We will touch more on this later, but the fermenting and permeating nature of leaven is used in scripture as a metaphor for sin. God commanded his people to eat only unleavened bread for seven days during this time as they remember the “bread of affliction.”
The Symbolic Nature of the Unleavened Bread
The matzah is meant to be symbolic of two things in relation to the feast. First, it is a symbol of freedom, “They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt…” Exodus 12:39. Second, it is symbolic of Egyptian slavery, “You shall not eat any bread with leaven in it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread, even the bread of affliction: for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in hast: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.” Deut. 16:3. So, unleavened bread is a symbol of both slavery and redemption.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread in the Old Testament
During the week-long festival, nothing with leaven may be eaten. Leaven itself is a metaphor for sin, therefore all of it must be removed from the house before the Passover. Also, abstaining from leavened bread for seven days was symbolic of the people of God separating themselves from sin, being holy, and walking with the Lord. Here is the breakdown of the Feast:
1) On the first day, all of the leaven must be removed from the home (Ex. 12:15).
2) For seven days, only unleavened bread was to be eaten (Lev. 23:6, Ex. 12:15).
3) The feast was also a high Sabbath (an extra Sabbath besides the weekly one). No work is to be done on the first day and the seventh, except for preparing food (Ex. 12:16).
4) The feast was declared a memorial and is to be kept forever (Ex. 12:17).
Messianic Fulfillment of Unleavened Bread
On the day that the Feast of Unleavened bread was celebrated, Jesus was buried in the tomb. The matzah bread is bread without leaven, striped, pierced, and bruised. The Messiah, Jesus, was the bread of life, without sin, who was striped (by beatings) pierced, and bruised for our sin (Isa. 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24).
Furthermore, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is about sanctification, or being set apart for God. Jesus was set apart as God’s Messiah, so much so that his body was not allowed to rot in the grave. Jesus himself also spoke about leaven being a representation of sin (Matt. 16:6, 11-12), as does Paul (Gal. 5:9, 1 Cor. 4:18-19; 5:2; Col. 2:18). Therefore just as Christ was without sin and set apart for God, so we too, through his death and resurrection, are to be set apart from sin and to God.
Jesus elsewhere refers to himself as the bread of God and the bread of Life (John 6:33, 35). He is the one who delivers God's people from slavery, and rede It is significant that this section in John 6, where Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life, takes place close to Passover (Jhn. 6:1). Jesus also chose the bread of the Passover to be a symbolic memorial of his broken body (Lk. 22:19). Just as God sustained his people through manna in the wilderness, so now Jesus feeds and sustains God’s people through himself. It is also of great significance that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which means “house of bread.”
In the next and final post of the series, we will look at the holiday of Early Firstfruits and its Messianic fulfillment.