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Breaking Bread: No Leaven in this Recipe
As you come to this table today, you will feed on Christ in a real tangible Paschal meal. As you come you may notice that the bread we will consume is not the bread you typically eat at your dinner table. It is without leaven.
In the ancient middle east, leaven was a powerful symbol. In some cases Jesus used it to describe the Kingdom of Heaven coming about but it also symbolized sin. Paul reminds us of this when he says:
“Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
Leaven represented sinfulness and the pervasiveness of unrighteousness in our lives. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us. As John the Immerser said, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” This was Bread from Heaven without leaven.
It is appropriate that He lead us into this meal and feed us with His own body that was without leaven. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and after giving thanks, he broke it saying, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
