
The issue of "out of context", as it relates to the Haggadah, is both time-related and literary. The traditional Haggadah for Pesach is not a primary text. It is a gradual compilation that 
The traditional Haggadah for Pesach is not a primary text.
has its nucleus dating back to the early Talmudic days augmented by many poetic add-ons subsequently incorporated into the text. [See, R' Menachem Kasher, Haggadah Shleimah, Jerusalem, 1967 and Prof. Joseph Tabory, Passover Ritual throughout the Generations, Tel Aviv, 1996] As a secondary source, the Haggadah may treat material which is out of context in a different manner than originally intended in the primary source.
A good example of this literary phenomenon is the case of the "Four Sons". No fewer than three times does the Torah mention the curiosity and inquisitiveness of the various children. The uniqueness of each of the questions gave rise to the categories of the three sons – the wise, the wicked, and the simple. [The verse found in Shemot 13:8,”and you shall tell your son on that day” - an unsolicited parental lesson – indicated the existence of the fourth son - the one desperately lacking in knowledge or motivation who does not know how to ask.
Most interesting is that in spite of the fact that the Torah provides precise answers on the spot to all of these various Biblical questions, the Midrash (Mechilta, Ch. 18) lifts these questions out of context and provides different responses to them. These Midrashic responses have been transferred over to the traditional Haggadah in use today. All three Biblical responses relate directly to the story of the Exodus in one way or another. In the Midrashic version [=Haggadah], however, only the simple son receives the Biblical response verbatim “ And you shall tell him that G-d took us out of Egypt with a strong hand…". The wise and the wicked sons receive completely different answers, for both of their questions have been lifted out of context.
In the case of the wicked son, the traditional Haggadah, quoting the Midrash, focuses upon the use of the word "for you" – in his question “What is this service for you?”. It concludes that this son has removed himself from the community. His behavior is analogous to idolatry and had he been in Egypt at the moment of the Exodus, the Haggadah states, he surely would not have been redeemed.
This response can be viewed as an anti-Christian polemic judging from the parallel variant found in the Yerushalmi (Pesachim 10:4):
“Rabbi Chiya says, the Torah spoke of four sons. A wise son, a wicked son, a foolish son, a son who does not know how to ask…what does the wicked son say? What is this service for you, why bother us every year? Since
This response can be viewed as an anti-Christian polemic.
he has removed himself from the community, do the same to him and say: I do this because G-d did something for me; for me but not for ‘that man’. Had ‘that man’ been in Egypt he would not have been worthy of redemption.”
The phrase "that man" is consistently used by our Sages as referring to Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity, in spite of its commitment to the "Old Testament", preaches the irrelevancy of the practical positive commandments. The wicked son represents the Jew who has embraced Christianity in its earliest days. A Jew, void of the commitment to follow the commandments, would not have stood at Mt. Sinai during the Giving of the Law. To the Torah-committed Jew, the Christian approach was pure heresy.
Regarding the wise son, the Biblical context of his question (found in Devarim 6:20) has Moshe speaking to the young generation who will be celebrating Passover in Eretz Yisrael without him. Therefore, Moshe appropriately used the word, – to you, in the verse, "which G-d has commanded to you". Transplanted into the Haggadah as the question of the wise son, many medieval manuscripts of the Haggadah read: "which G-d has commanded us", for this accurately reflects the attitude of the wise son including himself into the mode of Torah-committed Jews.
Furthermore, the Midrash/Haggada response to the wise son speaks of elucidating the particular laws up to the last detail of the Seder night. [The Gaon of Vilna said to teach until the very end of Tractate Pesachim.] The Halachic discussions revolving around the various commandments to be performed at Seder night go beyond mere story telling of the Exodus epoch.
This is clearly borne out by the "Four Questions" which focus exclusively around the commandments of the night along with the statement of R' Gamliel that he who does not explain the three commandments of the Pascal sacrifice, Matzah, and the Bitter Herbs does not fulfill his obligations on Seder night. The context of the wise son, as it appears in the Haggadah, is to define the optimum fulfillment of the Seder night commandments.
Perhaps the most striking illustration of the "out of context" phenomenon can be seen in the final (formal) paragraph of the Seder evening, "accepted". We say/sing the poem "The Passover Seder is over" declaring that we have done our best at the Seder, but fully recognize that in the absence of the Temple and the availability of the Pascal sacrifice, it just wasn't good enough. We pray for the day in which we will have the opportunity for maximum fulfillment of the Seder night commandments. "Next year in Jerusalem"
Yet, this closing poem was not composed for Seder night at all. The author, 11th century Ashkenazi poet, R' Yosef Tov Elem, composed a particularly long poem designed to be incorporated into the Shabbat HaGadol Shacharit (morning service) liturgy. This long-winded poem spells out every single detail of the laws of Pesach. It was intended to serve as 'dress rehearsal' for the upcoming Seder night (no different than the abbreviated Haggadah reading discussed above).
The poem concludes with a prayer epilogue, "The Passover Seder is over". The meaning, in its original form, is that
The entire Seder conducted in a post-Temple era is "out of context".
now that I have completed articulating the order of the laws of Passover, I should have the merit of actively fulfilling all of these laws during the upcoming week of Pesach. Only after this section's literary transfer from its epilogue status on Shabbat HaGadol to its "out of context" location as the 'grand finale' of the traditional Haggadah in the form of "acceptance", did this poem assume its popular interpretation.
In essence, the entire Seder conducted in a post-Temple era is "out of context".
Rambam dedicates the eighth chapter of Hilchot Chametz U'Matzah (Laws of Leavened food and matzah) to the Seder night. Sitting in Fostat (Old Cairo) in the 12th century, Rambam presents the ideal context for the Seder as if the Temple stood in Yerushalayim and functioned properly. All along, he interjects with over half-a-dozen parenthetical inserts that in "today's times" things are done differently.
It is incumbent upon us, both at the outset of the Seder during the reading of “This year we are here, next year in Israel” as well as at the conclusion to yearn for the day when the Seder night will once again be fulfilled in its proper context. To this end we pray, “Next year in Jerusalem”.