Growing up in a Jewish home, I fondly remember our annual Passover seders. We weren’t a religious family, but the seder was a yearly tradition. I picture my mom’s sparkling table set with plates of gefilte fish (Yuk! Just what kind of a fish is a gefilte anyway?), the bowls of matzoh ball soup, brisket, and courses of other food I loathed. But then… it wasn’t about the food. Last year on this blog, I shared some signficant Passover traditions. [http://tinyurl.com/45xnvhq]
Today’s poem is based on one element of the Passover seder – The Four Questions. Technically it is one question with four answers. The question:
With that thought, the following poem tumbled out my brain and onto my pad. It’s so far from polished (we only had about 20 minutes to write our poems) that I’m a little shy about sharing it, but we’re all friends, right? So here goes:
Why Is This Night Different?
Why is this night different?
What is not the same?
Tonight the Lamb, the Perfect One,
Would for me be slain.
So long ago in Egypt land
The people to be delivered
Chose a pure and spotless lamb
A sacrifice called the Passover.
Ten plagues of locusts, frogs, and blood
The last – their first born sons
All foretold the future of
When God’s Son, His triumph won.
Each spring, we stop to remember
At the Feast of Unleavened Bread
The pain, the loss, the suffering
And the One who rose from the dead.
Bruised and battered, striped and scarred
The Lamb was spent for me
So that after my debt was paid
He rose in victory.
Sweet communion, the bread and blood
He shared with those loved He
Partake my friends, Do not forget
Do this in remembrance of Me.
So what’s the difference tonight we ask?
Not that we recline
Or eat the herbs or drink the wine
Now salvation is forever mine.
I am reminded from your words that sometimes our service to the Lord will be wrought with sacrifice and pain but God does not leave us with just a promise for the future, Joy comes in the morning. Jesus endured the Cross for the hope that was set before Him. In three days that hope was fulfilled with victory over our task master — death. He could do it! He paid the debt, satisfied the account ( the wages of sin is death) but He could also go the next step and bestow on us the gift of eternal life. Praise Him!