed off—and this time, instantaneously, I found myself back in my heavenly-ancient-techno classroom.

Ariel just picked up where he had left off, as though we hadn’t just traveled two thousand years in time—assuming I was back in the twenty-first century. “During the Passover Seder meal, it is customary to remove the middle piece of the three pieces of matzah from the white linen covering and break it in two. Tell me what happens in your home, David.”

“Well, my father, who still leads our Seders, takes his role very seriously, even highlighting in each
haggadah
¹
for every participant (and we usually have around thirty people!) exactly when and where they have to read. He would take one half of the broken piece of matzah, the
Afikomen
, and wrap it in white linen—normally a napkin. He would hide it somewhere in the house and the children would search for it after the meal. The finder would return it to the leader and then we’d all partake of it.

“As a kid, that was the most exciting part of the Seder. My sisters and my cousins and I would run around the house after the meal, tearing our home apart looking for it. The winner got two dollars! Now my girls do the same thing with their cousins, though the going rate is now five dollars.” I was smiling. Passover was always a wonderful time in the Lebowitz home. “But what does the tradition of the Afikomen have to do with the Passover? I had never thought to ask.”

“The rabbis say it is to remind you of the sacrificial Passover lamb. How right they are! Sadly they don’t know who the Lamb is. It can only be understood in light of Yeshua. He was the Lamb of God. He took the matzah, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22:19). Clearly the bread He broke was unleavened, as it was Passover. Leaven is often compared to sin in the Bible. Shaul reinforces this when writing to the Corinthians. Read from your tablet.”

…Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed
[Messiah],
our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth
(1 Corinthians 5:6-8 NKJV).

“Only Yeshua could say, ‘This is My body,’ because only He was ‘a lamb without blemish or defect’ as is stated in First Peter 1:19—He was sinless! Even during the original Passover, the Lord said that lamb had to be ‘without defect’ (Exod. 12:5). That was because, even though they didn’t know it, the lamb pointed to the Perfect Lamb of God, Yeshua.”

All these passages were being highlighted on my tablet.

“Amazingly, many churches today serve
leavened bread
for the Lord’s supper! They seem to have entirely missed the point that the reason the bread is without leaven is to symbolize that Yeshua was sinless—the only Man without sin.

“Let’s listen to how the prophet John, whom you recently met, describes his cousin, Yeshua.”

John appeared on the tablet but not in real time, as in our earlier conversation. This was more like watching a video on YouTube. As Yeshua came toward him, John said for all to hear: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

“But in order for Him to be the Passover Lamb,” I interrupted, “He would have to—woah—He would have to die!”

“That’s right, David. Just like it’s depicted in the Seder with the middle matzah, His body was broken. After He was killed, He, too, was wrapped in white linen and hidden for a time. And just as the matzah is found and returned for all to eat, He too returned to life, and those who believe partake of Him.”

“This is all so Jewish. I can hardly believe it!”

“It really is! And yet Jewish tradition,” continued the celestial professor, “has no clear explanation as to what the Afikomen is, where it came from, or why it is broken. The practice actually predates the first century.
²
This special piece of matzah represented the Messianic hopes of the Jewish people. Even as Moses rescued the children of Israel, the Jewish people looked for the One of whom Moses spoke when He said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him’ (Deut. 18:15).

“The Afikomen represented the Messiah. Yeshua, His disciples, and all first-century Jews knew this. When He took the matzah and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body,’ let’s be honest—it would have seemed very strange if they didn’t understand that the broken piece represented the Messiah. However, because they were familiar with the Messianic tradition, they understood His meaning. By taking
that
piece of matzah and saying, ‘This is My body,’ He was in essence saying, ‘I am Israel’s Redeemer.’

“Sadly, the rabbis who came after Yeshua sought to disassociate Judaism from the idea that a human being could perform the divine function of redemption. In fact, Moses himself, the central figure of the Passover, was completely removed for this reason! His name is not even mentioned in the Haggadah!”

“That’s crazy,” I protested. “Of course Moses is mentioned in the Passover Seder—he’s the protagonist!”

“Really? Where?” The angel challenged me. And as I thought about it, I realized he was right. I couldn’t think of one place in the entire Passover ceremony where Moses was mentioned.

“How can Moses not be part of the Passover celebration? That would be like celebrating the Fourth of July and not mentioning George Washington!” I argued.

