Beware the Leaven

Matthew 16:6-12 (vv. 1-12)

Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 2)

The point is this. At Passover, one of the greatest Jewish festivals, all leaven had to be cleared out of the house, commemorating the time when the children of Israel left Egypt in such a hurry that they didn’t have time to bake leavened bread, and so ate it unleavened. Gradually, “leaven” became a symbol not for something that makes bread more palatable, but for something that makes it less pure. Warning against the “leaven” of someone’s teaching meant warning against ways in which the true message of the God’s kingdom could be corrupted, diluted, or (as we say referring to drink rather than bread), “watered down” (3-4).

A. Orendorff

The greatest danger to the gospel—the message of God’s kingdom reign—is not irreligious philosophy or secular humanism, but the “leaven” (the corrupting impurity) of religious idolatry, of adding or subtracting just a little bit from the authentic message of truth.