Question:
What is the significance of using unleavened bread during the Lord's Supper?
Answer:
The answer to this question forces us to be aware of
some Old Testament connections to Jesus Christ. First, let’s make sure
we understand the basics. Jesus Christ instituted and partook of the
Lord’s Supper before His death in Matthew 26:26-29. His disciples
continued to partake of this Lord’s Supper each Lord’s Day (Acts 20:7).
Paul eloquently repeated its purpose and importance in 1 Corinthians
11:17-34. Clearly, in each of these passages the bread is referred to as
a common element in this remembrance of the Lord’s death.
Now, we may proceed to understand why this bread was unleavened. In 1
Corinthians 5:7 we read, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was
sacrificed for us.” In this passage, Christ is called “our
Passover.” To understand this title requires a brief explanation of
the Jewish Passover. First, during the Feast of the Passover the Hebrews
were only allowed to eat unleavened bread (Exodus 12:15, 39; 13:3). In
fact, if a grain offering was given to the Lord, it also had to be of
unleavened bread or wafers (Leviticus 2:4). The purpose of the Feast of
the Passover was to recall how God delivered the Jews when they were in
bondage in Egypt. Every Jew had to apply the blood of a sacrificial lamb
to their doorpost or the firstborn son in every home would die. The Lord
would “pass over” every home with the blood and punish every home
without it (Exodus 12). As the Egyptians grieved over the loss of their
children, they no longer fought against God but allowed the Israelites
to leave the land.
Compare these events to the death of Jesus Christ. He died the same week
as the Feast of the Passover (John 13:1). He was the sacrificial Lamb
(John 1:29). His blood offers us the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7;
Acts 20:28). He is the very reason God will “pass over” our sins and
save us from eternal condemnation (1 Corinthians 5:7). In fact, through
obedience to Jesus we can have the remission of our sins (Acts 2:38).
We should remember that unleavened bread was used for a sin offering.
Bread with leaven was seen as unclean. We might say that leaven is a
symbol of our sins. Yet, Jesus had no sin (1 Peter 2:22). So, as we
remember the sacrifice of His body we are remembering a body free from
all sin so He might bear our sins (1 Peter 2:24). The unleavened bread
encourages us to realize the purging of our old sins because of Him and
our new life of holiness in Him—a life led by the example of Christ.
1 Corinthians 5:7,8 says, “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that
you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed
Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the
feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”