Seder Plate: the significance of Passover for my Christian Faith

Passover is a Jewish celebration that many Christians also celebrate. Although the Jewish holiday celebrates the Exodus or departure of the Israelites from Ancient Egypt which was their land of slavery.
From Wikipedia: 

It is often linked to the Christian holiday and festival of Easter. Often, only an abbreviated seder is celebrated to explain the meaning in a time-limited ceremony. The redemption from the bondage of sin through the sacrifice of Christ is celebrated, a parallel of the Jewish Passover's celebration of redemption from bondage in the land of Egypt.^[1]

The centre piece of the Passover meal or Celebration is the Seder Plate. 

The Seder plate has the following elements: Boiled Egg, Horseradish or Bitter Herbs, Lamb Bone, Parsley and Salt Water,  Apple Nuts and Honey mixture (I substitute Humus), Flat Bread. 

Each of these symbols represents a part of the Exodus story of leaving the land of their slavery. To the Christian, our lives before Christ represents the kind of slavery that the Children of Israel experienced. It is full of repetitive hard work for someone else, infused with bitterness and sadness that doesn't bring hope. 

Below is my reflections about the significance of the  elements on the Seder plate for me:

• The Boiled Egg: Represents the Hard Heart of Pharaoh=  he repeatedly refused to allow freedom to God's people. I to ask you, Lord, for a soft heart.  I ask to have a heart that is soft towards God’s concerns and purposes and hardened to the devils strategies toward me. Sometimes I have a heart that is sad or sorry for myself and feels pity for the hard things I go through and feels cynical about the good things you are doing in others and in myself. As I partake of the boiled egg, I believe for you to soften me toward You, your people, your purposes and your ways of doing things.
• Bitter Herbs or Horseradish:  This is the horseradish/ garlic/ ginger/ chilli mixture. When we put this into our mouth we let the tears come to our eyes. This element on the Seder plate is for us to remember the harshness, bitterness of the cruelty of being in another land, being a slave. Thank you Lord that even though I weep over things… I never have the same bitterness or there is not the same sting that life had before knowing You. I can be sure that pain has a very loving reason and is not meaningless pain and torture. 
• Lamb: Thank you Jesus that you became the Lamb of God, You took my place, Your blood was shed for me and the angel of death passed over. I thank you for the fear of death being broken. I thank you that You came into my life and brought abundant Life to me and every day you bring new mercies. 
• Parsley and salt water: These represent both new life (green parsley) and tears (salt water). I thank you Lord that You are the one that causes new life. I ask for new life. I can't create or generate new life or hope in myself.... only You bring that. I ask for the kind that springs up because of warmth, because of the new day, because of your mercies. I thank you that I never have to cry the tears of futility again. Tears of impotence or tears of hopeless frustration. I will cry tears because I live in this world but I'm not trapped in an endless cycle of repetitive labor that doesn't bring forth anything.
• Humus: represents the Cement the Israelites used when they were making bricks and assembling them for the Egyptians quota which increased every day = Hard work in Egypt,  or hard work outside of Christ and outside of hope. I thank you Lord for the sense that with the Holy Spirit things work/ are filled with hope/ are significant…. that they are not meaningless actions or repetitive work for another persons purposes.
• Flat bread: This is bread made with no Yeast. Yeast represents sin in the bible. It also requires time to rise so flat bread speaks of "no sin" and "leaving in a hurray" not waiting for the bread to rise. This speaks of always being willing to change direction at God's request/command. If the Lord needs me to move quickly… I am willing. I will be watchful. I will not become so comfortable and so rooted wherever I am that if He asks me to move, I tear or rip and I’m uprooted. 

Thank you God for Passover and the significance of it in my life. I thank You that death (hopelessness, despair, disappointment etc) has passed over us because of your love, your sacrifice and your plan and purpose for our lives.