Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7-8, NKJV)
In biblical tradition leaven is a metaphor for the infectiousness of sin. During Passover unleavened bread was eaten to symbolize the haste with which the meal was prepared and eaten. There was no time for waiting around for bread to rise. There is a readiness lived out in the life of faith, not complacency which often can lead us down sinful paths. Later in the Bible, where Paul exhorts the Ephesians to have their feet “shod with the readiness of the Gospel,” he may have the Israelites in mind who ate the Passover with shoes on and staff in hand.
That Paul invokes feasting connects his command to the Communion meal and a celebration at table is what Martin Luther sets down in this Easter hymn:
Then let us feast this joyful day
On Christ, the bread of heaven;
The word of grace hath purged away
The old and evil leaven.
Christ alone our souls will feed,
He is our meat and drink indeed;
Faith lives upon no other. Hallelujah!
We come to Christ hungry. Wallowing in rebellion we saw no need of Him and grasped after bread that could not satisfy. With that bread spent up we now come to the Bread of Life to feed our famished faith.
Hymns are a food for our faith and hymns like this have nourished the faith of generations of Christians. The minor key of the hymn tune is a sign of its heartiness, like seedy loaf full of crackle. This is no sad song. Crusty bread lacks no nourishment and satisfies our bellies.
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