Tuesday Prayer Room – 9am
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
- 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
PRAYER GUIDE
Every Holy Week I ‘religiously’ watch one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of all time… The Prince of Egypt. This film follows the Exodus story of God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people out of brutal slavery and exploitation in Egypt into the Promised Land. The Passover and Exodus is easily one of the most recounted moments in the Old Testament and to this day it is a strict Jewish law to observe the Passover and remember the miraculous work of God.
One way Jewish people reenact the Passover is by prohibiting the possession of any leavened products. This is done in memory of those who were rushed out of Egypt to the point where they did not have time to allow their bread to rise properly. Therefore the unleavened bread baked on their shoulders under the hot sun as they escaped. (Exodus 12:33-34)
In preparation for Passover, observant Jews perform a thorough cleansing and elimination of chametz (any grain product that has been leavened) from one’s possession. This means investigating all of their belongings from their cupboards, to their coat pockets, to the goldfish crackers their children spilled on the floor of the car last summer, to remove all products of leavened grain from their possession.
In addition to searching their homes for literal chametz, this practice has been modified to also include a rigorous examination for any internal, spiritual chametz that had accumulated over the last year in one’s heart. This same chametz or corrupting influence spreads quickly, puffs us up, fills us with the hot air of self-importance, makes us ignore good inclinations, and turns us from the path of life to freely follow our own.
The apostle Paul uses this imagery of chametz (leaven) in 1 Corinthians 5:6-7 in which he argues that “a little leaven works through and leavens the whole lump” and then instructs us to “clean out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sanctified”. This is a powerful example for us as passionately engaged followers of Jesus to emulate as we lean deeper into this season of congregational consecration.
What’s interesting to rememberis that matzah, the unleavened and sanctified bread for Passover, is actually made from the same grain as chametz, which is forbidden during Passover.
This leads us to the question… What makes the same thing holy or profane?
Simply put… It is what we do with it, how we treat it, what we make of it. As with wheat, so we do with our lives.
Jesus embodies this in the most powerful of ways. He takes the most profane, humiliating and excruciating execution device known to mankind and lowers himself, becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross, turning it into a symbol of our liberation. (Philippians 2:8)
PRAYER PROMPTS
- For a moment, consider the crucifixion. A profane and humiliating execution device and how Jesus redeemed it as a symbol of our liberation from sin. Praise him for his willingness to become cursed so that we could receive blessing and cleansing. Praise Jesus for your personal salvation story and recount the ways he has delivered you from darkness to light.
- Let’s pray for the Church to behold Christ, our Passover Lamb, whose blood saves us from sin and death.
- Is there any internal chametz that has accumulated in your heart? Confess it and receive the assurance of the sanctifying and redeeming work of Jesus on the cross. Let’s also pray for the church to be rid of all leavening influences, and to worship the Lord in sincerity and truth.
- Consider anything in your life that you have allowed to become corrupted and offer it freely back to the Lord.
- Consider any areas of pain in your life that you have withheld from the Lord and give Jesus the permission to touch it with his resurrection power.
In Our Time 