Question: Should leaven or unleaven bread be used at the Lord’s Supper? Is not Scripture abundantly clear as to its being used at the time of unleaven bread in the Old Testament? If we are to be careful about symbols, to illustrate the oneness of all believers, and we should be, should we not be, at least, as careful by symbols, to declare the sinlessness of that blessed body broken for us? Should we not zealously keep out of the bread broken in memory of Him, leaven which certainly speaks of sin, and the workings of evil?
Answer: The church began on the day of Pentecost. This is the “Feast of Weeks” of Leviticus 23:15-2115And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: 16Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. 17Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. 18And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savor unto the Lord. 19Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. (Leviticus 23:15‑21). For this it was specifically ordered that they should bring “two waves loaves of two tenth deals: (of fine flour), they shall be baken with leaven; they are the first fruits unto the Lord.”
We understand these two loaves typify believers, such as those in the upper room in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Notice the “with leaven.” Leaven is recognized as being in believers, but it is leaven “baken”; it has been through the fire, its activity has been stopped by the fire, but it is there.
The unbroken loaf on the table represents all believers on earth united together to form the Body of Christ.
“For we being many, are one loaf.”
How fitting, then, that leaven should be found there. But in the Word of God, not one word is said as to the kind of bread that was to be used in the remembrance of the Lord in His death. Such distinctions as “leavened” or “unleavened” belong not to Christianity, but to Judaism. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:2626For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. (1 Corinthians 11:26) says nothing about the kind of bread, whether leavened, unleavened, white or brown, but simply, “this bread.” To be occupied with the question as to whether the bread should be leavened or not, is to drop into the snare of putting the new wine into the old bottles.
Let us keep the Lord before us in the memorial, not the nature, or the ingredients, of the symbol.