Introduction: This passage/verse may seem tricky because that was doubtless the reaction of the disciples when they heard this little story. Our Lord arrested them with this story and shocked them somewhat. When he told them that there was a woman who hid leaven in three measures of meal they must immediately have thought, "What a dirty trick! What a sneaky thing to do!" Perhaps it does not strike us that way, but this is because we are not in their shoes. We do not understand the symbols as Jesus used them. So the purpose of our study together is to put ourselves back in their place and to hear this story as they heard it.
For this is one of those parables which has been greatly misinterpreted. It has been treated in a very cavalier fashion and its meaning has been grossly distorted into something entirely different from what our Lord intended. Most of the major commentators on this passage seem to throw all principles of interpretation to the winds and to take no notice of how Scripture uses these symbols in other places. So they arrive at a meaning which is simply a result of their own wishful thinking.
The usual interpretation is that the leaven is the gospel and the woman is the church. The church is to take the gospel and put it into the world of humanity which is represented by the three measures of meal. The gospel quietly but surely will work away like leaven, like yeast in bread, until all of humanity is reached by the gospel and the whole world is changed. Then, finally, the kingdom of heaven will come in. Though that is far and away the most popular interpretation of this parable, it does not line up with the complete counsel of God!
For here we are, two thousand years after the time our Lord told this story. And there are outstanding, increasingly significant signs, from day to day almost, which indicate that we are nearing the time which our Lord at the end of this series of parables called the "close of the age." If that is the correct interpretation then we should see the world almost completely leavened by the gospel, almost entirely Christian. But what are the actual facts? Well, you know as well as I that never in all of history has there been more hatred, more crime, more violence, more injustice, more wretchedness, and more vicious evil among mankind than there is in our day. Of all the centuries, historians agree, the 20th is the bloodiest. There is more persecution of Christians in the 20th century than there ever was in any other, including the 1st. The world is a hundred times more pagan today than it ever was in the days of the Apostle Paul.
But in this parable of the leaven Jesus comes nearer home than in any other parable, because he takes it from the kitchen of an ordinary home.
Why was the Kingdom of Heaven likened to the Leaven?
1. Communion with God
Jesus is using here a very common picture from any Hebrew household, and everyone present knew that he meant that this woman did an evil, and sneaky thing when she hid this leaven in the meal. So we want to look at this as they would have, with their background and their understanding of what these symbols mean.
Let's begin with the meal. It is the central thing in this story. The woman and the leaven both did something to the three measures of meal. That is what our Lord is trying to get across to us. So the central question is: "What does the meal represent?" This crowd of Jews would know instantly what he had in mind because with their Judaistic background and training in the Old Testament, their minds would flash back immediately to one of the most common offerings in Israel -- the meal offering, consisting of three measures of meal precisely prescribed to be unleavened, i.e., without any yeast in it at all.
Very likely many of them would think back to the very first time the phrase "three measures of meal" appears in the Scriptures. It is in Genesis 18. Abraham was in his tent by the oaks of Mamre one day and he looked out the door and saw three strangers approaching. He went to meet them, for strangers were an uncommon sight in those days and anyone passing by was offered hospitality. He welcomed them and offered them, according to the Scripture (Genesis 18:6-7), three measures of meal baked into bread which Sarah made in the tent while they were fellowshipping together out under the trees. During their conversation it suddenly broke upon Abraham's astonished intelligence that God himself was visiting him, accompanied by two angels. That was the beginning of the use of the three measures of meal as a symbol.
What did it mean? It is clear that it became a symbol of the fellowship of God with his people and their fellowship with one another. Meal is a beautiful picture of commonality of life. So, very early in the life of the Jewish people the three measures of meal became a picture of the people of God sharing the life and the fellowship of God. So when the Old Testament people offered the three measures of meal they were describing in beautifully picturesque language what was very precious in God's sight -- the oneness of God with his family, God with his people, the life they shared with each other under the Fatherhood of God.
Later on, in the book of Judges, when Gideon was suddenly confronted with the angel of God, he brought him an offering of three measures of unleavened meal. When Hannah, the mother of Samuel, went to worship God in the temple she took with her an offering of three measures of meal, unleavened. So this is a common symbol throughout the Old Testament and it was familiar to these Jews to whom Jesus spoke.
2. Confusion in Worship
The Bible more or less always uses a woman to describe something being wrong religiously. From OT to Revelation it is so … again, not politically correct, but God’s point is made. Another reason: in Matthew 13:33 it is done deliberately. It was no accident. It was done with malice and premeditation. She ‘took’ leaven and put it there on purpose.
It is the devil’s goal, to poison true worship and taint the hearts of believers and befoul good churches of God. He uses formalism and ritualism in many churches. I’m thankful that we can let the Spirit of God lead, even if we have to vary from our precious worship schedule. And Satan uses liberalism and many other weapons to inject poison into true worship, including the tool of distraction. Many churches simply don’t have their eye on the ball, and are being led more by our society than by the Scriptures! We need to worship in Spirit and in truth, and that means we must be on guard for what the devil will try to sneak in on us.
The woman in our text not only did what she did deliberately [the word ‘took’]., but also deceptively [the word ‘hid’]. She didn’t ‘put’ it in the meal…she ‘hid’ it in the meal. Yet another good reason to reject that the leaven is the gospel … we don’t sneak the gospel in, as many churches are trying to do.
