Then Jesus left them, got back into the boat, and went to the other side. Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. And Jesus ordered them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod/Sadducees!” So they began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “Is it because we brought no bread.” When Jesus learned of this, he said, “You who have such little faith! Why are you arguing among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand?
Have your hearts been hardened? Though you have eyes, don’t you see? And though you have ears, can’t you hear? Don’t you remember? “When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?” They replied, “Twelve.” When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?” They replied, “Seven.”
Then he said to them, “Do you still not understand? How could you not understand that I was not speaking to you about bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!” Then they understood that he had not told them to be on guard against the yeast in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
“They they understood.” Ah hah! I love the disciples. They are so ordinary. Peter: “Guys, we forgot the bread. Again.” John: “It’s fine. I have some crumbs in my pocket he can multiply.” Andrew: “I was responsible for bread last time. This is on Thomas.” James: “I wonder if we should have brought unleavened bread if it's a yeast issue.”
Thank you, gospel writers, for giving us all permission to be ordinary. If this is where the bar is for following Jesus, I can clear it, and so can you. And if Jesus can put up with those kind of disciples, so can we.
Now, to the yeast.
* * * * *
Pharisees and Sadducees emerged when the Jews left their exile in Babylon. The Essenes and Zealots popped up later, but the Pharisees and Sadducees were the two main parties. Think Republicans and Democrats, but there is still the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, etc. There were key differences.
Pharisees dominated the synagogue (spiritual community center), Sadducees the temple (rituals of worship).
Pharisees acknowledged all the books we know as the Old Testament; the Sadducees highly favored the books of Moses (the Law) and basically ignored the prophets.
Pharisees acknowledged an oral tradition passed down by the rabbis; Sadducees rejected the oral tradition.[1]
The Pharisees believed in the supernatural; the Sadducees didn’t.
Pharisees were the party of the people; the Sadducees of the elite.
The Pharisees kept Rome away; the Sadducees collaborated.
The “yeast of the Pharisees” and the “yeast of Herod/Sadducees” is different. In fact, they are so different they are each going to get our focus for a week. This week, let’s look at the Pharisees.
When Jesus called out the Pharisees, their hypocrisy was a common theme.[2] Here’s just a sample:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” (Matt. 23:23-24)
“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” (Mark 7:6-7)
Notice that Jesus wasn’t calling out the yeast of Plato, or Simon the Sorcerer. I think he expected people to see that for what it was. Magic is bad. Rome’s Pax Romana (peace by the sword) is not a Kingdom value any more than the very immoral culture surrounding Roman temple worship. He’s calling out the ones who are supposed to be safeguarding truth and righteousness who had become “the blind leading the blind.” (Matthew 15:14)
These are the kinds of verses that keep me up at night.
Since people are the same everywhere, Jesus would call out the same thing in some of us that he called out in them. So, here we are J
I went online to see what people were saying about modern-day Pharisees. And let me tell you – people have a LOT to say about Pharisees. I was a little worried that if I come up with the list on my own, you might be thinking, “That felt really personal!” and wonder if I was crafting my sermon around you! Heads up: I hope it feels as personal to you as it did to me. So, let me welcome you to my holy discomfort.
1. Pharisees Are All Talk And No Action
Jesus said the following concerning the Pharisees:
“So do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger” (Matt 23:3-4).
We know how this works.
The environmentalists who flies a private plane everywhere and leave a huge carbon footprint with their mansions.
The free speech advocate who practices “cancel culture” with those who disagree.
The person with the co-exist bumper sticker who attacks those who disagree with them on particular issues.
The politician who campaigns on family values while having a year’s long affair or getting kicked out of a theater for public make-out session with someone not their spouse.[3]
The new face of the fight against the sexual exploitation of children who is revealed to have sexually exploited the women who helped him do undercover stings.[4]
The Pharisees talked a good game, but they were not the real deal. They were all talk. This creates such cynicism and distrust in those around them. If they can’t or don’t live up to their own words, why should we? Either they are lying or they don’t care enough for it to change their lives.
