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Matthew 16:5-12
The Yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees
5 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. 6 “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”
8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? 9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
There are a number of passages in the gospels where people who are hearing Jesus teach simply don’t understand what he’s talking about. I don’t know how you read these passages, but I can’t help being struck by two thoughts:
The first is how frustrating it must have been for Jesus, who was trying to explain eternal truth, and who was constantly dealing with people who just didn’t get it. He must have wanted to pull his hair out sometimes.
But also, it seems to me that these passages help to establish the historical credibility of the gospel accounts. The confusion and misunderstandings of the disciples are so real — so authentic to the human experience — that they make the whole story more believable. If everybody who heard Jesus simply got the point straightaway, something about these stories would be less real.
Today’s reading is a good example. As they travel by boat across the Sea of Galilee, Jesus warns the disciples to, “be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” The disciples, hearing Jesus mention yeast, think he’s talking about bread. That might be because bread is on their minds – they’ve just left the place where Jesus had fed thousands of people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. And it seems that somewhere along the way, the disciples had realized that they forgot to bring any food with them.
But Jesus isn’t really talking about bread. In fact, he seems a little irritated that the disciples are concerned about having enough to eat. He reminds them of the miraculous feeding they had just witnessed, and that there had been enough left over to fill a number of baskets. If there was anyone on earth who should not be concerned about food, it would seem to be those who were following Jesus. So if he was irritated, it would be hard to blame him.
But Jesus had something important he wanted to pass along to his disciples, and it really didn’t have anything to do with bread at all. Instead, he was just using the metaphor of yeast warn his disciples against the Sadducees and the Pharisees — the two leading groups of Jewish religious leaders.
The passage we’re reading today, which comes from the Gospel of Matthew, says that Jesus was warning the disciples against “the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” But that’s a phrase – the teachings of – that Matthew added to the original account of this story, which appears in Mark. It might be heresy on my part, but I can’t help thinking that Matthew might have that slightly wrong – that Jesus wasn’t really warning about the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees as much as their hypocrisy – their self-righteousness and their tendency to treat others as morally and spiritually inferior to themselves.
So why was Jesus talking about yeast?
In Hebrew tradition, yeast was a symbol of corruption. It starts out small, but spreads throughout a whole lump of dough. So its use to symbolize corruption seems natural. That’s why the Jews ate unleavened bread – bread without yeast – at the time of the Passover. It symbolized the un-corrupted life they were trying to live.
And why would Jesus be warning his followers about the Sadducees and the Pharisees? The church historians say that when the Gospel of Matthew was published – probably in the early ‘70’s AD – a lot of the followers of Jesus were still participating in the life of a local synagogue, and even praying at the Temple in Jerusalem. So they were being exposed regularly to the teaching of Jewish leaders on Saturday and Christian leaders on Sunday. In principle, that could be fine. After all, we study the Old Testament as well as the New. And learned Hebrew scholars could provide important insights into the scriptures.
For that matter, you might remember that in the past, we’ve said that some New Testament scholars say that many of the teachings of the Pharisees weren’t that far from the teachings of Jesus himself. But in some important ways, both the Pharisees and the Sadducees got things wrong.
The Pharisees were committed to strictly observing the law of God. In fact, they went beyond what was required of observant Jews. That was fine, of course, but the Pharisees had a tendency to become judgmental and self-righteous about it. Since they thought of themselves as spiritually superior to others, they wanted strict punishments for anyone they considered a sinner. So they criticized Jesus for befriending and eating with tax collectors and prostitutes and other sinners.
The Sadducees were different. They were from the ‘upper crust’ of Hebrew society – “blue bloods,” as we might say – and they were closely associated with the leadership of the temple. Because of that cozy relationship, they tended to stand for the interests of the powerful and the well-to-do against the poor and the needy, and definitely against the gentiles.
But Jesus had come preaching a whole different way of being a person of faith. He had come specifically to carry out a ministry to the “lost and least of these.” Jesus associated with people the Pharisees considered unclean and contemptible. Jesus reached out in love to the poor and the marginalized and the gentiles – and even praised the faith of a Roman army officer. That would have driven the Sadducees right up a wall.
And now in this passage, Jesus was warning those who follow him not to be like these recognized Hebrew leaders. His followers were not to regard themselves as morally superior to other sinners. Not to reject the outcastes as polite society did. Not to ignore the poor and foreigners, but instead to extend God’s love to them.
It’s easy to find the teachings of Pharisees and Sadducees reasonable. In fact, latter-day Pharisees and Sadducees are still among us, and you can hear their voices if you listen to those who present themselves as “religious” in the media. But Jesus warned his disciples – as he warns us through this reading – to guard against allowing their faith to be corrupted by the self-righteousness and the hypocrisy that these Hebrew leaders lived and taught.
That’s the yeast Jesus was talking about in this passage, not the kind that makes bread rise.
Let’s pray. Lord, you know how easy it is for us to fall into the same sins the Sadducees and Pharisees committed – the same hypocrisy and self-righteousness. In fact, we even congratulate ourselves for not being like them, which is just a different flavor of the very same sin we criticize them for. By your Spirit, steer us away from thinking we are better than others, and remind us daily that our new life in Jesus is entirely a gift out of your grace. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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