A LEAFY GREEN VEGETABLE
At Passover, the food we eat is helping us to tell the story.
Karpas is a leafy green vegetable.
Most people use parsley, but it could be celery or lettuce. This bitter vegetable should be fresh and clean.
KNOW THE TIME OF THE YEAR
Just before the Passover, the nation of Israel had come into a new year.
God had given instructions to change their new year’s beginning from fall to spring. This happened way back in the days that Moses was leading the people through the wilderness.
Passover always happens at the beginning of the Hebraic year’s sacred calendar; in the early Spring.
REMEMBERING HOW GOD PROVIDED FOR OUR ANCESTORS
The people walking through the wilderness escaping Egypt were suffering; but their ancestors had not suffered when they first came into the land.
For a long time they had lived in freedom and prosperity as shepherds in the land of Egypt in the area of Goshen.
For hundreds of years this part of God’s huge family had lived in abundant blessings; even away from their original home.
They had found food and shelter and protection from famine.
ABUNDANT NEWNESS
The freshness of the leafy green vegetable speaks of this type of newness. Like the bright, vivid greens we see when springtime comes and wakes up the earth and new flowers and plants pop out of the ground to greet us.
It is a happy kind of green.
The newness of a new year; the newness of freedom, and much later in the Christian community; this color and the leafiness of the green vegetable reminds us of the newness of life in Christ.
Jesus makes all things new.
GOD IS ALWAYS MAKING A WAY
Tonight we speak of a time before Christ was born.
God was making a way, growing a people, creating new circumstances through these old Jews in the desert that would pave the way for a Messiah.
On the night of the Seder, we are telling of how the people came out of Egypt and the bondage of slavery there. However; when they first arrived in Egypt, that newness had actually been a blessing to them.
Their brother Joseph had been found and their family was united as one again. Because of Joseph living in Egypt, they escaped a famine and because God had strategically placed Joseph as viceroy to Pharaoh; the nation of Israel was welcomed, fed, and blessed with homes in the rich and fertile land.
God’s people received a good life for a long time because of the riches that came from God because Joseph had been obedient and had been raised into such a royal position.
NEWNESS AND CHANGES
Here again was a type of newness to celebrate and it speaks of those who came before, whom we celebrate as part of this amazing journey called Passover.
However; as the years went forward and the Pharaoh’s changed and Joseph died and was gathered unto those who had gone on before him; Egypt became a bad place to be.
The new Pharaoh hated that the Israelites were so abundant in the land. He felt threatened by them; so he devised a form of slavery in order to hold them captive. He was so paranoid that an Israelite might take over his kingdom that he had all the Hebrew little boys under two years old drowned in the Nile River.
WITHOUT FREEDOM; THE WORLD IS A SAD PLACE
Moses was just a baby and he was in great danger.
All of the people of God were being treated very bad. They had become slaves and they were all very sad.
Everyone of them wanted a way to save their children.
They longed to go back to their original home in the land of Canaan where they had lived before the famine. At least there, even in famine, they had freedom.
This is why the Karpas is dipped into salt water.
KARPAS SYMBOLIC OF SLAVERY
The salt water is symbolic of the tears the people cried during the years of slavery in Egypt.
They cried because they were slaves.
Also; they cried because they could not save their own children.
They cried because they could not worship the God who had always cared for them and delivered them from trouble.
None of them wanted to have anything to do with the horrid false gods of Egypt; but Pharaoh didn’t care.
He did not believe in the God of Israel and he did not want them to be able to worship Him. Pharaoh mistakenly thought He was a royal god. The people of Israel were trapped in a sad place and they cried salty tears for a long, long time.
ABUNDANCE TURNS TO SALTY TEARS
We look at the karpas and we see that at one time Israel and God’s people had good green things, the things that come from abundance and prosperity.
We dip the karpus into the salty water because we know that a time came when salty tears were cried because of the lost good things.
This was during the time when the people were no longer prosperous.
They cried out to God night and day to save them from the bondage of slavery.
WHAT THE KARPAS TELLS US
Between the karpas and the salty water we can see there are times of richness and times of sadness. There are times of abundance and times of lack in all of the cycles of life.
God is always with us, though we may not realize it during those times that are like unto salty water.
He is there, and He is fulfilling his plans for us.
We must be patient and persistent, and we must keep following Him to show us the way.
OUR DELIVERER WILL COME
He will lead us like a Good Shepherd back to the green pastures full of peaceful green grass and cool waters.
Just as God delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery; He will deliver us too.
So it is that the karpas begins the telling of the story without saying a word.
We SEE the story as we participate and our spirits thank God that we know the rest of the story, and we realize all the horror that Messiah has delivered us from.
FOLLOWING GOD’S LEADERS
The Israelites followed Moses without question.
We must follow Jesus without question.
Freedom is on the horizon.
The karpas and salty water speak the testimony of the truth of God for a million voices that were lost before slavery was ended.
We have not forgotten them.
All of God’s people remember each year. They are always remembered as we ponder the story; every time we come to The Passover.
May we always remember and may we always keep the freedom that came with deliverance from the Passover Lamb who was slain.
COVERING THE DOORPOST OF OUR HEARTS
May the doorposts of all of our hearts be covered in the blood of Christ.
Additionally; may death give way to life as we begin another year of living out the purposes that God has granted to each one of us.
May we learn from those who have gone before us.
God help us all to leave footprints in the sand for those who will come after us.
Every year we think of this and we tell the story all over again in order to never forget.