How do ye not understand that [it was] not concerning bread I said to you, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?
Jesus turns from the Pharisees and Sadducees to His own disciples and warns them about their "leaven." They think He is talking about bread, and His question shows that far more is at stake.
They took His warning as a remark about food supplies. One writer links their confusion to reasoning among themselves.
Unbelief takes other forms too, and the next scene is with His disciples. What you see at its worst in an unconverted man may be traced, in another way, in believers as well. Jesus said to them, "Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They did not understand Him; they reasoned among themselves; and whenever Christians begin to reason, they never understand anything.
They had a better option available and did not take it.
They were unsure what He meant, so they looked to each other for light. Yet the Source of all wisdom stood among them. Turning to one another showed that they did not trust the love and sympathy of Christ for them. Otherwise, would they not have gone straight to Him, admitting their dullness and asking Him to teach them? Instead they reasoned and questioned and debated and argued with one another.
The Lord's question carries a sting, because their reading of Him made Him small.
The question carried a charge of blameworthy dullness. How could they think that the Lord was afraid He might have to eat the bread of the Pharisees? Matthew does not record Mark's series of seven questions. He states the final question in a fuller form: "How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." The Lord had taught them not to be anxious about what they should eat and drink. Did they suppose that He was anxious Himself, in case He and His disciples had to eat the bread of the Pharisees and the Sadducees?
The leaven He warned about is teaching. Commentators name its two strands.
The leaven of the Pharisee was the type of religious hypocrisy that puts all the stress on outward, ceremonial things. The leaven of the Sadducee was pride of intellect. It lifts human reason into the place of sole judge and waves aside God's revelation and faith. Both of these have leavened much of Christendom, and that is sadly plain today. Ritualism is rampant on one side, and rationalism, or "modernism," on the other. Often enough the two are blended, and the rationalistic ritualist is the product.
Opposite as the two look, they end in the same place.
Christ, the food of our souls, comes to us in the form of doctrine... The doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees is error in its two common types: outward, self-righteous religion, or unbelieving trust in human reason. The leaven in either case is the rejection of Christ as God presents Him and as faith enjoys Him. Mark's Gospel adds "the leaven of Herod," the party of the royal court. Add that, and we have the full triple alliance of evil: the flesh, the devil, and the world, all corrupting the truth of Christ.
He aimed the warning at believers, and their reply proved He was right.
The leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy, yet the disciples show evidence of this very thing by their response. By their reasoning they missed the truth the Lord was pressing on them. Their very answer to Him showed how deeply they needed the warning of His words. Is our need any less than theirs?
The position of this warning in the chapter is deliberate.
Just as malice and wickedness are called leaven in the earlier letter (1 Cor. 5:8), so the same image is here applied to evil teaching. Wrong doctrine is the corruption of the truth, and it spreads as easily as leaven in clean dough. So we need special care against this subtle agent of corruption working among the saints. Our Lord told His disciples to beware of the leaven of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees (Matt. 16:6, 11-12), His warning came right before He spoke of founding His church, and that order is worth noting.
- Warning. He says "Beware" to disciples, not to enemies. The leaven threatens people already following Christ.
- Misreading. They reasoned with each other about bread instead of asking the One standing among them. Reasoning replaced hearing.
- Meaning. The leaven is doctrine: outward, ceremonial religion on one side, and reason set up as sole judge on the other.
- Reach. Both errors end at the same point: refusing Christ as God presents Him. Both have spread through Christendom.
- Result. The warning stands right before the Lord speaks of building His church. Corrupt teaching spreads through believers like leaven through dough.
Then they comprehended that he did not speak of being beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Jesus told His disciples to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They thought He meant bread, and verse 12 is the moment they see He was warning them about teaching.
The disciples heard the warning and thought about their empty food bag. His meaning was far more serious. It pointed to a danger that following Him did not remove.
At last they understood that by "leaven" the Lord meant "doctrine." So it is clear: a true disciple could never be a Pharisee or a Sadducee. Yet their doctrines may still leaven him — either one, or both.
Leaven is yeast. A small amount spreads through a whole batch of dough. Kelly applies the picture to a creed that spreads without faith behind it.
There is the spread of doctrine, of creed, of a mere verbal confession which does not suppose faith... This is compared to leaven, and leaven in Scripture is never the symbol of what is good. The leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees was their doctrine, which differed in each, but was far from good.
Bad behaviour is not the only leaven. Fereday sets wrong teaching beside it and weighs which does more harm.
Moral evil was active in the church at Corinth. Elsewhere Scripture warns us about doctrinal evil. Doctrinal evil comes from minds that are not subject to God, and it may do more damage than open immorality. Leaven in every form must not be tolerated by those who claim to value the grace of God and the blood of the Lamb.
God's word was the pure, unleavened food of His people. Israel's teachers worked something foreign into it.
Their rabbis had leavened the holy bread of the law as it was first given. They brought in the leaven of the rules of men. Their teaching was soaked in the traditions of the elders. So the leaven of hypocrisy and formalism spoiled the unleavened bread of Scripture for the children of the kingdom, and their tradition made the word of God of no effect.
The two groups carried opposite errors. Hole describes each one.
The leaven of the Pharisee was the kind of religious hypocrisy that puts all its stress on outward, ceremonial things. The leaven of the Sadducee was pride of intellect. It lifts human reason into the place of sole judge, and waves aside God's revelation and faith.
Another writer names the two errors and notes where this warning sits in the chapter.
Notice something important. Before He brought out the truth of the Church for the first time in His ministry to them, He warned them against these two leavens. The leaven of the Pharisees is ritualism, and the leaven of the Sadducees is rationalism. The pure truth of the Church has been corrupted all down the centuries by one or other, or both, of these leavens.
The disciples missed His meaning and talked it over with each other. Kelly treats that habit as a pattern.
They did not understand Him. They reasoned among themselves. And whenever Christians begin to reason, they never understand anything.
One writer adds that by turning to each other instead of to Christ, they showed little confidence in His love and sympathy for them (The Bible Treasury).
Jesus aimed this at His own followers, not at outsiders. That is what makes the verse uncomfortable rather than merely historical.
So it is clear. In speaking of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, our Lord was warning His disciples against two dangers. These dangers have always been present among people who profess the name of God... On one side there is religious self-satisfaction. On the other there is the practical ignoring of spiritual realities. On one side there is a lack of self-judgment, on the other a lack of self-sacrifice. Which of us is safe from one or the other? Can we look at the two types, with the Lord's warning in our ears, without being struck by the question, "Lord, is it I?"
- Leaven named. The danger was never bread but teaching. The disciples saw it only at last.
- Leaven spreads. Scripture never uses it as a good picture. It spreads through the whole batch, and corrupt teaching may do more damage than open immorality.
- Leaven spoils. Human tradition mixed into God's word left the children of the kingdom with spoiled bread.
- Leaven has two shapes. Ritualism and rationalism look opposite. Both corrupt the truth, and the warning came just before Christ spoke of building His church.
- Leaven reaches disciples. Followers of Christ are not immune; the honest response to the verse is self-examination, not a history lesson.