Illustration: Don’t we sneak medicine into our kids sometimes, in juice or pudding.
No, we are up front with the gospel. The truth shall set men free! We don’t try to trick people into getting saved or gimmick them into church attendance. Jesus always encouraged people to count the cost of following Him. One man said, I’ll follow you wherever you go. Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” In other words, consider the cost of becoming my follower. He told another to let the dead bury their dead, and come and follow me … and no man putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God! Count the cost.
New evangelicalism is saying we need to entertain, water down our message, and slip in truth on them somewhere along the way after they are hooked. But we aren’t to hide the gospel, we’re to preach it. “Our job is not to make the gospel appealing, but to make the gospel available!” By the way, the first note of the gospel is not a happy note … it is that all have sinned and come up short! This is not good news … there’s no good news until you face the bad news.
3. Corruption in Worship
(a) The leaven of the Pharisees, which is legalism (Matthew 16:6). They thought He was talking about bread … but he was talking about doctrine, and theirs was legalism. They arranged their faith into a list of dos and don’ts. They made a critical mistake of outwardly conforming to the law, even though they had inward corruption.
They made life miserable for people as they went around like pious police checking up on everyone. For example, the OT spoke of being ceremonially clean before partaking of food. The Pharisees took that and embellished it to a ridiculous degree. They said, you have to wash your hands with half an eggshell of water, poured over the fingers so that it would drip down off the elbow so many times … and if you didn’t do it exactly as they described then you weren’t ceremonially clean. They loved to heap burdens on others, but they didn’t live right themselves.
I’m sorry to say that the leaven of the Pharisees is still around today. “I’m spiritual because I don’t drink, smoke, or chew, or smooch girls that do!” And you can come to church 3 times a week and be as carnal as an old goat! True spirituality doesn’t work its way from the outside in, but from the inside out! Some of God’s creatures have an exoskeleton, unlike humans who have an endoskeleton. “Lobster Christians” have been injected with the leaven of the Pharisees … they have their convictions on the outside, but they are cold, unkind, unloving, and will pinch you with their lists of rules.
Convictions are fine to have, but they should be like bones that you have on the inside. They hold you up, give you strength and support and your very shape, but still allow you to be soft, gentle, and warm on the outside!
Galatians 5:9 – “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” What is the context here? Liberty in Christ vs. legalism. And here we find a balance to aspire unto. Even though we have liberty, if we use that liberty as an excuse [occasion] to the flesh, it will go badly for us. "Just a little nudity" "Just a little drink" "It's just a little joke!" The devil tries to get us to try just a little leaven, knowing it will take over and spread like wildfire!
(b) The leaven of the Sadducees, which is just the opposite of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:11-12). The Pharisees added to the Word of God a list of over 600 rules … but the Sadducees took away from it. This was the leaven of liberalism.
They were the liberals of that day. We need to beware … and may we always stand for the fundamentals of the faith. Today it’s hell, and literal fire that are under attack, or the virgin birth, or was Jesus a phony, or is the ENTIRE Bible inspired? "Jesus never condemned homosexuality!" [heard that recently] May we never be guilty of explaining away Bible truths, or allegorizing the miracles of the Bible, or the return of Christ, or the tribulation and end of the world!
We live in a generation of churches that are putting question marks where we should put exclamation points! Pray for me that I never give in to the temptation to trim my message, and I’ll pray for you for the same. Let’s practice up on taking our stand, because it’s not going to get easier in these last days. There’s coming a day if the Lord tarries that the government will say I’m no longer allowed to preach against homosexuality. It’s already considered hate speech, and it’s happening in other countries, and it’s coming our way.
(c) The Leaven of Herod (Mark 8:15). His lifestyle was all about wealth and material possessions. And Christianity has made a major turn in recent years, and never more than the last few years, to resort to prosperity teaching, entertainment preaching and delivering a hyper-grace, humanistic social gospel of just being happy and becoming a better and better person, and letting God bless you more and more. It’s an all positive message, with no stepping on toes allowed!
They have decided to go that direction in their lives and in their churches, so they have to build doctrine and manufacture scriptural support for it. They do all kinds of hermeneutical gymnastics trying to stretch the Bible to say what they want it to say.
If God has blessed you materially, enjoy it in the right balance. God has given us richly all things to enjoy. But true spirituality recognizes the best riches God has given to them is not money and material things, but true riches that moth and rust don’t touch. The key is, do you own your possessions, or do they own you?! Do you control your finances for God’s glory, or do they control and steer you and your life? And what do you have that money can't buy and death can't take away? Those are true riches!
Some Christians would be better off if they never could have afforded that vehicle, or that boat, or that big screen, because of the way those things changed them and have stealthily crept up and taken over!
Legalism-Liberalism-Materialism … the woman hid the leaven and eventually it permeated all 3 measures of that dough! Matthew 13:33 is a parable predicting the coming day when this whole world God created will be affected by the leaven. I hope that none of us be here, the salt will be removed at the rapture before the whole world goes to leaven in the great tribulation.
Application: As individuals and as a church where do we stand when it comes to being the leaven?
Are we pursuing to build a strong communion with Jesus Christ or being lured by the leaven of legalism, liberalism and materialism? Our eternity with Christ all depends upon our relationship with Him.
