*(Alt. title: Matzah & Manna: the Meat of Moshiach)*
To be read from the eighth day of Passover & Unleavened Bread and Resurrection Sunday of Holy Week (Nissan 22, 5781 / April 4th 2021): https://anchor.fm/sy-adamah
Although opposed as two different traditions of faith, the weeklong festivals of Passover & Unleavened Bread (Pesach & Matzot) – for Judaism – and Holy Week – for Christianity – coincide and concur in a unique way this year:
As the sun sets and rests on the seventh day of Passover & Unleavened Bread this year (Pesach Shabbat), the sun similarly ceases on the Saturday of Holy Week; and, as the sun rises on the eighth day of Unleavened Bread, it similarly resurrects on Sunday in tune with the risen Christ, the perpetual Passover Lamb and unleavened Bread of life. In a word, the festive and redemptive meat of the Messiah.
“All who dwell on the earth will worship [the beast], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Revelation 13:8 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
“[Jesus answered] ‘… the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’
[…]
For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”
John 6: 51-55 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
On the other end of biblical history, it was written:
” ‘These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.’ ”
Leviticus 23:4-6 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
Although the feasts of Passover & Unleavened Bread are written as two separate feasts here in Leviticus, they are treated differently in the book of Deuteronomy. In this book they are treated as one.
” ‘ Observe the month of Abib [Spring/Nissan], and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib [Spring/Nissan] the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
[…]
but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.
[…]
Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.’ ”
Deuteronomy 16:1-8 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
The reason for this may be because both feasts have a combined emphasis on what exactly is eaten (or avoided) and when or, alternatively, as a feast which immediately follows and flows from Passover, Unleavened Bread may hint that the festive and redemptive meat of the Messiah is more than just the body and blood of an innocent animal.
” ‘You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of Passover be left until morning.’ “
Exodus 34:25 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
Despite the difference in emphasis, the two feasts coalesce into one and the relation of these feasts in both time and proximity seems to suggest that the meat of the Messiah extends further than the sacrifice of the original Exodus; Passover & Unleavened Bread imply that the meat of the Messiah is as much innocent animal life as it is inanimate plant life (vegetation). Inanimate plant life in the form and figure of unleavened bread: Matzah of earth.
“And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food‘; and it was so.“
Genesis 1: 29-30 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
Matzah of earth is unleavened, unrisen, uninflated flatbread. During the original Exodus and earlier Passover feasts, this bread was eaten with the sacrificial lamb (Korban Pesach) and bitter herbs (maror). The continued practice of Passover echoes the Exodus as to give a recollective taste of past suffering endured under Egyptian slavery to all of Israel: the modern-day Jews and the lost tribes (the Diaspora). This is why Matzah is the ‘bread of affliction’ as this unleavened bread is not just embittered with herbs but embedded with affliction.
” ‘Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name. You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.’ ”
Deuteronomy 16: 2-3 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
Yet this is only one reason why only unleavened bread is permitted to be eaten at this appointed time. What about its opposite – leavened bread? What is the problem with leaven (e.g. yeast) in bread? Why not the best of both breads at this appointed time?
Leaven (e.g. yeast) is a raising agent, which means that it works to aerate and inflate foods that we eat daily such as bread. Simply put, leaven is any thing that causes foods to rise and this process can happen both naturally and unnaturally. More accurate and more precise to say is that this process can happen naturally or artificially (i.e. being man-made), or that this process can happen naturally or synthetically (i.e. being manufactured).
At this moment in time and from outside looking into the culture, the divine decree against leaven can seem distant and dogmatic. However, from the inside, immersed in the culture, this appears less as a dogmatic decree against what it is and more as a divine warning against what it represents: self-raising & self-inflation of human beings (i.e. pride).
So, immersed or from inside of the culture, this is a divine warning that you (figuratively) embody what you eat, you (figuratively) copy and become what you consume.
” ‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. […] Therefore you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God.’ “
Leviticus 18: 24-30 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
On a literal level, to eat something is for that something to physically infuse with you, to nourish your body. On a spiritual (or figurative) level, to eat is to allow that something to infuse with you and partake in what it represents. So spiritually or figuratively speaking, when we eat, consume or take in something artificial (i.e. man-made) or synthetic (i.e. manufactured), we infuse or partake in artificiality and inauthenticity; we embody and become an image of man – an image of self – rather than an image of God.