Being all talk and no actions is why…
2. Pharisees Major in the Minors
For the Pharisees, everything was a big deal except the things that really matter. They tithed herbs meticulously while ignoring justice and mercy. It’s so much easier to look good in minor things than it is in major things. Shockingly, the major things are harder J If we look at that too much, we might have to address weakness, flaws, and even sinful failure. And that will not be okay to a Pharisee.
I’m not quite sure what our modern equivalents are to tithing mint. All I know is that Pharisees make light things weighty and weighty things light. It’s like a football team spending all its time nailing down the color scheme on the uniform while neglecting working out.
You’ve spent years finding a version of the Bible and put it on a hill on which you will die while your family lives with your toxic attitude.
You start every day reading Our Daily Bread before going to work and mistreating your employees.
You never swear, so your constant gossip is PG.
You tithe 10% while the love of money overpowers the kind of generosity you could be showing with what God has given you.
It’s not that the minors are bad. But Majoring on the Minors lets you keep a tally of how good you are doing while avoiding the rottenness in your heart. It makes it easy to do the following…
3. Pharisees Care More About Looking Good Than Being Good
They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad (they carry more Scripture with them!) and their fringes long (they really remember the law!) and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. (Matt 23:5-8).
I’ve been in many different churches, and these phylacteries and fringes seem to creep in everywhere.
The size of a head covering.
The wornness and amount of highlighting in your Bible.
How you dressed on a Sunday to honor God.
How much of the Bible you had memorized.
How expressively you worshipped.
What gift of the Holy Spirit you appeared to have.
How impressively you could pray.
It’s not that the things on the list are bad things. It’s that you could look good in all these areas and not be a good person. Your Bible can be falling apart from use, you can dress to the 9s, you can the entirety Scripture committed to memory, you can dance without fear, you can speak with the tongue of men and of angels, you can pray as people think a mighty river has rolled into the room, but… if you don’t have love, if you neglect justice, mercy and faithfulness, it’s just empty show.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matt 23:25-28)
Jesus is talking about integrity: the integration of our exterior and interior lives; the alignment of our heart and hands. We should be what we do. Since what looks good is so important to a Pharisee…
4. Pharisees convince themselves they don’t have any “serious” sin to repent of.
“The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector’.” (Luke 18:11)[5]
Pharisees have a reputation and status to maintain. Acknowledging sin issues would involve vulnerability and weakness, neither of which a Pharisee can afford to have. Repentance is for broken, unhealthy people, not for them. If they have to put on a facade of repentance to look good to others, they usually talk about things in the past, but never in the present. All their struggles are apparently behind them.
Once Pharisees have convinced themselves that they are not part of sick who need the Great Physician, they will be full of disdain and lack empathy for those around us who are struggling.“What is their problem? Why can’t they be as spiritually mature as I am?”
This is why…
5. If someone tries to correct Pharisees or point out flaws, they get angry and offended.Pharisees see any rebuke as a personal attack and circle the wagons. Pharisees will always have an excuse. It’s never their fault. They were pushed into some corner, or somebody pushed their buttons. They lack the self-awareness to see themselves as others see them; even if they did, they lack the humility to take it seriously. They will always turn the interrogation spotlight on others and never let the light that others shine on them do the work it’s meant to do. This is why…
6. A Pharisee’s friends primarily look, act and think alike.
Pharisees are exclusive. This makes sense, since everyone else is far less righteous and much more sick. These less righteous people might even be openly repenting – in front of others, mind you - and asking God to search their hearts. Pharisees are really uncomfortable when they are around people who practice true honesty or humility, because who knows where that might lead?
If there are conversations about sin and its impact in the world and the importance of the transformation that happens on the other side of repentance, it’s always going to be about others who are ruining the church or our culture.
If Pharisees have a small group that does a book study, and they have to choose between one in which ‘judgment begins in the house of God’ vs. one in which looks to call down fiery judgment on the Samaritans around us, it will always be about the Samaritans.
