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The Bible references bread quite a lot. There’s a lot of law in the Torah that makes reference to bread or to leaven. “Eat this, don’t eat that.” Jesus talks about bread a lot as well. In fact, Jesus calls himself “the bread of life” in John 6:35.
I’ve never actually baked anything before. I’ve never cooked or anything like that. But seeing that a big aspect of the passage is bread (or more specifically, leaven), I thought I’d give baking a shot, just to see a little bit more about what that leaven actually does. So, if you were wondering what this basket was, we have a little loaf of bread.
This is a loaf of bread. It’s a little square, but this is a loaf of bread, the dough. There was this little bit of yeast that I put into this, and it made it rise. It leavened it. In fact, we should have a definition of just what leaven is: It’s usually yeast, but it makes the dough rise.
The counterpart to this is unleavened bread, which is this. No, it’s not a sugar cookie, I tried it. No, does not taste like it at all. It is simply oil, water, salt, and flour. Essentially, the shape you put it in the oven is the shape it comes out. There’s none of that yeast to make it rise, to leaven it.
Why do I tell you any of this? In the passage we’re going to look at today, Jesus warns his disciples, and in that warning, he references leaven. So let’s take a look at Jesus’s warning, verses five and six:
“When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, ‘Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees’” (Matthew 16:5-6).
His warning is clear, but we have to understand a couple terms in order to understand his warning.
First off, who are the Pharisees and Sadducees? If you’ve been here at North Hills over the last year, year and a half, we’ve been studying through the book of Matthew in our Behold the King series, and you’ve seen them quite a lot. They are the usual suspects who are often confrontational with Jesus.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were two prominent Jewish religious and political groups that existed during the time of Jesus. Most of what is written about these two groups is found in the New Testament and in the various writings of the Roman Jewish historian, Josephus.
They were often adversaries of Jesus: who he was, what he taught, and who he claimed to be. They were often extremely confrontational with him, seeking to thwart his ministry and to demean his words to diminish his message.
We saw last week, as Peter walked us through a little bit of the differences between these two groups, he equated them to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party of our modern world. They disagreed on many issues, culturally, politically, and religiously, but they were unified in their hatred of Jesus. These are the people Jesus is telling us to watch and beware of.
Watch and beware. The words “watch” and “beware” are pretty clear in the English language, but these are the words Jesus uses to describe or to warn the disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, so I thought we would look at the Greek. Disclaimer: I am not a Greek expert, and mind my southern twang on the pronunciation. But the two words here are…
“Watch,” in the Greek, is “horao,” which means to see or to perceive. The word “beware,” in the Greek, is “prosecho,” which means to pay attention or to give heed. Both of these words are in the imperative sense in the language. Jesus is commanding, he is demanding his disciples of these things. He’s clear. He is warning them to pay attention, to discern, to take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
So we know who the Pharisees and Sadducees are, and we know we need to watch and beware, but what do we need to watch and beware of? Well, what is the “leaven”? What does that have to do with anything?
While Jesus does make reference to leaven, he’s not talking about literal bread. He’s not talking about this. He’s talking about something much deeper. This warning is more than this bread. Without getting super, super far ahead in the passage, in verse 12, Matthew gives us a direct answer:
“the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:12b).
Their teaching is this metaphorical leaven.
This leads us to yet another question: What were they teaching? Or what exactly was their teaching leavened with or filled with? As the yeast rose in this bread, what rose in their teaching? What filled their teaching? Jesus paints a very big picture of this all throughout the gospels. He paints a picture of why we need to heed and discern their teachings over and over again.
We will continue to see this more and more clearly as we continue our journey towards the ultimate climax of this confrontation, ending in Jesus’s crucifixion. But for today, where we are in the book of Matthew and where we are in our series, let’s look back and see what aspects of their teaching we’ve seen thus far.
1. Their teaching was leavened with false assumptions.
First thing, their teaching was leavened with false assumptions. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist (the cousin of Jesus) rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees for assuming that their standing with God was influenced by their ancestry. This is the first mention of the Pharisees in the gospel of Matthew. John says these words in Matthew 3:
“And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9-10).
These Pharisees and these Sadducees believed that their national and religious origin (who their forefathers were, what race or nationality they were) had something to do with their standing with God, that it made them better in standing with God. John is rebuking them for that. He says, “For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” Their teaching was leavened with false assumptions.
2. Their teaching was leavened with false righteousness.
Number two, their teaching was leavened with false righteousness. This is a big one. In Matthew 5:20, which is during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says these words:
“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
He continues to build on this idea a little bit later in the sermon:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1-18).
He illustrates this idea with three points:
“When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others” (Matthew 6:2a).
