Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees

 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.  He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."  And He left them and departed.

Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?  Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?  -- but to 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 doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

- Matthew 16:1-12

In yesterday's reading, we were told that Jesus departed from the place where He encountered the Canaanite woman, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.  Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them.  So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.  Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."  Then His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"  Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.   And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left.  Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.  And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

  Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.  He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."  And He left them and departed.  My study bible says that "a sign from heaven means a spectacular display of power.  The time of the Messiah among the Jews was expected to be accompanied by signs, but these hypocrites have not recognized the signs already being performed because their hearts were hardened, and they ignored the works happening all around them."  Jesus has already rebuked Satan when He was tempted to use His power in such a way as is suggested here.

Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?  Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?  -- but to 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 doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  My study bible points out that the leaven of the Pharisees is their doctrine (as Jesus says here) and their hypocrisy (see Luke 12:1).  It suggests that the disciples are painfully slow to understand here because - as Jesus says - they have such little faith at this point.  Until Pentecost,  (in Greek, "the fiftieth [day]") which we celebrated on Sunday, they wouldn't fully understand His teachings.  That is, the day when the Holy Spirit was given. 

There could be much said about hypocrisy here, but I think it's important that we connect these ideas mentioned here to love.  Since love is the bedrock of our faith, or trust, in Jesus, it strikes me very strongly that Jesus' advice against and rejection of the doctrine that asks for signs, is very essential to understand in the light of love.  If we think about relationships, friendships and other types of close relationships such as a spouse or other family member, there are ways that we are to understand the nature of love, and it most particularly relates to what Jesus expresses here and His refusal to simply work grand signs in order to somehow convince people to have faith in Him.  How do we know someone loves us?  Does it depend on how flashy we are?  What great things we can do to impress others?  How much money we can spend, or other great sorts of impressive works?  If that's what our relationships are based on, some kind of "glory" that rubs off on us in some way, or some sort of profit we gain materially (in financial status or other status), then we are not in the realm of true love.  That would be the leaven of hypocrisy, not a true friendship or deep relationship, and certainly not a place for trust.  Similarly, it is love that must bring people to Christ, not "flashy" exercises of power simply designed to impress, to convince, to force or compel faith.  This isn't true trust.  It isn't true faith.  It's not the way that love works.  And this is how we have to think about Jesus' choices here, and what He so courageously gives us as a gift of wisdom for our own lives.  If we only paid attention to His choices here, we might save ourselves plenty of heartbreak and delusion, false dreams based on fantasy or our own sense of loneliness.  Faith depends entirely on the nature of love and its voluntary connection that is like that spark of the Spirit that connects people through faith, through prayer, and all the gifts of God who is love.  Let us take His lesson to heart, practice it for ourselves, and live in the light of the love He teaches.  It's compatible only with truth, and that is the plain bare truth of the heart and what we truly love  -- for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.