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Prayers
The Samaritan Passover service begins around sunset. The men are dressed in
white garments, the leaders wear red hats, and the priests are dressed in a
distinctive turquoise-green garb. They begin by chanting and praying. When
the signal is given, the head of each household reaches for his knife to
slice the throat of his family’s lamb. Today, 30-40 sheep are slain at
Passover, about one for each larger family unit (there are no more than 600
Samaritans alive in the world today). The sheep are then skinned and
roasted for most of the night. |
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A Family Affair
The Passover sacrifice is a family affair. The children are present at the
ceremony, playing with the sheep beforehand. In the Old Testament the Lord
commanded the Israelites to bring the lamb into the household on the tenth
day of the month, four days before the sacrifice. The family would get
“acquainted” with the lamb in the course of those days and the children
would be especially impacted when their father put the knife to the lamb’s
throat. You can imagine the cries of the children as their new pet was
killed, “Why, daddy, why?” The ensuing teaching moment would have been
great. |
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The Sacrifice
A sacrifice is a very bloody event. The men have blood on their hands and
all over their clothes. More and more people today do not realize that meat
does not originate at a grocery store. They read about sacrifice in the
Bible but do not really understand what that means. There is little concept
of an animal being raised and then slaughtered, much less sacrificed for
religious purposes. The biblical passages that talk about the "life being
in the blood" are just words on a page that most do not really consider. To
the Samaritan or the ancient Israelite, however, “the life is in the blood”
must have left a profound impression of just how costly are the wages of
sin. |
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Then and Now
The modern sacrifices offered today by the Samaritans are much like what
they have been doing since before the time of Christ. The Passover was, and
is, a central part of the Jewish calendar. The New Testament records that
Jesus was careful to attend each Passover during his ministry. Jesus would
have been a part of the crowds, the confusion, and the bloodletting. He
would have seen and heard and smelled much of the same sights and sounds
and stenches. Few events today so effectively transport the modern person
back to the ceremonies of the biblical days. |
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