Each spring, true Christians start observing anew God’s plan of salvation as demonstrated by keeping the Holy Days. For the most part, professing Christianity rejects the biblical Holy Days as pertaining only to the Jews, but to true believers these days are a modern-day magnification of what God revealed to ancient Israel or, as the Apostle Paul stated in the book of Colossians, “shadows of things to come.”
There are many scholarly, religious-sounding words that can be used to make a comparison. One is typology—which simply means the predictive relationship of the Old and New Testaments. Starting in the spring, with the Passover—other than sharing the same date of Nisan 14—there is surprisingly little to compare the Old with the New. Jesus changed just about every aspect of the observance, while still preserving a form of ceremonial procedure that links the shedding of blood to salvation. Specifically, He substituted His blood and His flesh for that of a lamb.
In the old form, the blood of the lamb or kid sacrificed was smeared on doorways, while the animal was eaten; all of this symbolized Israel’s protection from destruction along with the pending deliverance from Egyptian bondage. In the New Testament, however, Jesus said the Christian must do something that would have been unthinkable, even abhorrent to them, in “drinking His blood and eating His flesh” if we are to receive salvation: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day’” (John 6:53–54).
This had a distinct chilling effect on His followers at the end of His ministry. Whether they took His words literally, or the spiritual lesson was one that they could not or would not accept, their reaction was decidedly negative: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (v. 66).
A Communal Entity
The Apostle Paul, in his chiding first letter to the Corinthian brethren, brings up a point that we must understand, directly linked to observing the Passover. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16–17). The Greek word for “communion” is koinōnia [koy-nohn-ee’-ah], in context meaning the share that one has in anything, and in its participation.
Paul states very clearly that the Church is a communal entity, its bond linked directly back to the Passover communion experience. Whereas the Israelites were a community of slaves in Egypt, Christians in Paul’s day and we today, are drawn together as a community through partaking of the body and blood of Jesus.
Before going into the specifics, we need to take a quick overview of what Paul was talking about in regard to Christians, based on Jesus Himself, the center of the process: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:17–19). We understand that Jesus was praying for the soon-to-be established Church.
This is clearly shown as He continues the prayer of unity: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (vv. 20–23).
The word “one” heis [hice], which Jesus used repeatedly, means one. While it is numeric, it also means to be included together as one unit. Jesus said that knowing and keeping the word of truth—in this regard the altered Passover service—sanctifies us as one body, the Church. His prayer was for the Father to establish this new revelation as a sign of Christian communication. It was, and still is, the intention of the Father and Jesus to fashion a community of believers united in thoughts and actions to act as one body.
Returning to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, note that he expands on this communion concept: “For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17). Through the Passover experience Christians move beyond just fellowship and literally become one. Let’s take this apart and see it more clearly. Paul says we are to be partakers—metechō [met-ekh’-o]—an important word for us to understand. It means to share or participate; and by implication, because we do so, we belong to one another, because of what we have done. The word “one” is heis [hice]. The word “bread” here is artos [ar’-tos], as implied, an unleavened loaf. The word “body” is sōma [so’-mah], while meaning fleshly, in context it means symbolically, a unified, social, family group. Paul made this more clear, later in his letter: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). The Church represents the body of Christ; those, therefore, in the Church, represent the body of Christ: “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (v. 27). Reading the entire chapter shows, plainly, this communal concept.
The apostle sustains this concept throughout his other epistles: “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22–23); “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Romans 12:4–5). Again, it is a community of believers who share in this jointly.
Old Testament Typology
Why do we keep these days of Unleavened Bread gathered together, as one body, while the whole world lies in utter ignorance of what we are doing? To understand, we need to look at the rich history behind this as an overview. God’s true Church, today, understands its worship of God is based, to some degree, on what God gave to the ancient tribes of Israel, as He rescued them from slavery in Egypt. There are some interesting and significant comparisons between them and the Church today.
In Old Testament typology, Israel was scattered, separated, a nation of slaves: “And the Lord said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. … Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them’” (Exodus 3:7–9).
God performed some mighty deeds to destroy those that enslaved them and established an annual memorial for them to never forget what He did for them: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. … And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord” (Exodus 12:5–12). The rest of the chapter establishes the Days of Unleavened Bread with all of its symbolism.
In summation, God brought them communally together. In unity they kept the Passover, ate the lambs and kids, while God protected them under the blood of those animals. They ate in unity and the next day made preparations to leave Egypt, working together to spoil the Egyptians and leaving as a community: “And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock” (Exodus 12:36–38). God brought them together as a unified community; a nation.
But most importantly, God was always at center in the entire process: “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people” (Exodus 13:21–22).
The comparison can easily be made. The things they were introduced to, and did, are duplicated in the Christian experience, but from a new perspective. We were a scattered group of individuals in bondage to sin. The Apostle Peter affirms this: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:9–10).
