Ideas for Your Church: Bread for Communion

From church to church, the bread used for the Lord’s Supper varies considerably. Some use regular bread, perhaps cut in small cubes. Others use pieces of soda crackers, etc. But the bread commanded for the Jewish Passover (at which the Lord’s Supper was instituted) was unleavened bread–bread made without yeast (Exod. 12:8; cf. Mk. 14:12, 22).

In the Bible, leaven is universally a symbol of sin and corruption. Because, in the fermenting process, it permeates and puffs up the dough, it provides a picture of how sin affects us. In the Gospels (Matt. 6:6, 12; Mk. 8:15; Lk. 12:1; cf. I Cor. 5:1-6), Jesus speaks of the leaven of the Pharisees (hypocrisy and legalism), the leaven of the Sadducees (secularism and unbelief), and the leaven of Herod (sensuality and immorality). And since the bread is to represent the broken body of the sinless Son of God, leaven is inappropriate (cf. I Cor. 5:7-8; I Pet. 2:22).

Though the Lord surely understands when it is impossible to obtain the real thing, it is worth trying. In most larger cities in Canada and the United States, wafers of Jewish unleavened bread (matzos) are available in some grocery stores. If none can be purchased where you live, perhaps a friend or family member could send you a package. The bread keeps well, and using it provides another opportunity for teaching about the destructive danger of sin, and the unique sinlessness of our Saviour.