Doesn't the penalty for leaven in the house seem a bit
stiff? If you have leaven in your house
you shall be cut off from Israel. It represents
the leaven of Egypt that was to be gotten rid of prior to the Exodus from that
land, a fresh start. It is often
interpreted as getting rid of pride, that which puffs up, the role of leaven in
baking. Jesus and Paul both use leaven
and the ridding of leaven as analogies in their teaching. During Passover all things are being made
new, it is time for putting off the old in order to receive the new and leaven
has to be removed from the house. Leaven
is corruption in some rabbinic teaching, that the evil inclination, the yetzer
hara is that which corrupts the dough of our lives. Lent is our own version of ridding our lives
of the old leaven to prepare ourselves to receive the news of the resurrection
of Jesus afresh. The observance of
Passover was an ordinance for all time in Judaism, the remembrance of what the
Lord did for them in Egypt, the current remembrance that the Lord was good and
the looking forward to the redemption of the world.
It would be impossible to imagine what these women felt this
day. They had prepared all the spices
and anointing oil with heavy hearts.
They knew that they were going to do an awful task. Jesus' body would
have been a mess from the beatings He had received. They had waited until it was permissible to
come to the tomb, Sabbath had ended, dawn was breaking. They expected to find the tomb guarded by
soldiers who would likely not be interested in their being there, much less
entering the tomb to care for the body of the insurrectionist and blasphemer
who had been crucified. Still, their
love for Jesus was such that they came this morning when no one else, not even
His disciples, knew what to do. These
women didn't care if they identified with this man whom others had so misjudged
and mistreated. They were outcasts and
they were unconcerned about what anyone else thought of them, they knew what
Jesus had done for them and that was all that mattered. When they arrived, though, the stone was
rolled away, obstacle one taken care of but who did it? A young man is there an nothing else and he
says, "He is risen." What in
the world could all this mean. No wonder
they left in fear and said nothing to anyone.
How could they tell anyone what they saw and heard, no one would believe
them.
Paul says the Corinthians are to always be mindful and
faithful to the Gospel he preached to them and that Gospel is simply, "Christ
died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he
was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the
Scriptures." The rest of his words
are only that this resurrection was proven by Jesus' appearing to a good many
people, not just the disciples, and ultimately to Paul, one who was born out of
time. Jesus appeared to Paul in the road
to Damascus when he heard the voice from heaven say, "I am Jesus, whom you
are persecuting." Paul knew from
that moment on that if he were to live it was only by grace. He had to get rid of the old leaven of the
law and make room for the new leaven of grace.
He did so gladly, no matter the cost to Himself. If the women told no one, Paul told
everyone. He believed.
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