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At the Passover, on that night of nights, Yahshua, broke bread and gave it to his disciples to eat. That bread has tremendous meaning!

      When you partake of the Passover bread, you are saying that you have thoroughly discerned the Body of Yahshua, the Congregation, and that you are reconciled to YAHWEH and to each member of the Body of Yahshua.

      If you have not taken these steps, then YAHWEH will judge you! You are making a commitment to become one with your brethren just as the bread is one.

      After Yahshua gave His disciples the Passover bread, He prayed “that all may be echad (united), as You are in Me Father and I in You, that they also may be echad in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21).

      Since Yahshua committed His life to make us one, shouldn’t we commit our lives to become one?

      The Apostle Peter tells us we should indeed follow the example of Yahshua Messiah (1st Peter 2:21).

      When you partake of the Passover bread, you are, in part, making a commitment to make the Congregation one unified Body.

The Bread and the Congregation

Why did Yahshua use bread to symbolize the Congregation? Why not meat? After all, His physical body was flesh. What about broccoli? Everybody knows that vegetables are good for you. What is so unique about bread—specifically, unleavened bread?

Bread starts with grain, and so does YAHWEH’s plan of salvation.

The Holy Days of the Bible, which outline YAHWEH’s master plan for man, are connected to the harvests in Israel as explained in Leviticus 23.

YAHWEH compares Believers to grain. Jacob explains, “From His own will, by the Word of truth, that we should be the first- fruits of His creatures” (Jacob 1:18).

Grain pictures the hope of all Believers— the resurrection of the dead. Listen as Paul describes the analogy: “But someone will say, How are the dead raised? And with what body do they come? Foolish one! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow the body that is going to be, but a bare grain, it may be of wheat or barley, or of some other seed, and YAHWEH gives it a body according as He willed, and to each of the seeds its own natural body. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption” (1st Corinthians 15:35-38,42).

The flour for bread comes from grain. Grain has three main parts—brain, endosperm, and germ. It takes all three to make healthful bread. The same is true for YAHWEH’s Congregation. It takes many types of people to make up the one Body of Yahshua. YAHWEH has called people from many parts of the world and from different races.

But the many parts of YAHWEH’s flour (YAHWEH’s people) are not divided, “For just as the loaf of bread is one, for we are all one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1st Corinthians 10:17).

Making Bread

What can we learn from the process of making bread that will help make us one bread?

First, let’s understand that YAHWEH wants us to be an unleavened loaf.

Leaven is a type of sin, and sin divides.

Ever notice the holes in leavened bread? Those pockets of air separate the different parts of the bread. The same can happen in the Body of Messiah if we allow the leaven of pride and vanity to creep in. We will be divided and fall apart.

Notice how close the particles of flour are in unleavened bread. Nothing divides them. That’s how Yahshua wants His Congregation, His Body, His Bread to be: “That there not be division in the body, but that the members might have the same care for one another” (1st Corinthians 12:25).

But just because people congregate together does not mean they are tied together. What tie binds true believers together?

Water causes particles of flour, to cling to one another, producing one lump. In the Bible, water is a type of YAHWEH’s Spirit (John 7:37-39).

It is YAHWEH’s Spirit that soaks through each Believer and makes him stick to his brother. It is the water of YAHWEH’s Spirit that binds and ties many into one.

1st Corinthians 12:13 tells us, “For also we all were baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Arameans, whether slaves or free, even all were given to drink into one Spirit.”

We need another ingredient to make our bread smooth. We also need something to make our relationships in the Body of Messiah smooth. And there is nothing smoother than oil.

In the Scriptures, oil also represents the Holy Spirit. What is the main fruit of YAHWEH’s Spirit? It is love—caring for and giving to one another. Love perfectly binds us together. This is why Paul tells us, “And above all these, have love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14).

The water of the Spirit sticks us together, but the oil of the Spirit (love) keeps us together affectionately. When you care, give and serve your brother, you become one bread with him.

There’s just one more thing you need in your bread, and that’s some zest. What gives food zest? What gives the Body of Messiah zeal? Salt!

Salt symbolizes the zest and purpose of the Body and bread of Yahshua. Yahshua said it best: “You are the salt of the earth but if the salt becomes tasteless, with what shall it be salted? For it has strength for nothing any more but to be thrown out and to be trampled under by men” (Matthew 5:13).

In a world torn with division and hatred, YAHWEH’s Congregation is the salt of the earth. The Congregation—YAHWEH’s unleavened bread—flavors the earth with the salt of YAHWEH’s way of love and unity.

During the Passover season let’s learn this valuable lesson: The Passover bread pictures the Body of Yahshua, the Congregation. Though we be many, we are one unified body through YAHWEH’s Spirit.