Mat 16:11-12 | KingComments | STEP | When the disciples have come to the other side, they notice that they have forgotten to bring bread. The Lord knows that they are concerned about this. However, He is concerned with other things. He is not concerned for their physical well-being, but for their spiritual well-being. He knows how sensitive His disciples are to the arguments of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So He warns them about this. He does this by using a metaphor that they should understand. But the disciples are on a very different wavelength to the Lord. When He speaks of leaven, they immediately make the connection with the bread they have forgotten. They can only think of physical needs. When the Lord says something and Christians begin to reason, they never understand. That’s because they start with man and then try to climb up to God. Good and healthy reasoning begins with God and ends with man. The Lord notices both about what and how they are discussing with each other and asks a question about it. By calling them “men of little faith” , He also points out to them that they are wrong. We begin to discuss when we are not thinking of Christ. The Lord points this out in His answer. If they had thought of Him, they would not have concerned themselves with bread. He reminds them of His feeding of the five thousand. He points out not so much what he did with the five loaves of bread, but how much remained afterwards. He not only provides, He gives in abundance. To impress His abundant provision upon His disciples He also reminds them of the seven loaves of bread which He used to feed many more than four thousand people and here too emphasizing what was left over. They were present. They distributed the bread themselves and even collected the excess pieces themselves. They have been so closely involved in both miracles. Yet they are now so focused on the bread they have forgotten that they can only relate the Lord’s words to that. They should understand from the Lord’s reminder that He was not speaking about bread. After that He again says to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees. Then the disciples understand what He meant. By leaven He meant the evil teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. In Scripture, leaven is always a picture of that which is wrong, which is sinful. The leaven of the Pharisees represents religious hypocrisy that places all emphasis on external and ceremonial acts. The leaven of the Sadducees is the intellectual pride that places the human mind on the seat of the judge and dismisses the revelation of God and faith with a hand wave. Christianity is pervaded by this leaven. On the one hand we see ritualism and on the other hand rationalism and sometimes a mixture. In the letter to the Colossians, Paul warns us of rationalism, reason, as well as ritualism and formalism ( ). This warning from the Lord for this leaven immediately precedes His revelation regarding the church we hear from Him in the following verses. That is, we will not understand His revelation concerning the church in the following verses if we choke on one or other form of leaven.

‏ Matthew 16:11-12

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees

When the disciples have come to the other side, they notice that they have forgotten to bring bread. The Lord knows that they are concerned about this. However, He is concerned with other things. He is not concerned for their physical well-being, but for their spiritual well-being. He knows how sensitive His disciples are to the arguments of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So He warns them about this. He does this by using a metaphor that they should understand.

But the disciples are on a very different wavelength to the Lord. When He speaks of leaven, they immediately make the connection with the bread they have forgotten. They can only think of physical needs. When the Lord says something and Christians begin to reason, they never understand. That’s because they start with man and then try to climb up to God. Good and healthy reasoning begins with God and ends with man.

The Lord notices both about what and how they are discussing with each other and asks a question about it. By calling them “men of little faith”, He also points out to them that they are wrong. We begin to discuss when we are not thinking of Christ. The Lord points this out in His answer. If they had thought of Him, they would not have concerned themselves with bread.

He reminds them of His feeding of the five thousand. He points out not so much what he did with the five loaves of bread, but how much remained afterwards. He not only provides, He gives in abundance. To impress His abundant provision upon His disciples He also reminds them of the seven loaves of bread which He used to feed many more than four thousand people and here too emphasizing what was left over.

They were present. They distributed the bread themselves and even collected the excess pieces themselves. They have been so closely involved in both miracles. Yet they are now so focused on the bread they have forgotten that they can only relate the Lord’s words to that. They should understand from the Lord’s reminder that He was not speaking about bread. After that He again says to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees. Then the disciples understand what He meant. By leaven He meant the evil teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

In Scripture, leaven is always a picture of that which is wrong, which is sinful. The leaven of the Pharisees represents religious hypocrisy that places all emphasis on external and ceremonial acts. The leaven of the Sadducees is the intellectual pride that places the human mind on the seat of the judge and dismisses the revelation of God and faith with a hand wave.

Christianity is pervaded by this leaven. On the one hand we see ritualism and on the other hand rationalism and sometimes a mixture. In the letter to the Colossians, Paul warns us of rationalism, reason, as well as ritualism and formalism (Col 2:8 ; Col 2:16-22).

This warning from the Lord for this leaven immediately precedes His revelation regarding the church we hear from Him in the following verses. That is, we will not understand His revelation concerning the church in the following verses if we choke on one or other form of leaven.