When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 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.” 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.
We just saw these law-teachers and law-keepers trying to test Jesus by requiring a sign - so they would not be required to have faith in order to believe. And now, Jesus is warning His disciples to be on their guard against their "yeast."
When I lived in Nashville, there was a bread factory on Murfreesboro Road. And if a person happened to be driving by that factory at the right time of the day, or if the wind was blowing just right, the smell of that freshly baked bread blew through that town, and it would stop that person right in their tracks, as they would throw back their head, suck in as much of that fragrance as their nostrils would allow, as their eyes would roll back in their head and their mouths would start watering and . . . er, . . . at least that's what I, . . . er, observed.
But, seriously, is there anything to compare to the smell and taste of hot-right-out-of-the-oven yeast bread? There is a good reason it is a favorite smell and taste of a lot of folks. I love to make yeast bread as well. The wonder of placing a small amount of dough into a bowl, covering it and leaving it in a warm corner of the kitchen, and returning to lift the covering later, to see the yeast has been effective and the dough has taken over the bowl. The yeast has basically given the dough, pardon the expression, gas! What yeast does to bread to "puff it up," is amazing. To be numbered as one whose words are "full of a lot of air," is, as they say, - "Not so good."
That same teaching I wrote about from the verses just before this, that wanted proof of God so there would be no need to rely on a personal faith, is the teaching we see Jesus referring to in this passage. It is the arrogance and pride of those who find no fault in themselves, see no need to have faith without sight and are blind to how their arrogance and ignorance is leading to the downfall of the very students with whom they have been entrusted.
A teacher who is wise and thoroughly knows the subject they teach so well their students can fully depend on their knowledge without being guarded - is a great teacher. However, when a teacher only knows the content of their material but knows almost nothing of the background or true intent of that material, will ultimately be seen for what they are - spouters of "gas" with no substance.
The disturbing issue for me, as I read of the ways of these particular teachers, is that they were not teaching ABC's or math - they were supposed to be instructors of the fundamentals of their culture and faith. Yet they lacked the basic understanding of the nature and heart of the very One who gave them that culture and faith. They set themselves up in the position of teachers, but became, rather than a source of wisdom and knowledge, blind men teaching others to stumble too.
In the same way a few grains of yeast mixed into a dough cause gas bubbles to form until they work their way through the entire piece of dough, causing it to expand and appear to give substance where none exists - if I do not avoid my own tendencies toward arrogance and pride in my own understanding, what may begin as small compromises and justifications of attitudes and actions that avoid and ignore truth, will grow and expand until my sight grows dimmer, my mind grows duller and I become unaware of my own race into blindness.
Yeast-full teaching leads to yeast-full believing, which leads to a world full of thinkers with not much substance, only a lot of bilious gas. . . . . Are we there yet?
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