Through the eyes of Jesus
The Parable of the leaven
Matthew 13:13
March 13 2011
Today we look at the last parable that Jesus tells in a group setting.
Up to this point we have looked at the Parable of the sower where the gospel message is the focus and how some people will accept the message and others will reject it. In the parable of the wheat and tares we saw how the devil is at work in scattering deception into the workings of the church and how the deceptions are so subtle that in many ways it mimics the real thing and then we last looked at the parable of the mustard seed. In this parable we once again see how something when it is corrupt becomes something other than what it was originally designed to be. In today’s parable we see Jesus moving down the road to once again show us the deception that is occurring in the world.
As was mentioned in the discussion of the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus does not go on to clarify any more of the parables that He tells. If we open our eyes to the progress of what Jesus is telling in the parables, we should be able to see a kind of pattern or direction in which He is going for us to understand the underlying emphasis of the parable.
In today’s parable we once again have three components that are the essence to this parable and one very interesting key word.
The three components of this parable are the Leaven, the Woman and the Meal.
As in the last parable, this too has taken on a life that does not necessarily keep in line with the flow of teaching that Jesus is taking us through. The one teaching of this parable falls in line with that of the mustard seed is this is the effects of the church in the world, how the church is going to so infiltrate the world that it will have this great ability to influence the world.
Martin Luther, the great reformer see this parable in this light as he laid it out in his Expositions, says, “Our Lord wishes to comfort us with similitude, and gives us to understand that, when the Gospel, as a piece of new leaven, has once mixed itself with the human race, which is the dough, it will never cease till the end of the world, but will make its way through the whole mass of those who are to be saved, despite of all the gates of hell. Just as it is impossible for the sourness, when it has once mingled itself with the dough, ever again to be separated from it, because it has so changed the nature of the dough, so is it also impossible for Christians to be ever torn from Christ, For Christ, as a piece of leaven, is so incorporated with them that they form one bod, one mass. . . leaven is also the Word which renews men.”
Expositors over the years have followed this understanding and made the leaven the conquering power of the Gospel. The challenge that comes into play is why Jesus would use a word that the entire Jewish population understood and change its emphasis or meaning without giving clarification to its new meaning or purpose.
The word Leaven or Unleavened is used approximately 100 time in scripture (depending on translation) and in every case it has a meaning or understanding of corruption.
The first time that we come across the use of the word leaven is in Genesis 19:3
Lot has just been presented the two angels that had come from Abraham earlier in the e day just before they were to pass judgment on the cities of the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah.
3 But he insisted so strongly that they came with him and went into his home. He prepared a special dinner for them, baked some unleavened bread, and they ate.
Why did Lot give the Angels, these messengers from heaven “Unleavened bread”? Because he knew that they could not eat anything that was “common” or “unclean”. Right from the beginning of scripture the act of leaving is associated with degeneration or a breaking down of the product it is associated with.
The second time that we encounter the reference to leaven is in Exodus.
Exodus 12:14 – 15
14 “This day will be one for you to remember. This is a permanent law for generations to come: You will celebrate this day as a pilgrimage festival in the Lord’s honor. 15 For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the very first day you must remove any yeast that you have in your houses. Whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh day must be excluded from Israel.
Even when it came to the items that were being offered to the God at the Alter, none of the food made could contain leaven.
Exodus 23:18
18 “Never offer the blood of a sacrifice to me at the same time you offer anything containing yeast. The fat sacrificed at my festivals should never be left over in the morning.
But what about Leviticus 7:13 where it says the Israelites are to bring bread with yeast or leavened in it.
13 In addition to these rings of bread, you must bring bread with yeast along with your fellowship offering of thanksgiving.
We need to back up and start with verse 11 before we jump to too many conclusions.
11 “These are the instructions for the fellowship offering that you must bring to the Lord. 12 If you offer it as a thank offering, you must also bring rings of unleavened bread mixed with olive oil, wafers of unleavened bread brushed with olive oil, and loaves made from flour mixed well with olive oil
This passage deals with the nation of Israel having communion with God. The unleavened bread is the portion that is given to God while the leavened bread represents the nation of Israel as they have communion with a Holy God.
