Every year before Passover begins, observant families will
do a massive spring cleaning in which they remove every speck of leaven
(chametz) from their house. This comes from the commandment that during the
week long Feast of Unleavened Bread, you are supposed to eat only matzah and
not have any chametz in your house. On the practical level, this is remembering
that the children of Israel had to leave Egypt in haste and ate matzah since
they did not have time to let their bread rise. On a spiritual level, though,
going through this process every year is a powerful object lesson. In the
Bible, leaven is often used as a symbol of the sin and imperfection in our lives.
Rabbi (Apostle) Paul, commenting on leaven and Passover in relation to personal
holiness, said to the Corinthians, “Don’t you know that a little yeast works
through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a
new batch without yeast – as you really are. For Messiah, our Passover lamb,
has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old
yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread made without yeast,
the bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor 5:6-8)
With this in mind, the process of bedikat chamtetz
(removing leaven) is very humbling. Every time I thought I had found all the
crumbs and leaven in my kitchen, there was always another crack or corner with
some more. With some things (like my toaster) it seemed the only solution would
be to get rid of it entirely. It’s a fitting picture of the sin in my own life.
Whenever I think that I’ve finally removed the various sins that work their way
through and permeate my life, I realize there’s still more to be found as I dig
deeper. Really, there’s no way to get rid of all the chametz in my life no
matter how deep I scrub or how long I spend at it. It’s only by receiving a
completely new life that I can actually be spotless. But that’s what Yeshua did
for me. Paul points out that we should “be a new batch without yeast – as you
really are” to remind us that we have actually been made new and completely
cleansed because “Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” This is
great news to begin the holiday of Passover.
Chag Sameach! Happy Passover!