God looked upon us, called us to understanding, and through the blood of the Lamb made us His. There is a stunning typological comparison: “‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” (Exodus 19:5–6).
Christians, today, keep the Night to be Much Remembered, not from the old perspective, but from the new. Israel came out of Egypt (representing sin) with a high hand, a united new nation. We, today, honor God by entering into a communal relationship with one another in and through Jesus. Why do we unleaven our lives and not eat leavened bread? It is a reminder that we live in the midst of sin. We put leaven off of our property, symbolizing our new Christian lives, free of sin. Each piece of unleavened bread we eat pictures our rejection of the temptation to sin. We keep our minds focused on the sacrifice of Jesus for us—the New Covenant, not the Old.
Unleavened Christians
There is a crucial element involved here: “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” (1 Corinthians 5:7–8). The Greek phrase; “purge out” is ekkathairō [ek-kath-ah’ee-ro], meaning to cleanse thoroughly. The word “leaven” is zumē [dzoo’-may], to ferment or that which ferments, causes a boiling up. We are to be a “new lump” neos [neh’-os], phurama [foo’-ram-ah] new, youthful.
What Paul is saying in verse 7 is something astonishing, something we tend to overlook in our application of God’s truth. He said: “since you are truly unleavened.” What? Christians are already unleavened? The Corinthians were “unleavened” in the sense that Paul had written this letter probably during the Days of Unleavened Bread as they had obviously just observed the Passover and some were “drunken” and others took it without proper faith (1 Corinthians 11:23-30).
Also, many of them were “divided” in their loyalties to Paul and others and not fully converted and trusting in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:10-13). In addition, the Corinthians were “judging” between Paul and other apostles—and even false apostles—as Paul indicated in 1 Corinthians 4. Also, beside the one man who was guilty of incest, in 1 Corinthians 5 Paul clearly states that quite a bit of sexual immorality was named among them and was not being dealt with. Also, they were obviously going to law against one another even in the Church (1 Corinthians 6:1-6). Moreover, some were going into the temple of idols and causing a “stumbling block” to be cast before their brethren (1 Corinthians 8).
Shockingly, unless you understand the complete pagan background of these Corinthian brethren, it was really awful that some were literally “drunk” at the Passover (1 Corinthians 11:21). They were misusing the gifts of the Holy Spirit and showing them off, and certainly misusing the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 12 and 14). Some among them were even doubting the resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15)! And to make the point very clear, Paul himself says to them, “for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal in behaving like mere men” (1 Corinthians 3:3). Therefore it is exceedingly clear that the Corinthians as a whole were not deeply converted. They were not “unleavened” in the spiritual sense, but only in the sense that they had put out the physical leaven from their homes. They were neglecting to put sin totally out of their lives, their thoughts and their attitudes. They were even “glorying” in their own righteousness perhaps because of some of the spiritual gifts God allowed them to have.
So it is little wonder that Paul stated: “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (v. 6)? The word “glorying” is kauchēma [kow’-khay-mah], in context, boasting of their “righteousness.”
For the Christian today, the symbolism we observe is a reminder; it is a way of spiritually meditating on physical things that can become a problem. Butthe Christian should not become caught up in physical ritual and forget the reality of what needs to be spiritually accomplished. There should be no hidden sins in us, no sins overlooked because we are so busy employing rigid, Pharisaic practices of using a candle to search out old leaven in attics, garages, in cracks or crevices of our homes. The Christian is a spiritual creation of God, seeking to discover His will in our lives, rejecting any taint of unrighteousness.
Neither should we be revisiting old, long-repented-of, past sins. God says He has put them away from Him, as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Paul explains it this way: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Philippians 3:13). We need not kid ourselves; we know the things we were doing were wrong. We stopped, repented of doing them, and now we need to forget it—to get on with the life God intends for us. That is what these days picture for us. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).
Separate from the World
We are a new community within the old. Our obedience to God separates us from the world (Revelation 18:4). These days remind us of that separation. But we must make a concerted effort to make that separation: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). The word “communion,” koinōnia [koy-nohn-ee’-ah] means partnership, fellowship, but amplified in a sense of participation. It is linked with righteousness and unrighteousness—light and darkness. Truly, we are that new lump.
Paul sums it up: “Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you’” (v. 17). Paul was loosely quoting from the book of Isaiah: “Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord. For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 52:11–12). God wants us to be separate from the world, while we are still in the world—a community of righteous light within a community of unrighteous darkness.
There is no more appropriate place to end this article than with the words Jesus clearly used, that identify Christians as being separate because of what they do, living and practicing the full counsel of God in this confused world today: “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake” (Luke 6:22, KJV).
Have a deeply profound Passover and joyous Feast of Unleavened Bread!