Jesus Fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread

     "Then on the fifteenth day of the same month, there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread." Leviticus 23:6

     The second feast of Israel begins on the next night after Passover. For seven days the Israelites are required to eat only unleavened bread. So, how did Jesus fulfill this feast? First of all, Jesus was born in Bethlehem which means house of bread in Hebrew. Secondly, Jesus taught that He was the Bread of Life.

     "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh." John 6:48-51

     Leaven is a symbol of sin and evil, which is why the bread in the Passover meal and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is unleavened. This bread is symbolic of Jesus, who was God in the flesh, the perfect man who was totally without sin, totally unleavened. During the Last Supper with His disciples, Jesus took the bread, broke it, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Eating unleavened bread for seven days is symbolic of a pure and holy walk with the Lord.

     There are two interesting facts about the bread used in the modern day celebrations of the feasts of Unleavened Bread and Passover. The Jewish matzoh bread is not only unleavened, but it is also striped and pierced, even as the body of Jesus was. Also, during the Feast of Passover, a piece of this bread is broken, buried, and then resurrected, even as the body of Christ was. It is so sad that most Jews do not even understand the symbolism they are performing when they do this.

     Jesus was buried at sundown of Passover Day, at the beginning of the fifteenth day of Nisan, the First day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He had exactly fulfilled the first two of the Jewish feasts which God had instituted to foreshadow what Christ would one day accomplish. Would He also fulfill the third feast in the same miraculous way?