easter & a ceder meal

I love the Easter Season. There's so much hope and joy to celebrate the most important day in Christianity. Jesus' death on the cross on Good Friday and His resurrection from the grave three days later on Easter morning.
The reason I say that Easter is the most important day in Christianity is because it is the day that we were given a chance at eternal life with God. Without Jesus' sacrifice of His life, there would be no ransom paid to set us free from sin and death.  We'd all be lost.
Easter bunnies and egg hunts are cute, entertainment for the kids and sometimes the adults.  But that's not the focus of Easter. Good Friday is the day that Jesus was tried and even though He was found not guilty, He was still crucified and took all of our sins and sins done against us to the cross. And there they still are. Covered in His blood and powerless to those who embrace the hope of Jesus in their hearts.  Easter is about Jesus coming back from the dead and declaring that sin and death have lost their power.  How the demons and Satan must have trembled when they realized what had happened. 
But the angels and saints rejoiced knowing that new life is available to all who accept that what Jesus did on the cross was for them.
On Good Friday I went to Wabash Friend's Church to celebrate a traditional Jewish Ceder meal.  It would have been like what Jesus celebrated with the disciples at the Passover. There are so many significant things about the Ceder meal, but I'm not going to go into all of them. What stood out to me were the significance of the 5 cups during the meal.  You can read more about a Ceder meal here:

God made four promises at the time of passover:

I will take you out...
First cup of sanctification
Referring to God having Moses lead the Jews out from under Egyptian rule.

I will set you free...
The cup of plagues
Referring to the way that God set the Jews free by showing 10 signs of plagues, including the last one.  The death of every firstborn son. The Jews were instructed to cover their door posts with lambs blood and the Angel of Death would pass over them, sparing their firstborn.  That's why the celebration is called Passover. Jesus' death was the slaying of the Lamb of God so that those who called upon Him would be passed over on the day of judgment. 

I will redeem you...
The cup of redemption
Referring to the fact of what God has done and is doing for us. 

I will take you...
The cup of protection
Referring to the protection of belonging to God.  Jesus chose to not drink of this cup of protection so that He could be that sacrificial Lamb. 

The Cup of Wrath
The final cup is both present and future related. God's wrath was put on Jesus on the cross as He bore our sins even though He was innocent. And the Cup of Wrath is still yet to come where all will be judged according to their actions.  Those who have embraced Jesus and the sacrifice He made will be redeemed.

All that to say, I am very grateful to have such a loving God, give Himself for me.  That's what Easter truly means.