On Good Friday, April 3, 2015, the 179th anniversary of the appearance of Elijah in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836, the Buchan Ward of the Aberdeen Scotland Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints celebrated a Messianic Seder in commemoration of Passover, otherwise known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Buchan Saints opened the door for Elijah; sang to him and remembered both his appearance to Christ and His three apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration; as well as his second appearance with Christ, at the newly dedicated, Kirtland Temple, to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
Senior YSA Missionaries, Elder and Sister Reynolds, currently serving in the Aberdeen Scotland Stake, presented the Seder to 52 members of the Buchan Ward. Sister Reynolds has been presenting Passover Seders to Latter-day saints for about 25 years in an effort to teach the participants about their heritage as members of the House of Israel. She explained that one of the main reasons the House of Israel was commanded to observe the Passover each year after their exodus from Egypt was to teach their children: “Who they are; Where they come from; and Where they are going!”
During the Seder, the children looked for and removed the few pieces of leavened bread which had been hidden around the chapel as the Feast of Passover or the Festival of Unleavened Bread proscribes the eating of leavened bread during the eight-day feast. (The leavened bread is a symbol of pride and sin.)
They also found and ransomed the Afikomen—the largest half of the broken, middle matzo or unleavened bread—which represents the broken body of Christ, and which is symbolic of the bread He broke when He instituted the first sacrament at a similar Passover Supper, also called The Last Supper, in 33 AD. The Buchan Ward children especially enjoyed recounting the ten plagues which the Lord used to encourage the Egyptian Pharaoh to let the Israelites go at the time of the Exodus.
They and the adults also enjoyed following the highly scripted order of the Seder with its recited prayers and its symbolic foods, as well as cleansing each others’ hands—at the same time during the Seder that Christ washed His Apostle’s feet. Finally, at the end of the Seder, all stood and raised their cups of grape juice and said the words familiar to Jews the world over: “Next Year in Jerusalem.”