Unleavened Bread

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The day after the Passover the Festival of Unleavened Bread began and ran for seven days. It also had its origin in the departure from Egypt. Leaven or yeast is a substance that causes flour to swell. When the Israelites left Egypt they had no time for the leaven to swell their bread. They had to eat it unleavened.

Jesus said to his disciples, 'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.' The Pharisees were teachers of the law of Moses that was given by God. However they had added all their interpretations and traditions to it. The result was something swollen far beyond its original size, and having totally lost its purity. Paul wrote to the Corinthians 'Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth' (1 Cor 5:8).

For Paul the law was a 'school teacher (pedagogue) to lead us to Christ.' Utterly unable to meet its demands he saw his own sinful nature and cried out to God for mercy. In Jesus he found forgiveness and deliverance from sin. Through the power of the Holy Spirit he became able to meet the law's demands.

For the Pharisees the law was a means of holding their position and authority. They took each command and added all kinds of further detail to its meaning. They made exact rules for what was work and what was not work on the sabbath. They insisted on tithes being paid of the smallest vegetable growing in the field. Exact observance of more and more laws was for them the way of earning God's favour. The burdens of their law became heavier and heavier. Jesus by contrast said that his burden was light.

So also now the way of religion is to insist on obedience to more and more external laws that God has never given. The way of Jesus is an internal heart change that makes us keep his laws of love because it has become our inward nature to do so.