Baking with Jesus

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

It’s Thanksgiving! You might be doing a lot of cooking and baking this week. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Gravy. Cranberry sauce. Pumpkin, apple, or (and?) pecan pie. And don’t forget the dinner rolls!

And for the dinner rolls, don’t forget the yeast!

The best part of the dinners rolls is that they’re light and fluffy. Who wants a flat roll? Not me. Not at Thanksgiving.

So why does Paul warn his readers about yeast? He’s using a picture to describe how “malice and wickedness” can spread through a person. It can even spread to multiple people.

In this case, “A man is sleeping with his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1). Whether or not this was his own mother or, more likely, his stepmother, doesn’t change much. He was sinning. And what did his church family do? Did they call him to repentance? No, Paul says, “And you are proud!” The man’s sin had leavened the rest of the church in Corinth.

Paul uses this phrase in Galatians, too. There he was talking about people who were teaching that the Galatians had to make sure they were saved by their works, especially by being circumcised. Again, “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough” (Galatians 5:9). The false teaching took hold and spread.

Malice and wickedness can’t be compartmentalized. They can’t be held in one little corner of the heart. Paul tells us they spread.

For example, you’re upset with someone. Maybe they did or didn’t do something that offended you. And now, every time you see them, all you can think about is how they’ve wronged you. Perhaps you even spread your disgust with them to others. They, too, become leavened with the yeast of anger and hate.

Or one of your close friends falls into sin. And because they’re your friend, you don’t want to say anything. In fact, you listen to their reasoning, and it sounds pretty solid. They start to convince you what they’re doing isn’t really bad. You might even start to think, “We’ll if they’re doing it, why shouldn’t I?” A little yeast leavens the whole batch.

What’s the deal with yeast? When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, he told them to prepare the Passover meal. For the meal, he had them prepare a lamb or goat without blemish or defect and bread without yeast. The reason for no yeast was because they didn’t have time to wait for the dough to rise. God then told them to celebrate the Passover every year by eating bread without yeast.

Now Paul makes the connection to Jesus. “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Just as the blood of the lamb on the doorframes of the Israelites in Egypt caused the angel of death to pass over their houses, so the blood of the Lamb has “destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).

Before Paul even says, “Let us keep the Festival,” he has already stated what Christ’s sacrifice has made us. “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are.” Jesus’ death and resurrection have removed the yeast from us. We are no longer leavened with malice and wickedness. We are “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

As this unleavened bread, let us keep the Festival, remembering the sacrifice Christ has made for us so that death will pass us over.

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