Jesus is clear here: They give a lot. He’s saying they’re outwardly righteous. They give a lot of money. They give their time, but they do it with a heart to be seen by others. Jesus is saying they are outwardly righteous in this moment, inwardly unrighteous. Their hearts are not in the right place.
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others” (Matthew 6:5a).
Again, Jesus is clear: They pray big, fancy prayers. They sound beautiful, but their hearts are in the wrong place. They do these things to be seen by others. Their hearts were not in the right place. Are you seeing a theme here?
Then
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others” (Matthew 6:16a).
Can you imagine this? They would stand in all this agonizing pain. “Just look at me. Look at me, I’m in pain. This is horrible. This fasting is not good.” But Jesus says, “This outwardly righteous thing— they are doing it to be seen by others.” We are continuing to see this theme.
Jesus here, through a few real-world examples, is showing his listeners how the actions and teachings of the Pharisees outwardly appear righteous but are inwardly unrighteous. And we can see this in our own lives. This didn’t die off 2,000 years ago with the Pharisees and Sadducees.
What is our hearts’ intent when we give? What is our hearts’ intent when we pray? What is the heart’s intent when we fast? Do we do these things with an attitude turned toward beholding and worshiping our holy God? Or do we do things to be seen by others?
A really good example of this in our modern world is social media. I can be honest: I’ve posted, I’ve said, I’ve done things with the hopes that people will like it or the hopes that people will say, “Wow, how great this is.” We do these things—they might be good—but we do them with the wrong hearts. This is what Jesus is warning us of here. Their teaching was leavened with false righteousness.
3. Their teaching was leavened with false commandments.
Lastly, their teaching was leavened with false commandments. In Matthew 15, the Pharisees condemned the disciples for “breaking the traditions of the elders” by not washing their hands ceremonially before eating. Jesus rebukes them and yet again calls them hypocrites, saying:
“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:7-9).
The Pharisees’ teachings were leavened with their self-righteousness, their personal doctrines, their personal commandments, and their “puffed-up” view of themselves. Their teaching was hypocritical, and they were teaching the laws and traditions of man as being the laws and traditions of God. They were more concerned with hand washing than heart washing.
This is what Jesus is telling his disciples and is telling us to discern, to watch out for and to be aware of. However, in this case, the disciples don’t exactly get this on the first try.
The disciples’ misunderstanding
“And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, ‘We brought no bread’” (Matthew 16:7).
I’ve read a lot of commentaries on this passage over the last couple of weeks. Unsurprisingly, there are many different interpretations or ideas as to what the disciples were thinking in this moment. What was actually behind their reaction? Were they distracted by the absence of bread? And in that distraction, not listening to Jesus? Were they interpreting this as a literal warning to not eat the bread of the Pharisees? Quite honestly, were they just hungry?
I made this joke during the first service; it might land a little better here, now we’re closer to lunch. When I brought this out, I know somebody was like, “Ooh, Texas Roadhouse rolls later for lunch. That sounds really good.” I’m not saying that to condemn, I’m saying that because it’s true. It’s the way we think. It’s the way we are. We get distracted so easily.
Whatever it might be, the main point still remains: The disciples were forgetting who Jesus was, what he had done for them, and what he continued to do for them. They took the words of Jesus, they took these words, and they looked among themselves. It’s so fascinating, the language here: They looked to themselves. “All right, let’s huddle up, guys. Let’s figure this out.” No, turn to Jesus for the clarity and the wisdom. That is what they failed to do here.
In this moment, Jesus’s words are more than the bread, they are more than the disciples’ forgetfulness (as we’ll see in just a minute), they are more than their doubt and their unrighteousness. His message and warning are deeper than the bread. Jesus beautifully clarifies this in the next couple of verses.
Jesus’s clarification (8-12)
“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 the bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:8-12).
Three major things we have to consider and recognize in order to understand his clarification.
1. His rebuke
Jesus rebukes his disciples with a simple, powerful five-word phrase: “O you of little faith.” There are a couple of other instances up to this point in Matthew where we see this phrase used, and they are incredibly powerful and so helpful for us to understand it in this context. So let’s take a look.
In Matthew 6, the portion of the Sermon on the Mount dealing with anxiety, where Jesus is speaking on anxiety, Jesus says these words:
“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you? Oh you of little faith. Therefore do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat or what shall drink or what should we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly Father knows you need them all” (Matthew 6:30-32).
Praise God for that. How unfortunate it was, and how unfortunate it is that we continue to forget this, how we continue to have this little faith. Jesus is saying here, “I provide, I protect, I give you all that you need, but you still forget.” Even in these small ways of eating and drinking and what we wear, they were forgetting. Jesus is rebuking them for that.
Then we see it again in Matthew 8, a few chapters later. Jesus calms a great storm, and it says these words:
“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?” (Matthew 8:23-27)
Again, their little faith.