This may be controversial and debatable for Messianic Jews and Christians to swallow (pun intended) as the Messiah Himself seems to argue otherwise:
“So Jesus said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man’
Matthew 15:16-20 (NKJV)
However, two things should be noted from this. Firstly, the apparent contradiction between the Messiah/Redeemer as the Son of God and the Creator as Father God. Secondly, a fuller context of the conversation in this verse.
In regard to the first note, it helps to keep in mind that these are two perspectives of the one God: the Father in heaven and the Son on earth. Where the perspective of God, the Father focuses on what comes from the outside world going inside and into the core (i.e. the stomach) of the human being, the perspective of God, the Son focuses on what comes from the inside world going outwards from the core (i.e. the heart) of the human being. When we keep in mind that these are the two perspectives of the one God, from heaven and from earth, from above and from below, we can see that rather than being in contradiction they are Being in complement, rather than being in opposition they are Being inversion. In essence, when taken as a whole they are the inside out, the upside down, the reverse sides and counterparts completing the same spiritual coin.
” [Jesus said] ‘Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets, I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17-20 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
In regard to the second note, it suffices to say that the topic was whether unclean hands defile rather than whether foods eaten at appointed times defile; the focus was on customs of general hygiene rather than the kosher (kashrut) laws given in the Torah. So in this context at least, the Messiah does not condone the breaking of God-given kashrut but questions man-made customs of cleanliness.
If otherwise so that what we eat and when does not matter and we do not infuse or partake in what our food represents, the Messiah would not have described Himself as the bread from heaven and asked His followers to (figuratively) eat His flesh and treat His meat as actual food.
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ “
John 6: 32-34 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
“[Jesus answered] ‘… the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’
[…]
For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”
John 6: 51-55 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
Also, the Messiah would not have instructed His apostles to ‘take’ and ‘eat’ the ‘body’ and ‘blood’ of the renewed covenant through unleavened bread and red wine at the Feast of Passover.
“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ then He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’ ”
Matthew 26: 26-28 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
If we did not infuse, partake in, or embody what our food represented then the act of breaking the bread, giving it, and instruction to the apostles to eat it would be of no consequence. In other words, if otherwise, the act that we now regard as a sacrament, the holy communion, would have no meaning or significance for us. So to change what we eat, even only for an appointed time, changes what we experience and who we embody.
In the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites experienced a different kind of unleavened bread in the wilderness: Manna from heaven. This ‘bread from heaven’ was unleavened, unrisen and uninflated miracle bread. In the wilderness wandering, this bread was encountered as “a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground” (Exodus 16:14) and acted as a sample of God’s sustenance and divine promise (see Gen. 15:12-21 & Ex. 3: 6-8). By contrast to Matzah of earth, ‘… the taste of [Manna from heaven] was like wafers made with honey.’ (Ex. 16:31) eaten alongside in adjacency to the flesh of quail. An experience of God’s sustenance and redemption that echoed the Exodus with a foretaste of freedom.
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they walk in My law or not.
[…]
Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’ So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.”
Exodus 16: 4-13 (NKJV)
So as the Israelites ate and experienced the sweet taste of Manna from heaven, they infused, partook and embodied the soul and strength of salvation, even if only for an appointed time.
“Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.”
Joshua 5:10-12 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
These are the narrative roots of unleavened bread: Matzah of earth and Manna from heaven. The bread of both worlds, a spiritual sign, embedded with the bitter-sweet taste of redemption. The bitter past of affliction and the sweet promise of salvation sealed through eating, experiencing and embodying the meat of the Messiah.
The two images of one Lamb. The two tastes of one Bread. The two sides of one Salvation.
“And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’ “
John 6:35 (NKJV) (emphasis mine)
Bibliography
(Anon.). 1982. The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Heschel, A.J. 1951. The Sabbath. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Pitre, B. 2011. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist. New York: Image.
McNall, Joshua M. The Mosaic of Atonement: An Integrated Approach to Christ’s Work. US: Zondervan Academic.
Alephbeta.org. (2021) Passover. Available at: <https://www.alephbeta.org/passover>
Alephbeta.org. (2021) Understanding the Spiritual Meaning of Kosher Meat. Available at: <https://www.alephbeta.org/playlist/meaning-of-kosher-law>
Chabad.org. The Third Seder: Last Days of Passover. Available at: <https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/41995/jewish/The-Third-Seder.htm>
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