1st Day: Unleavened Bread & Crucifixion

For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast. On the first day of the festival, remove every trace of yeast from your homes. Anyone who eats bread made with yeast during the seven days of the festival will be cut off from the community of Israel.      - Exodus12:15

Today is the first full day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. During this seven-day festival, all leaven, which is yeast, must be removed from every Hebrew home for seven days in remembrance of how the Israelites hurried out of Egypt so swiftly that they had no time to prepare the dough for their bread.

The night before, they had eaten the Passover meal of lamb and bitter herbs, sprinkling the blood of the lamb on their doorposts so that the Lord would pass over their homes and their firstborn would not be struck by the destroyer. They ate the Passover meal dressed and ready for travel as an act of faith, trusting that God would be faithful to deliver them out of Egypt and from their slavery. At midnight, under a full moon, Pharaoh ordered the Israelites to leave Egypt and the whole nation of Israel left Egypt forever, including about 600,000 men, plus women and children, and a mixed multitude of Egyptians with them to head to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Each year, removing yeast from their homes and eating unleavened bread for seven days would serve as a sign on their hand and forehead to remind them of how God redeemed them from slavery. Observing this festival would serve to mark them on the hand and forehead as the people redeemed by God.

Fast forward to the times when Jesus walked on the earth. This is the day on which He was tried and crucified, the last day of His life on earth, completing the work of redemption for us through the shedding of His blood. The night before, He had celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples, knowing that He would be handed over to be killed. He had prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and submitted Himself to God’s will, trusting that God would be faithful to deliver Him from death and the grave. In the early morning hours of this day, the leading priests and elders of the people acted upon their plans to put Jesus to death. They bound Him, led Him away, and handed Him over to Pilate. In the series of events that followed, the religious leaders demanded His crucifixion, swearing their allegiance to Caesar as their King rather than to God. They murdered the firstborn Son of God and rejected their Messiah. It was the most supreme act of hypocrisy of all time.

During Jesus’ life and ministry, He warned His disciples to guard themselves against the yeast of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod as a metaphor for their hypocrisy, unbelief, and worldliness. The Pharisees placed heavy legalistic demands on the people, forgetting God’s commands about mercy and brotherly love between people. The Sadducees used their religious authority over the Temple and the Jewish people to posture for position in this world, completely forsaking any eternal perspective. The Herodians were Hellenized Jews who were completely enmeshed with Greek culture and who backed the Herodian dynasty, which was appointed by and submitted to Rome, to the neglect of any hope for the Jewish Messiah. At various points during Jesus’ ministry, these groups opposed Him, tried to trap Him, conspired against Him, until they ultimately succeeded in having Him crucified to death.

But Jesus is different than all of this. On this day, all those years ago, He demonstrated what unleavened faith looks like, completely without hypocrisy, even in the greatest test of faith the world has ever known.

When on trial before the religious leaders, He offered no self-defense, only affirmed His rightful position as the Son of Man who will ascend to the right hand of God in fulfillment of Daniel 7:13 and Psalm 110. When standing before Pilate, He made no self-defense but affirmed that His Kingdom is not of this world, as evidenced by the fact that His servants were not fighting. Before Herod, He said nothing because He was not there to entertain or make a spectacle. He told no lies, offered no rebuttals, and made no attempts to scheme or save Himself because He entrusted Himself completely to the will and power of God. Pilate presented Jesus to the people, saying, “Behold your King!” not knowing the depths of the truth of his own statement.

As He was scourged and mocked with a crown of thorns and a purple robe, He did not revile in return, did not retaliate, showed no hatred, and did not use any type of violence. On the cross, He cried out to God, quoting the opening line of Psalm 22, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” not because He felt abandoned by God but because He was faithfully reminding Himself and everyone who could hear Him about the end of Psalm 22 when the one who suffers at the hands of beasts is delivered by God and glorifies God by declaring His finished work to the generations to come. He did not cry out for vengeance like the blood of the martyrs all the way back to Abel, but instead cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” asking God to show mercy to the very people who were killing Him. Finally, He cried out, quoting Psalm 31, “Into Your hands I commit My Spirit”, demonstrating complete faith in God, and total faithfulness to God. In perfect love for God and perfect love for others, He willingly laid down His life.

The forces of evil in this world hurled their worst weapon at Jesus: death. But even in death, Jesus, without hypocrisy, chose the way of faith, mercy, and love. His yeast-less faith was the sign and mark of the truth that He is the Son of God.

In fact, it is on the cross that Jesus most reveals the perfect image of God. God is life, love, and benevolent abundance. Through the cross, Jesus gives eternal life to those who were doomed for death. Through the cross, Jesus revealed the most profound depths of the love for a world who hated Him without cause. Through the cross, Jesus invites everyone who believes to share in the blessing of His inheritance in the world to come. On the cross, crowned with a crown of thorns, with a sign over His head calling Him the “King of the Jews”, Jesus became King and inaugurated His Kingdom of LOVE.

These historical events should also cause us to consider that the days are coming when global persecution against all of Jesus’ followers will put our faith to the test. Babylon’s evil and rebellion against God will culminate with the antichrist and a one-world order which reviles, mocks, tortures, and kills those who follow Jesus. Anyone who wants to participate in Jesus’ Kingdom must forsake the self-serving ways of Babylon and endure in the ways of Jesus’ Kingdom, which He inaugurated on the cross. No self-defense. No retaliation. No threats. No violence. No murder. No life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. No grudges. We must take up our cross to follow the Lamb of God wherever He leads us, in faith without hypocrisy that God will be faithful to resurrect us to eternal life, knowing that participating in the world to come is worth more than all that this world could ever offer us.

So today and for the next seven days, as you reflect on the cross of Jesus who revealed God’s image of life and love by laying down His life for you, examine your own heart for hypocrisy. Are you legalistic or merciful? Are you focused on temporal things or eternity? Is your hope in the governments and politics of this world or in the resurrection and the world to come? Are your ways the ways of Babylon or of Jesus’ Kingdom? Will you be marked by the beast on your hand and forehead or are you cleansing your faith from hypocrisy to continue bearing the mark of God?

Unleavened Bread Scriptures

Unleavened Bread: Exodus 12-13

Jesus’ Trial & Crucifixion: Matthew 26-27; Mark 14-15; Luke 22-23, John 18-19

Note: This day is observed as Good Friday in some churches.