I think there’s an interesting parallel here. In the one we just looked at, Jesus was providing in the small ways. In this moment, he’s providing in big ways (calming this monstrous storm), but he still is rebuking them for their little faith. He says, “Do you not know me yet? Do you not know what I do for you?”
Then lastly, in Matthew chapter 14, Jesus instructs his disciples to go out without him onto the sea. He comes to them, and they see him as a ghost, and when they realize it is Jesus, Peter says this:
“And Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ He said, ‘Come.’ So, Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’” (Matthew 14:22-33).
We see a common theme in these three passages: The disciples are forgetting about who Jesus is, about the power he possesses, the provision he has over his people, how he protects them, how he loves them, and how he’s faithful to them, and Jesus rebukes them for it in this moment.
As I was thinking about this over the last couple of days, an example for us today— and these are great examples, we all have different things, but just for me in my life, how do I have little faith? I think one of the biggest areas (and this can apply to all Christians) is when we see those we love who are not followers of Jesus, and we have such little faith as to say,” Jesus, you can’t save them. I don’t see a way that you could.” Jesus is rebuking me for that. He says, “Do you not know who I am? Do you not know how I love and how I care and how I provide and how I protect and how I am powerful? Oh, you of little faith, why do you doubt?” Jesus rebukes them.
2. His reminder
Then he reminds them of his power and provision.
“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?” (Matthew 16:9)
Jesus is reminding his disciples of his power by reminding them of the major miracles he had just performed: feeding thousands with a combined dozen loaves of bread. And, as Matt Nestberg pointed out two weeks ago, one of these crowds was Jewish and one was Gentile, so Jesus was showcasing how he cared for all peoples. Only Jesus, with the miraculous power within him, could do this. And the disciples had seemingly forgotten about the acts of provision that had just been performed.
But Jesus is not only reminding them of his powerful provision for these crowds, he’s reminding them of his powerful provision over them: “…and how many baskets you gathered” (Matthew 16:9b). He provided leftovers for them. His blessing overflowed to them, which is yet another sign of his love and his faithfulness. He provided for them through these miracles, and he’s reminding them of this action. Jesus reminds them of who he is.
3. His restatement
Then lastly, he restates his warning so beautifully.
“‘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” (Matthew 16:11).
In his love, Jesus restates his warning. He didn’t leave the disciples to their own foolish understanding, but he showed them the depth and the true meaning of his words, and that these words in this moment were more than the bread.
As we consider all of this, what do we take away and how do we view this? Brothers and sisters, when we forget who Jesus is and what he has done, it’s plain and simple as this: We can find ourselves behaving like the Pharisees and like the Sadducees and like the disciples. Don’t think we can’t fall into these same traps or into these same lines of thinking. I know we covered a lot today, but I just want to drive home a couple of questions for us.
How are we similar? Like these Pharisees and Sadducees, how many of us think we are all right with God because we go to church, read our Bible, go to a Christian school, grew up in a Christian family— all these things. We are standing in society, in all these things, like the Pharisees, how they assumed. How many of us think that is our righteousness?
How many of us think we are more righteous than others because we are just outwardly good? I give, I pray, I serve, I do all these things. How many of us think we know better than God, and we use our own personal law and commandment (as the Pharisees so often did) as a tool to judge our standing with others and to judge our standing with God?
Like these disciples, how many of us, as soon as we encounter minor uncertainty, as the disciples did in this moment, forget all that Jesus has done for us? How many of us look to our own understanding to determine the words of Jesus when Jesus is right there and his wisdom and his clarity are more than ours, more powerful? How many of us are just so simply distracted by our day-to-day lives? How often do we think about the lunch and the bread when Jesus has so much more to offer?
Brothers and sisters, we must watch and beware. We must heed this warning of Jesus. We must watch out for this unrighteousness in our own lives and in the lives of our families and our friends. We must see these things that Jesus is calling us to.
But most of all, we must keep our eyes on Jesus. We must never forget who he is and what he has done for us. We must seek to know his word above all other words, his righteousness above all other righteousness. We must seek him, love him, because brothers and sisters, he is the power. He is the provider. He is the protector. His words, his message, are so much more than bread. Let’s pray.
Father God, we come before you as a humble people who recognize how so often we are like these Pharisees and Sadducees, how often we’re so focused on our own self-righteousness, focused on good deeds more than our hearts. But also God, how we can become so fixated on these minor uncertainties, these minor doubts, and how we become unfaithful and forgetful.
Jesus, thank you in this moment for rebuking us for that. Thank you for showing us again and again how much you love us, how much you provide and protect us, how much better your way is. Because Jesus, this message is so much more than bread. Father, be with us. Spirit, move in this room today. Be with these people as we worship and as we continue to praise you. We love you, Father, and we’re so thankful for you. In Jesus’s mighty and holy and precious name, amen.