“It is all about control, David, and sadly, leaders in virtually every religion do it—whether it is fanatical Islamists telling would-be suicide bombers that they will soon be in paradise, or Catholic bishops creating purgatory in order to raise money for their buildings. They will use any means necessary to keep people from thinking for themselves. However, let’s not dwell on that right now, but return to the Afikomen.

“In the Passover, Yeshua, the divine Son, was broken, then wrapped in linen and buried, ultimately conquering death itself, by rising to life.

“The very word
Afikomen
symbolizes the coming of Yeshua.”

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“Well, interestingly enough, it isn’t a Hebrew word. In fact, it’s Greek,” the angel explained. “And in the first century it was pronounced in its future tense
Aphikomenos
, which means, ‘He is coming!’”

“Amazing. Then there could have been no doubt as to who He was claiming to be!” I exclaimed.

“Of course, there is another equally significant meaning in the hiding of the matzah. Despite being Jewish and coming from Israel, Yeshua has been largely rejected by the Jewish world since the first century. However, the day will come when the Jewish people will return to Him—but only when they search for Him, as children do the matzah.”

A passage lit up my tablet and I read aloud, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer.29:13).

“You are here today, David, because you chose to seek Him out. But a day is coming when far more than a Jewish writer from Philadelphia will seek Him—all Israel will long for Him. The Father has promised.”

Another passage appeared:

For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites
will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king
. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days
(Hosea 3:4-5).

“But that says they will return to David?” I asked.

“King David was a type of the Messiah, and Yeshua being in the lineage of David was called the Son of David. As you and I know, King David is dead, but Yeshua rose from the dead, and Israel will one day return to Him. In fact, many already have!”

Notes

1
.   The
haggadah
is a special book which contains not only the story of the Exodus, but the structure and the ritual of the Seder (Seder means “order”). It is read aloud at the Passover Seder.

2
.   To be clear, there are many valid views on when the
Afikomen
was introduced into the Passover Seder. Some believe it was started by first-century Jewish believers (as it so clearly resembles the Messiah) and was later adopted by the greater Jewish community. The fact that Jewish tradition is so vague and unclear regarding the ceremony lends credence to this view.

“Let’s move on to the wine,” suggested Ariel. “On Passover, Jews drink four cups of wine.”

“Right, the Cup of Sanctification, the Cup of Deliverance, the Cup of Redemption and—ah—help me out, Ariel.”

“Praise, David, the Cup of Praise.”

“Right, the Cup of Praise.”

“They each symbolize something powerful. But let’s focus in on the third cup, because that is the cup of wine we drink directly after we share the Afikomen—the
Cup of Redemption
. This is the cup that Yeshua took when He said…”

A passage appeared that read, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20).

“I get it!” I yelled. “At last, I see it! I don’t need to feel guilty because I am Jewish. It is totally Jewish to believe in Yeshua. It couldn’t be any more Jewish! He is our Passover Lamb. The perfect, sinless…” My revelation was interrupted by the arrival of another passage on my tablet:

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,
but with the precious blood of [Messiah], a lamb without blemish or defect
(1 Peter 1:18-19).

Ariel elaborated, “Kefa, after describing Yeshua as the Messiah who would suffer as an innocent Lamb, likens His blood to the blood of the Passover lamb which had to be placed on the doorposts of their homes. His blood would serve a similar, yet even more powerful purpose.”

“His blood,” I proclaimed, “covers the doorpost of my soul. In the Passover story, the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of one’s home kept the Angel of Death at bay. However, Yeshua’s blood, and I’m only now just grasping this, protects us for all eternity. The Passover is a picture of what God wants to do spiritually for everyone.”

“Right, David!”

“The blood of the spotless Lamb of God is impenetrable. The enemy, Satan himself, cannot touch you once you apply it to your life. It is not merely effective for one special night in Egypt,
but for all eternity
. On that great Day of Judgment, those who believe will be pardoned, exempted from judgment, just as the firstborn male was on Passover, because of the blood of the Lamb.”

“Right, David! But there is more. At 9:00 am, the very hour that Yeshua, the Lamb of God, was nailed to the Cross, the first Passover sacrifices were being offered in the Temple. And when He breathed His last breath and cried out, ‘It is finished!’ it was 3:00 pm, the exact time of the second Passover sacrifice.”

“He truly was the Lamb of God,” I whispered.

“And He still is!”

“There is so much more I want to tell you, David, but you must be getting tired by now.”