South Spring Baptist Church Lead Pastor Chris Legg, his wife Ginger and their five children partake in a Jewish Passover Seder meal at their home in Flint, Texas on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. Their meal was streamed over Facebook Live and on the Tyler church's website. The Christian version of the Passover Seder includes both the Jewish traditions and additional teachings from the New Testament as Jesus is recognized as the Messiah.

Every other year, the congregation of South Spring Baptist Church in Tyler sits down together for a seder meal on the first night of the Jewish Passover. This year, Lead Pastor Chris Legg and his family shared their meal as the congregation logged in online from the church website and Facebook page to follow along in the tradition.

Passover commemorates the Israelites’ departure from slavery in Egypt and surviving a series of plagues. The seder is a feast that occurs after nightfall on the first night of Passover. It’s a night filled with symbolic foods, the telling stories, teaching, community and wine. Christians recognize the gathering of Jesus Christ and his disciples for the Last Supper as a seder meal with the breaking of bread, the drinking of wine and prayer. It was the last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples before his death.

The seder plate includes: lamb for the Pescah sacrifice, eggs to represent spring and the circle of life, bitter herbs for the bitterness of slavery, haroset (an applesauce-like mixture) to represent the bricks and mortar used by the Jewish people in Egypt, and karpas (greens) to represent spring. Outside of the plate cups of salt water represent the tears of slavery and unleavened bread is a symbol of the haste in which the Jewish people fled Egypt without time to bake rising bread. Four cups of wine represent the four expressions of deliverance promised by God in Exodus 6:6–7: “I will bring out,” “I will deliver,” “I will redeem,” and “I will take.” In the Passover meal, some of the bread is hidden, representing that the Messiah has not yet been found.

“I want the congregation to understand the incredible significance of what the bread and wine mean in communion,” Legg said. “I want them to understand that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Lamb, the fulfillment of the hidden bread and the fulfillment of the cups of wine.”

The Christian practice of communion, also called Eucharist, is a sacrament that was established in the midst of Jesus’ “Last Supper.”

Legg says that recently, especially evangelical Christianity, theologians have become more intentional about digging into the Jewish context of Jesus and the writers of the Bible. Legg says that often the Biblical stories are viewed through a Roman lens instead of a Jewish lens, and people forget that those cultures were very different and were physically miles apart.

“This is a super exciting time in Christian theology,” he said, “We are so grateful for our Jewish roots.”

Traditionally, the Passover meal is shared with guests; however, in these uncertain times, the Leggs dined alone.

In compliance with social distancing and stay-at-home orders, South Spring Baptist Church’s Easter service will be live at their website, https://southspring.org/ and on their Facebook page at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.