April 8, 2023
Spring is officially here with celebrations of Passover and Easter upon us. The close proximity of Passover and Easter on the calendar is no accident. It was the clear consequence of the gospel accounts. All the synoptic gospels record that the Last Supper was either a Passover Seder meal — Matthew (26:17) and also Mark and Luke), or a meal the night before Passover — John (18:28).
Passover and Easter are the only two holidays in Judaism and Christianity that have the theological power to bring us together. True, there’s also much in the account of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus that has split us apart and caused terrible suffering for Jews accused of deicide and terrible distortions in Christian theology.
However, the essential meaning of the two holidays is the same: Freedom to serve God often calls for bloody sacrifice, but freedom is God’s will for us all. Both holidays transform wine and bread into symbols of God’s salvation. The matzah and the Eucharist wafer (in the Catholic tradition) are both unleavened bread. Leaven–yeast– is a symbol of arrogance and wealth. Unleavened bread is modest and simple and teaches us humility as an indispensable religious virtue.
At the Last Supper, the bread is the body of Christ. So the Seder is eaten for God, and the Eucharist is eaten of God, but both transform bread into a symbol of God’s saving and powerful love for us.
Wine at Passover is the symbol of joy and of the promises in Exodus chapter six that God would bring us out of the house of bondage and to God and freedom. Wine at the Last Supper and at the Eucharist feasts for two millennia is the blood of Christ, but that blood is not the blood of a murdered man. It is, in Christian teaching, the blood of the Messiah, and as such it is a symbol of victory over sin and death and not an unjust stain from the body of an innocent man. Both meals remind us that salvation is not easy but it is promised and that promise will be kept.
As both festivals emphasize history and hope, The DeKalb Republican Party wishes a Happy Passover – Chag Pesach Sameach (חג פסח שמח) to all those celebrating in America, Israel, and around the world! We also would like to wish everyone a Happy and Blessed Easter. He has risen! May your Passover and Easter be filled with blessings, joy, happiness, peace today and always. And thank you for all that you are doing to #VoteDeKalbRed.
Marci McCarthy
Chairman, DeKalb County Republican Party
GAGOP First Vice Chairman Candidate