The danger is always “out there” in another group. It’s never in their circle, and certainly not in them. Because they need their circles to be homogenous and safe…
7. Pharisees believe church outsiders should conform to a certain lifestyle before they are accepted as “Christian.” They can’t be “part of the group,” unless they meet your criterion: “Stop the drinking and smoking, don’t wear that Deadpool t-shirt to church (#trueevent), and those sleeve tats are making me nervous.” Pharisees insist that people follow their way of doing things. Fellowship with a Pharisee will always be on a Pharisee’s terms. Maybe another way of saying it is this: You might be a Pharisee if you can’t accept those God accepts, on God’s terms.
So what’s the cure?[6]
Honesty
Practice self-evaluation.
1. “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
2. 1 Corinthians 11 tells us to examine ourselves before we share communion: “If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged by God.” (27-32)
Embrace trustworthy feedback. "To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction." (Proverbs 12:1)
See ourselves as God sees us: image bearers in need of a Savior.
1. “And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Colossians 3:10)
2. “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:49)
Live Transparent Lives. Without a willingness to be transparent, we cannot bear each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2); comfort one another (2 Corinthians 1:4-7); encourage each other (1 Thessalonians 5:11); forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32); care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:25); nor weep or rejoice with each other (Romans 12:15).[7]
Humility
Charles Spurgeon once said,
“If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few darker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.”
This doesn’t mean we beat ourselves up constantly. Self-loathing is not a fruit of the Spirit. This doesn’t mean we should think more lowly of ourselves than we should, but we shouldn’t think more highly of ourselves than we should. We could simultaneously be worse than other people know, and more glorious than they realize. Humility simply means we are to do an honest assessment of both.
Repent.
“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Luke 3:8)
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” (Revelation 2:5)
“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19)
Repentance involves turning around, going the opposite direction. It’s not just words; it’s a heart change demonstrated by a life change.
Ask forgiveness.
“If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24)
Aaron Lewis and Willie Nelson have a song called “Sinner.” One of the verses goes like this: My eyes are open; now I can see all of the damage brought on by me.” That’s why we ask forgiveness. We have done damage. We want others to know that we see what we have done and how it has landed on them, and we want to make it right if we can. In asking forgiveness, we validate the dignity and value of those we have wronged. They are not just something to damaged and forgotten – they are imago dei, and one does not vandalize that which bears the image of God. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are temples of the Holy Spirit, and one does not simply vandalize a temple and act as if nothing is wrong.
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[1] Interestingly, this makes the Sadducees theologically conservative (safeguarding the foundation and being very skeptical of anything new) and the Pharisees theologically progressive in their time.
[2] Because the Pharisees were so highly respected, Jesus labeling them “whitewashed tombs” (Matt. 23:27-28) would have gotten people’s attention.
[3] True stories breaking this past week L
[4] The man whose story was told in Sound of Freedom left O.U.R. under the cloud of 7 women accusing him of sexual exploitation while on undercover operations. His former organization has released this statement. "Tim Ballard resigned from O.U.R. on June 22, 2023… O.U.R. is dedicated to combatting sexual abuse, and does not tolerate sexual harassment or discrimination by anyone in its organization.”
[5] E. Stanley Jones notes, “The measure of my spirit of criticism is the measure of my distance from Christ.”
[6] I got the lists of the problems and the cures from these websites: https://godtv.com/6-signs-modern-day-pharisee/, also https://firstcenturyfaithtoday.com/pharisees-5-signs/, as well as https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/warning-signs-of-a-pharisaical-heart.html, and https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/02/15/6-signs-that-you-might-be-a-pharisee/, oh and https://www.christianpost.com/news/5-signs-you-are-becoming-a-pharisee.html. Oh, and don’t forget https://outreachmagazine.com/features/22092-modern-day-pharisee.html
[7] Thanks for that handy list, smallgroups.com. https://www.smallgroups.com/articles/2010/benefits-of-transparency.html#:~:text=Without%20a%20willingness%20to%20be,(Romans%2012%3A15)