In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus warned the disciples of leaven. Each passage is a little different, indicating that Jesus issued the warning more than once. Each passage warns of the leaven of the Pharisees. Matthew adds the Sadducees and Mark adds Herod. What were the disciples supposed to learn from the warnings? And what do they mean to us today, when the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod are all ancient history?
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Jesus warned his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees (Matthew 16:5-12). After a while, they understood that he was warning them against their teaching. Today, we speak much more of the Pharisees than the Sadducees. We have forgotten to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees in the church.
Mix leaven (yeast or baking powder) with a flour dough and the whole dough will rise. The leaven leaves no flour untouched. Although Jesus once compared the kingdom of heaven to leaven (Matthew 13:33), it usually signifies some kind of corrupting influence. If the leaven of the Sadducees corrupts good teaching, we need to consider what it is and how to identify it.… Read the rest