This is the same idea with communion today. We as people are still part and parcel of the sinful or leavened world supping with a Holy God.
As we move into the New Testament, when Jesus referred to the various He told his Apostles to be wary of the leaven of the Pharisees, which was the hypocritical formality or religiousness, i.e. the legalism that is running strong in many churches.
When it came to the Sadducees, the leaven that was attributed to them was skepticism, or rationalism or in essence a denial of the supernatural. This is the backbone of today’s evolutionists.
Then there was the leaven of Herod. This is the debasing or lowering oneself to the sensual. This leaven removes man from God and brings him closer the lusts and desires of the world. In essence it is about greed and power based on how much I can get while I have the ability to get.
Even the Apostle Paul warns about leaven and how we are to cast it out of our live.
1 Corinthians 5:6 – 8
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
With all that the Bible has to say about Leaven or Yeast as a negative and destructive object, how can a person view this parable as a positive aspect for the growth of the Church or the growth of the Gospel? Leaven is always associated with Sin and corruption.
Who or what is the woman in this parable and what are we to understand about her?
As with most of the teachings of this parable the Woman and the meal are generally overlooked as most have focused on the leaven as a positive aspect.
When it comes to the use of a woman in the Bible as a descriptor, she is used symbolically in three ways;
Isaiah 47:5
5“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For you shall no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms.
Jeremiah 6:2
2I have likened the daughter of Zion To a lovely and delicate woman.
Galatians 4:21 - 26
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
If we keep the understanding that Jesus was looking at these parables as a growth through the ages and if Jesus was indicating with the Leaven that it is a negative aspect of things than the woman here must also have some negative association as far as the growth or the spread of the Gospel goes.
Revelation 2:20
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
The Woman in this parable represents none other than the false Church. We will discover why she represents the false church in just a moment.
Before we move on to discovering how we know she represents the false church, let’s take a quick a look at what she is doing.
As with the other parables and like this one, many expositors have picked the parables apart and used just a portion of the parable to expound a point, to often to a false interpretation. Some expositors have said the three portions of meal represent the evil, sinful and depraved nature of mankind, while others take the same passage and say that it points Faith, hope and Love that is to be spread throughout all mankind.
Others have said the three meals refers to the three elements of human life, Body, Soul and Spirit or even the race as descended from the three sons of Noah.
Remember the purpose of the parables is to ultimately confuse or confound or reveal and that when Jesus spoke He did not use language in which people could not easily understand if they simply chose to listen to what He was saying. It may be a little harder for us today simply because we need to place ourselves back in the timeframe of the message.
So when Jesus spoke of three meals, he was not speaking is some figurative language or used words that people of the day could not understand.
The first time that we come across the phrase,”Three measures of meal” is back in Genesis 18:6
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.
Here is the basis for this portion of the parable, but what does the “three measures” indicate?
Ezekiel 45:10-11
10 You must have honest scales and honest dry and liquid measures. 11 The dry and liquid measures must always be the same: The Ephah and the bath should hold the same as one-tenth of a homer. The homer must be the standard measure.
A measure is equal to about three-tenths or 1/3 of an Ephah. So when Jesus was talking about using three measures He was referring to a full measure. This is the same amount that Gideon gives to the Angel of the Lord in Judges 6:19.
In the places where this Ephah of flour is mentioned it is always mentioned to be mixed with oil only as it is done in connection with a meal that is being served unto the Lord. This is about communion with God.
As I mentioned at the beginning, this parable was about three components and one very interesting word. It is this word that gives us indication that this parable is not about the growth of the True church or even the growth of the gospel, but of the spread of a false gospel.
This is a message that contains 23 words and the activity right in the middle of it is lies the answer to what is going on.
The Woman, the false church is taking and HIDING a corruptible message that puffs up the hearer. It says that we are better than what we really are. It says that we can live our lives anyway we want and still have communion with God. In reality, the leaven that is introduced does not do anything to build up the relationship with God; it in fact destroys the bond.
The Gospel is not HIDDEN but EXPOSED for all that want to see can see. The true gospel does anything but puff up the individual. The truth of the gospel is that we are sinners destined for destruction and eternal separation from God, but we can have reconciliation with God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. I urge you today; don’t let the leaven of the world take you away from God.