Eastertide (The Easter Canticle)
CHRIST our Passover is sacrificed for us:
therefore let us keep the feast,
Not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness:
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor. v. 7)
 
CHRIST being raised from the dead dieth no more:
death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once:
but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin:
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. vi. 9)
 
CHRIST is risen from the dead:
and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death:
by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die:
even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. xv. 20)

The Easter canticle is made from various portions of the Epistles of St. Paul. Paul begins by reminding us that Jesus is the Passover lamb.

He then makes a contrast between the old life of sin and the new life in Christ. Paul tells us that in the lives of those who have been saved, the old leaven of malice and wickedness must give way to the bread of sincerity and truth. He says that because Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed we are and must live as new people.

In saying "Christ our Passover" Paul wants us to think of Israel's last night in Egypt. Recall what happened that night. Every Jewish household was required to slaughter a lamb without blemish. Its meat was cooked and eaten. Its blood was applied to the doorframe of the house. When God sent his angel to kill the first-born of Egypt it passed over every house marked with the blood of the Passover lamb.

St. Paul is not alone in comparing Christ to the Passover lamb. When John the Baptist first sees Jesus he says, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29). The Apostle Peter can describe Jesus as "a lamb without blemish or defect" (1 Pt 1:19). And, in his vision of heaven, the Apostle John hears a numberless crowd singing to Jesus, (Rev 5:12) "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"

Like the lamb of the Jewish Passover, Christ has been sacrificed. His blood too has been shed upon the cross. And, because of this God passes over us when He brings judgment upon the earth even as He passed over the homes of Israel splattered with the blood of the lamb.

But St. Paul takes the comparison of Passover to the Day of Resurrection even further.

Paul not only declares Christ to be the true Passover lamb, he also tells us that we really are like a "a new batch of bread without yeast." What does this mean? What is Paul taking about here?

Paul is referring here to an Old Testament custom or law regarding leaven or yeast. Without an understanding of the custom or law our text makes little sense.

We all know what leaven or yeast is. It is used to make bakery products porous by means of gas bubbles. It is leaven that makes bread dough rise and makes angel-food cake light and fluffy. It is a lack of leaven that makes pie dough flat and fruit cake heavy.

Today, bakery products are leavened in a variety of ways: either by beating air into the dough or by adding steam, yeast, baking powder, or baking soda to the dough. In Palestine bread was leavened through the use of an old piece of dough that had fermented and turned sour. This old dough mixed in with the new caused the dough to rise.

Through Moses the Lord God gave an unusual command about leaven or yeast. He commanded that no leaven was to be found in any Israelite home during the Passover Feast: (Ex 12:15) For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. What is the reason for this command?

Leaven or yeast are not used by a people on the move. Desert nomads, for instance, don't make leavened bread because it takes too much time – the dough has to be made, the leaven has to be added, the bread has to rise, and then it has to be baked. In Egypt, Israel had the luxury of eating leavened bread because they were permanently in one place. But in the desert – and in her last night in Egypt – Israel didn't have this luxury. In Israel, then, leavened bread symbolized the slavery of Egypt. And unleavened bread symbolized the freedom of the desert. Thus, unleavened bread is also called "the bread of haste" in Judaism.

God wanted no leaven during the Passover Feast. He wanted His people to remember how He set them free from the slavery of Egypt. Thus the custom in Israel – a custom that is still observed in many Jewish homes – was that on the night before the Passover all the old dough or leaven would be thrown out.

In our text Paul talks of old yeast or old leaven and the new batch. Paul sees old leaven as symbolizing the old nature of sin and wickedness. Old leaven belongs to the time before our redemption. Old leaven represents our slavery to sin and evil. And the new batch symbolizes the new man, the new nature, of righteousness and love. The new batch belongs to the time after our redemption. The new batch represents our freedom in Christ.

We used to be old leaven or old yeast but now we are a new batch. We have reached this new state because Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. After the Passover in Israel there was no old dough to be found in the house. After the Passover that is ours in Christ there is no old dough to be found in the house of God either. In Christ the old dough has been thrown out and only the new batch is to be found. You have probably seen such signs many times. When a business or company is taken over there is often a sign placed in the window announcing, "Under New Management." This accurately summarizes what takes place at the time of conversion. When Christ takes over a life, that life is literally "under new management." The old dough of sin and wickedness has been thrown out and its place is taken by a new batch of righteousness.

In England there's a paper factory that makes the finest stationery in the world. One day a man touring the factory asked what it was made from. He was shown a huge pile of old rags. The rag content is what determined the quality of the paper. The man wouldn't believe it. In 6 weeks he received a package of paper from the company with his initials embossed on it. On the 1st page were written the words: "Dirty Rags Transformed." The same is true of the Christian life because Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

This does not mean that we are or can be perfect and sinless. All of us know and admit and experience the continuing power of sin in our lives. Nevertheless, in the eyes of God we are holy; in the eyes of God we are a new batch; in the eyes of God our old man is dead and our new man lives. In the eyes of God we who are Christians are first of all new rather than first of all sinners. We say this: we are new people who still happen to be sinners. We don't say this: we are sinners who happen to be new people. In the lives of Christians the emphasis falls not on the sin but on the newness. To say anything else is to deny the power of the blood; to say anything else is to deny the sacrifice of our Passover lamb.

Get Rid of the Old Yeast
A Because Christ has been sacrificed as our Passover lamb we are a new batch. And because we are a new batch we are to "get rid of the old yeast." Paul is telling us to live out who we are. What you are must become who you are. You are a new batch so you must live the new life. You are holy so now you must live a holy life.

My brothers and sisters, the order here is crucial. Paul doesn't say, "Throw out the old dough so you become clean." Paul doesn't say, "Get rid of sin so you become holy." Rather, he says, "Because you are a new batch get rid of the old yeast." He says, "Because you are holy get rid of sin." He says, "Because you are a new man get rid of the old man."

After the Passover lamb had been sacrificed there was no old dough to be found among the people of Israel. After the sacrifice of Christ our Passover lamb no old dough should be found among Christians as well. After becoming new people in Christ sin should no longer be with us and in us. Unfortunately, it still is. So the Apostle Paul urges us to get rid of the yeast – the old leaven – of malice and wickedness (vs 8), greed, idolatry, slander, drunkenness, and theft (vs 11). He urges us instead to put on the bread – the new batch – of sincerity and truth.

Paul's words apply not only to individuals but to the church as well. There is no room in the life of the church for old leaven. We see a concrete instance of this in the Corinthian Church. In that church there was a man who slept with his step-mother. Paul says, "hand that man over to Satan ... do not associate with (him) ... with such a man do not even eat ... expel the wicked man from among you" (vs 5,11,13). The point is clear, isn't it? The church does not and cannot and must not tolerate the old dough of sin within her midst. The church must tolerate sinners but she must never tolerate sin. The church must faithfully practice discipline so that sinners will repent and their souls will be saved on the day of the Lord (vs 5).

Both the Christian and the Church must throw out the old dough of sin – all of it. We must, says Paul, because "a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough" (vs 6). Or, a more contemporary way of putting it, "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch." Only a little bit of leaven or yeast is needed to make all of the dough rise. Only one bad apple is needed to spoil the whole bushel. Likewise, sin that is unchecked can ruin both the Christian and the Church.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:
world without end. Amen.