January 21 - New Bread

January 21 – New Bread

“Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are.  For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7)

I love baking bread and one of the things that I don’t do well yet is maintaining a long-term yeast or even a sourdough that will flavor and help my bread to rise.  Some San Francisco sourdoughs have existed for decades and create incredible breads.  I can’t do that.  Someday I’ll figure it out, but not right now.

Yeast was a treasure for bakers.  It was nourished and fed every day so that they could make bread that would rise well.  It doesn’t take much yeast to transform an entire batch of dough.

Paul calls on us to toss out the old and no longer rely on it, but to become who we are at the very base of ourselves.  Then, he reminds them of their history – the day when God told the people of Israel to bake their bread in a hurry – to not use yeast because they didn’t have time to wait for it to rise.  The lamb’s blood had just been painted on their doorways so to escape the angel of death and they were ready to leave Egypt.

Jesus Christ is the sacrificed lamb.  His blood bought our escape from death.

In 1 Corinthians 5:8, Paul says that the old yeast is that of “malice and wickedness.” Bread without yeast is the bread of sincerity and truth.

Yeast can live forever and a little bit can permeate a lot of dough.  That yeast of malice and wickedness doesn’t take much to turn a person or even an entire group of people into people that no longer live in sincerity and truth.

Get rid of the old yeast … we really don’t have time in this short life to allow it to permeate our lives.  Live like the ancient Israelites did during their escape from Egypt.  Be prepared and ready to move at all times.