Leavened or Unleavened Supper?

The Reformed Churches have from time to time debated whether we ought to use leavened or unleavened bread in the Lord’s Supper. Most people are agreed that it doesn’t matter too much, but its worth taking a moment to think about what the symbolic or cultural significance of each might be.

It is almost certain that Jesus used unleavened bread in the Last Supper, in accordance with Exodus 12, because it was a Passover meal. And the Lord’s Supper is clearly our Christian Passover. Jesus is the Lamb of God. We are saved from sin and death and hell by his bloody cross. The angel of the wrath of God will Passover all those for whom the sacrificed Son of God was slain.

The unleavened bread speaks of an urgent fleeing from Egypt and hence the desperate need to get out of sin-country and death-zone. God’s people must be pure and free from the leaven of sin, bitterness, malice and hypocrisy.

Yet, leavened bread might be more appropriate for the Supper in this great Gospel Age of the Church, this side of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The land / world has been decisively cleansed by Jesus’ death. We are not running from the world in panic. Our enemies are decisively defeated. The yeast of the gospel is causing the loaf of the church to grow and grow and grow.