Yeast

Beware the yeast of the Pharisees...

Jesus spoke these words to the disciples as they were in the midst of their travels, talking about how hungry they were and where they might get some bread. When He said these words, they thought He was talking about actual bread, but He was talking about something else entirely. 

Yeast has exactly one function in bread: it causes it to rise. It gives it its volume, its dimension, its airiness. It gives it the texture that we expect bread to have. (And if you love bread like I do, you know what I'm talking about.) 

Without yeast, you don't really have bread; you have crackers. 

Communion has always been crackers or wafers or flatbreads; never bread like we think of it. The reason is that the Passover was always celebrated with unleavened - unyeasted - bread. Back when Israel was leaving Egypt, they were told to take what they have and to not put yeast in the bread because they would be on the move, and it wouldn't have time to sit and rise. Whatever yeast they would put in it would be wasted, and the bread would be flat anyway. No reason to worry about your yeast when you're running into freedom. 

That was the problem with the yeast of the Pharisees: it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. 

Yeast is supposed to make the bread rise, but the yeast of the Pharisees was only puffing them up. It was supposed to make the bread light and airy, but it was only giving them airs. It was supposed to give it volume, but it was only making them loud. There was more yeast in the Pharisees than bread, and it was making them so full of themselves that they didn't have room for anything else. 

And that became all they were worried about - their size, their volume, their puffiness, their airs. It was all they could think about. Something better was standing right in front of them - His name was Jesus - and they were so busy making sure their own bread was rising that they couldn't pursue the freedom He was offering. 

Let it not be so with us. 

We still celebrate this Table with crackers, not bread. We still memorialize this moment the way Jesus did - with unleavened bread. Without yeast.

Because He wants us to not be worried about the yeast, but about the freedom that lies ahead. He wants us to not be so full of ourselves that we can't pursue His freedom. He wants us to not be puffed up, but to be brought near. He wants us to not be waiting on bread to rise, but accepting the bread that's already broken. For us.

Beware the yeast of the Pharisees.... 

Take this and eat.