Unleavened bread

[Guest racer]

Hello everyone.

[Guest Shilo]

Munari, what did you mean when you said this:

Jesus, being a good Jew, would have followed this tradition.

Being a good Jew, followed this tradition? please explain

[munari]

Ok, I'll try.

Jesus was a good practicing Jew. In fact, he was a perfect Jew in that he followed the law always. So, in being a good Jew, he would have used unleavened bread at the Passover meal.

Is that what you wanted me to explain? If not, ask again in another way. I'm not exactly sure what you're wanting me to comment on.

[Guest racer]

Munari,

Why do you think that Jesus was a perfect Jew?  Didn't the Pharisees question His healing on the Sabbath, who He associated with, how He taught.  Jesus followed His own law, and that wasn't always in accord to Jewish Traditions.

Lisa

[munari]

Interesting, but this is how I look at it.

Jesus was God. He "invented" Judaism. As a result, Jesus was doing it the way it SHOULD have been done to begin with. All of the other Jews who were straying from what Christ did were not being as good of a Jew as they could be.

If I remember correctly, Christ never condemned OLD traditions of Judaism, but he was speaking against the newer sects that were straying from the tradition and were straying from the "spirit of the law".

[Guest racer]

If He had been happy with the way people were adhering to the Old Covenant, He would not have felt the need for a New Covenant.  He condemned traditions of men as a whole, which would include any tradition instituted by man that strayed from Scripture.  No where in Scripture do you find Jesus condoning or substantiating man made traditions.

[munari]

Using unleavened bread at the Passover was NOT a man-made tradition. It was commanded by God at the Passover.

Exodus

Chapter 12

1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

2 "This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year.

3 Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.

4 If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.

5 The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.

6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.

7 They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb.

8 That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

9 It shall not be eaten raw or boiled, but roasted whole, with its head and shanks and inner organs.

10 None of it must be kept beyond the next morning; whatever is left over in the morning shall be burned up.

11 "This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD.

12 For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first--born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt-I, the LORD!

13 But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.

14 "This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.

15 For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. From the very first day you shall have your houses clear of all leaven. Whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh shall be cut off from Israel.

16 On the first day you shall hold a sacred assembly, and likewise on the seventh. On these days you shall not do any sort of work, except to prepare the food that everyone needs.

17 "Keep, then, this custom of the unleavened bread. Since it was on this very day that I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt, you must celebrate this day throughout your generations as a perpetual institution.

18 From the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first day of this month you shall eat unleavened bread.

19 For seven days no leaven may be found in your houses. Anyone, be he a resident alien or a native, who eats leavened food shall be cut off from the community of Israel.

20 Nothing leavened may you eat; wherever you dwell you may eat only unleavened bread."

21 Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and procure lambs for your families, and slaughter them as Passover victims.

22 Then take a bunch of hyssop, and dipping it in the blood that is in the basin, sprinkle the lintel and the two doorposts with this blood. But none of you shall go outdoors until morning.

23 For the LORD will go by, striking down the Egyptians. Seeing the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over that door and not let the destroyer come into your houses to strike you down.

24 "You shall observe this as a perpetual ordinance for yourselves and your descendants.

25 Thus, you must also observe this rite when you have entered the land which the LORD will give you as he promised.

26 When your children ask you, 'What does this rite of yours mean?'

27 you shall reply, 'This is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt; when he struck down the Egyptians, he spared our houses.'" Then the people bowed down in worship,

28 and the Israelites went and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

[Guest racer]

I did not mean to imply that unleavened bread was a man made tradition.  However, the Old Covenant was fulfilled or nullified with the institution of the New Covenant.  We no longer live by the Law instituted by God in the Old Testament.  We are no longer required to circumcise our young boys, or make blood sacrifices on the altar.  Communion is a coming together to praise Christ and remember the "once-and-for-all" sacrifice He made for us.

Lisa

[Guest Xan]

So, if we want to respect the sacrifices He made for us and honor Him for it, then why wouldn't we take communion serioulsy and partake of it the way He wants us to, which is the way He instituted it?

Racer, you said, "He condemned traditions of men as a whole, which would include any tradition instituted by man that strayed from Scripture.  No where in Scripture do you find Jesus condoning or substantiating man made traditions."  Using your own arguement, it is clear that we are not to substitute unleavened bread with leavened bread for communion.

[Guest racer]

Xan,

You said:  Racer, you said, "He condemned traditions of men as a whole, which would include any tradition instituted by man that strayed from Scripture.  No where in Scripture do you find Jesus condoning or substantiating man made traditions."  Using your own arguement, it is clear that we are not to substitute unleavened bread with leavened bread for communion.

I say:   I agree with you.  But, if you remember in biblical times, unleavened bread was more like a round, thick tortilla, which Christ bless, then broke a piece of and passed the rest around to the other apostles.  No little miniature wafers there.  This is the corner you back yourself into when you demand that a certain part of Scripture is literal.  Where do you draw the line?  How literal/exact does one have to be?

God Bless!

Lisa