Sweeping Out the Leaven

 I was watching a YouTube video posted by a gentlewoman on the other side of this continent from me. She was sharing how she prepares for Passover. It sounded like she said that she cleans out the leaven AFTER Passover dinner! I grabbed my Bible, presuming she had misspoken, but there it was in black and white. "...the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses." Ex. 12:15 (KJV) The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the 15th of the first month and ends on the 21st. Passover is on the 14th!

 Suddenly I saw a picture in my mind of what all this pointed TO! Another verse popped into my head "...while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8 KJV

And yet, here I am scrubbing my house to prepare for Passover. -trying to make it clean. -trying to find every last piece of leaven before we sit down to partake of the Lord's Supper. But, these Feast Days are object lessons! They show us, by using physical things, a spiritual truth.

Guys! ("Guys" is the Northwestern version of "y'all" 😉) We can fast all month! We can scrub our houses from top to bottom. But, we can NEVER make ourselves clean! We can never DO enough to be worthy to partake of the Passover.

His sacrifice comes first!

The Lamb of God, who died for the sins of the whole world, died while we were still IN SIN! Our "houses" still contained "leaven". We were still in Egypt. We were still slaves! 

We didn't have to rescue ourselves. We just had to be ready to follow Him.

Our spiritual journey of being saved parallels the Israelites' deliverance from Egypt. As we prepare our hearts and homes for Passover may we remember that we cannot be good enough on our own strength. We need to apply the blood of the Lamb to the doorpost of our hearts. That is the only way we can be saved. Having a clean house didn't keep the death angel away. Only the blood of the lamb did. In the same way, us giving up something we like, or cleaning our house, doesn't cleanse us, only the blood of Jesus can do that!

Do you know what happens when the house begins to fill with the aroma of a special meal cooking and fresh bread baking? We WANT to tidy up the house! We WANT to throw away the old stale bread! It is not tempting at all! Old things have passed away! 

When we become children of God, He calls us first! Then, we have a choice. Do we want to accept His sacrifice for our sins, or do we want to stay in bondage? He doesn't force us. When we accept His sacrifice for our sins it is like the blood is being applied to the doorposts of our hearts. Our identity changes. We are no longer slaves to sin, but are still living in Egypt. When we become "new creatures", He gives us the strength to clean out all that old leaven. -the old beliefs that only brought death. 

I Corinthians 5:7-8 (KJV) says: "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Yes, we should examine our hearts.

Yes, we should make peace with those we may have wronged throughout the year.

But, WE cannot make ourselves worthy of partaking of the Lord's Supper. Only Jesus can do that!

Later on in I Corinthians Paul goes back to talking about Passover.

 "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But, let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." I Corinthians 11: 26-29 KJV

What makes us "unworthy"?

Is it being human? Is it making mistakes? Is it forgetting to read our Bible sometimes? Or, could it be a heart thing? Is it not accepting Jesus' sacrifice for our sins? -not allowing Him to change our hearts. -continuing to be hateful and wicked and mean. Not loving God, or people. Being prideful and arrogant. Pushing ahead as if we are good on our own power and don't need the blood of the Lamb to protect us.

What makes us "worthy"?

Going without our favorite activity, or food for a month? Walking a mile on our knees? Piercing our own skin with nails until we bleed as Christ did? Looking at our own lives and deciding what we need to change? Or, humbly asking our Heavenly Father to show us areas that we need to change and cleanse us from all unrighteousness? -to sincerely and truly want to be all that Jesus wants us to be. -to take in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. To be like Jesus.

Interesting to note that the Feast of Unleavened Bread comes AFTER Passover. 

The usual pattern seems to be to spend time fasting and preparing BEFORE a special appointed time. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the Feast of Unleavened Bread first, so we can be all nice and clean for Passover? Yet, these physical assignments teach us spiritual concepts. And, this is a lesson that seems so very hard for us humans to grasp. Either we believe nothing is free and we must work hard to be deserving of Jesus' sacrifice for us. Or, we believe everything is free and we don't need to change, or try to do anything differently, Jesus' blood covers everything so we can continue living however we want because He paid the price. 

As I physically prepare the Passover meal and then, at some point during Passover, throw out all of our leaven and eat unleavened bread, I spiritually understand the order of salvation. As we eat the bread and drink the juice, in remembrance of Him (I Corinthians 11: 24-26) we can see that His love for us delivers us while we are still sinners. He feeds, serves, and washes others' feet, knowing that he will soon suffer. But, as we watch this unfold and try to fathom this kind of sacrificial love, we are reminded that He is our example! We are to follow in His footsteps. We are to wash each other's feet. We are to feed and serve. We are to love.

As we finish the Passover meal, and completely clean up any leftovers, we stand, as the Children of Israel did, ready for our new life in Christ. Our shoes on our feet and our staff in our hands. And, as the cries of our captors ring in our ears, we hear the cry of our savior, "Come follow me!" The door swings open and we begin our journey to the promised land!

                                   

For a whole week, we only eat unleavened bread. The bread, of course, represents Christ, the living Word of God! Taking up our cross, or rejecting the leaven, comes after we have made a commitment to follow Christ. If you think about it, this makes sense. Without the power of the Holy Spirit changing us into a new creature, (which happens at conversion) it would be impossible to follow Him.  

That's the unleavened bread part of the feast, but, wait, why is it called a Feast? Shouldn't it be a FAST? A fast is doing without something. And, we are not eating leaven for a whole week!

Yep, it is called a FEAST, not a FAST. 

While Exodus 12:19 clearly says that no one should eat leaven during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the focus is on what we SHOULD do, not what we shouldn't do. We are commanded to eat unleavened bread. These days with so much gluten intolerance, many of us don't eat much bread, so it might not be so much of a sacrifice to give up yeast bread for a week. But, we are commanded to eat unleavened bread. (Exodus 12:18)

My mind wanders a lot, and, if I haven't lost you yet, let me show you where I went next. The Word of God- the Bible. What if, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, I only read the Bible?

You see, even though we usually think of leaven as representing sin (and it does). Jesus told his disciples to beware of the "leaven" of the Pharisees. When they asked him for clarification, they realized he was referring to the "doctrine" of the Pharisees.

So, can leaven also represent teachings, or beliefs?

It is so easy to start listening to many different voices. There are so many wonderful, Christian, Bible-based books available. Devotion books and Bible studies. Dynamic preachers with lists of good things we can do to be closer to God.

But, maybe it would be helpful, for just one week, to not listen to all those other voices. -to get back to the pure, unleavened Word of God. -to only listen to Jesus' teachings. When we start listening to those other voices again, we just might notice some things that are not matching up. 

Well, this ended up being a lot longer than I intended and I really wanted to clean out that back room today. Oh, yes, with all that talk about how cleaning our house isn't required, and doesn't save us, I do intend to do some deep cleaning. I mean, it is spring! Who knows maybe I will uncover something that I forgot I had and really need to get rid of. Physically, or spiritually? Either really. It's a good time to clean house! :)