Holy Thursday: A Last Supper/Seder Re-enactment

(For All Grades)

Over the years, we have received frequent requests for a Passover reenactment exercise for upper grades. Try the following.

The Thursday of Holy Week recalls the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before he died. The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) relate that on that evening Jesus celebrated the Passover in an upper room of a Jewish friend’s home. What was this meal all about?

On the night the Jews escaped from slavery in Egypt, they observed the first Passover by sacrificing a lamb and sprinkling its blood on their doorways so that the Lord will pass over that door and not let the destroyer come into that house (Exodus 12:23). Since they departed so hastily from Egypt, there was no time for the bread to rise. In remembrance, Jews eat only unleavened brad, or matzah, during Passover.

The main Passover celebration is called Seder. Literally, Seder means “order,” referring to the order of the ceremony set up in ancient ritual books. Certain things are important to the Seder: special foods, the reading of the haggadah, (the story of the celebration), and the questioning by the youngest child as to the meaning of the Seder.

When Jesus celebrated Passover at the Last Supper, he used the occasion to offer himself as a gift to his apostles. When he broke bread, he said, “This is my body”; when he took the wine, he said, “This is my Blood.” Jesus then asked his friends to “do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19-20). We continue to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in memory of Jesus. After the supper, Jesus discussed the meaning of the kingdom and washed the feet of his friends as a call to his followers to serve others as he did.

On Holy Thursday in the Armenian Church, we celebrate the Divine Liturgy, re-enact the washing of the feet (Vodunluvah) and conduct the long vigil service (Khavaroom).

This shortened, adapted Passover Seder could be a striking way for students to experience the mood and setting of the Last Supper. It can be done in different classrooms or in one assembly with students seated in a circle around the Seder table. It should be explained that they are about to experience elements of a modern Seder (Jesus would not have opened a box of matzah) merged with a Christian celebration of remembrance.

HOLY THURSDAY (PDF FILE)