Luke 12:1-3--Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees

Luke 12:1-3
English Standard Version
​
Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees
12 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

---

This is not the only time that Jesus said this.  We know that Jesus also said this same thing to the disciples when they were in the boat after one of the miraculous feedings because they thought Jesus was talking about actual leavened bread and they had forgotten to bring any of the leftover bread with them.  No, leaven is almost always (with one important exception) a reference to sin in the Bible.  "A little leaven leavens [ruins] the whole lump."  That's just a fact that leaven/yeast works its way through the entire lump of dough and you only put a little bit of yeast into the dough to make bread because the yeast will multiply and spread throughout the whole lump.  You must be careful to not get any yeast in the dough if you want to make unleavened bread.

That's the way it is with sin.  We like to think that we'll be okay because we only sinned a little bit, but if you're trying to make unleavened bread, even a little yeast in the dough is going to ruin it, and you can't go in and just try to take the leavened part out once it's in there.  You can't see it anymore and it's just part of the dough.  You have to throw all the contaminated dough away and start over.  Jesus' crowd understood this very well because they were required to celebrate The Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover every year where they had to rid their houses of all their leaven and then make enough unleavened bread to last the entire Feast and then some.  They were not to have any leaven in their house during this time so that the unleavened bread would not be contaminated?  Why is that so important?  We'll see later at the Last Supper what the unleavened bread was to point forward to and why it was important to make sure that this unleavened bread was not spoiled by any trace or taint of leaven that models our sin.

So, now that we understand that background, the hypocrisy and ideology of the Pharisees is being compared to leaven that would ruin a good lump of dough and make it unacceptable to be offered to the LORD.  They thought they were holy and righteous, and clean, but Jesus is saying they are not only unholy, unrighteous and unclean themselves, but they cause others to become unholy, unrighteous and unclean before God.  People would be shocked and astounded and probably wouldn't know how to reply to that.

​Remember how I said once the leaven was mixed in with the dough you can't see it any more, but you'd know that it was there if it's baked in the oven because the leaven reacts with the heat and it makes the bread rise.  So then in the end everything that is hidden will be revealed.  You may fool people in that a lump of leavened dough may look just like a lump of unleavened dough until tested by the fire of the oven, but at the time when chemistry happens because of the added heat, leavened bread and unleavened bread look and act very different and everyone knows the difference between the fluffy leavened bread that we eat most of the time with dinner and the flat "cracker-like" bread that we eat with Communion, Eucharist, or during Passover (if you have had matzo like in matzo ball soup, that is unleavened bread like I'm talking about).  There will be no hiding of our sin and sin nature in the final judgment.  Not only will God be able to see it (He always has been able to see it), but everyone else will see it to.  These "holier than thou" Pharisees would be exposed for the degenerate, sinful, rebellious people they were.

Jesus said everything that was said and done in the dark (that is in secret) would be revealed in the light (that is exposed for all to see and hear), and all the things whispered in the corner of the room will be proclaimed from the housetops.  That's a little scary for all of us who commit sins that we think are secret and we imagine no one knows about (especially something like gossip which I think is what is being referenced here, and I admit that I'm guilty of that one), but I also know that Jesus paid it all and that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  I don't continue to sin because the Holy Spirit is working to make me more and more like Jesus so that my thoughts are more and more His thoughts and my actions are more and more His actions (though never perfectly, but that is what sanctification is), but I do not intentionally try to abuse grace and use it as a license to sin.  If I do that, I neither understand sin nor grace.  The apostle Paul talks about that issue in the book of Romans, which I believe we've already studied together.

So then, let's sum up.  Jesus has had some pretty strong words to say to the Pharisees recently and has been fairly confrontational with them.  They are now at the point where they want to entrap Him at every opportunity, though not yet quite at the point where they want to kill Him yet--though that's coming very quickly.  Jesus then turns to the disciples and the crowd and warns them not to follow after the example of the Pharisees because they are not right before God and they will lead the people to the same judgment that the Pharisees themselves face, and Jesus uses the example of leaven to make a point that no matter how little leaven may be in the lump of dough, the whole lump is bad and has to be thrown out.  There is no such thing as a  little bit of sin that God can overlook.  If the goal is unleavened bread, a little leaven ruins the whole lump.  What is wrong with the Pharisees?  It is that they imagine that they can make themselves righteous before God by their good works.  You can add more good dough to the batch that has a little leaven in it and the leaven will corrupt that good dough too.  There is no way adding more good works to your bad works makes you a good person.  It doesn't work that way.  This was a lie that the Pharisees told to many people and that many still believe to this day, that somehow the Law was about doing things to earn and keep a right standing before God.  That's never what it was about.  The Law was to expose that we were not right before God and that we needed to cry out to God for Him to make us clean, because there was no way we could make ourselves clean.  We needed to realize we were the lump of leavened bread and that the solution was for God to remove our sinful hearts and give us a new heart that was clean--to take away our broken and corrupt spirit and give us His Spirit.  We read more about that in the Epistles.  Have you asked God to do that for you by faith?  Let's take a second to look at David's prayer in Psalm 51 as a model that you can pray to the LORD right now if you'd like to ask God for this.  (Note:  Zion that is mentioned here is Jerusalem, but it's also the people of God, not just the Jews, but all who come to God by faith with this kind of confession):


Psalm 51
English Standard Version

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
51 Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!

3 For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
    build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
    in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.