Leaven

…can we really be limited to interpreting the images of the mustard seed and the leaven as having the same meaning?

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.4 - The Parables of Jesus, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Matthew 13: 33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

This parable follows immediately after the parable of the mustard seed.  Metropolitan Hilarion sees similarities in the two parables: the tiniest seed and microscopic leaven, each producing something far more significant than what might appear possible given the starting point. 

These two parables are often interpreted together.  For example, John Chrysostom sees in the seed the great power that was hidden in the disciples, and in the leaven, the ability for the disciples to convert the whole world.

Metropolitan Hilarion is considering that there are differences, and these differences are meaningful.  He begins by examining leaven: yes, microscopic, but enough to make the entire loaf rise.  There was a significant religious context as well: during the week of Passover, there was a prohibition of eating anything that was leavened.

In fact, all leaven was to be put away, out of the house – a purging of leaven.  Perhaps a symbol of renewal, but the destruction of the old leaven.  The apostle Paul wrote of this:

1 Corinthians 5:  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.

Jesus touches on the same theme:

Matthew 16: 5 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”

7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”

8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? 9 Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 10 Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?

11 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The leaven spread throughout the entire teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and this, then, spread throughout the people.

This same idea of the effect of leaven is in the current parable, but in a positive form – as a description of the kingdom of heaven.  The men understood this idea of bread baked with leaven, every time they came home.  The women understood it, having baked the same bread.  They all could understand how a little leaven effects the entire loaf. 

The differences in the parables, and, therefore, the different meanings, come into view.  The seed and the leaven are used in different ways and perform different functions.  The seed falls to the ground and dies, giving life to the tree and its fruit.  But the ground itself does not change.  The leaven, though, changes that with which it comes in contact.

The image of the leaven seems more thematically similar to the images of the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Mt. 5: 13-14). 

Salt and light…and leaven.  Different examples demonstrating the qualitative effect of the presences of Jesus’s followers in the world.  Salt gives flavor, the candle gives light, leaven makes the loaf rise.  Jesus’s followers are to fundamentally change the world that they come in contact with.

Further, in each case, the relationship between the two elements is foreign: the candle and the room, the salt and the food, the leaven and the meal – the one effecting the other is nothing like that which it is affecting.  The candle is nothing like a room, the salt is nothing like the food, and the leaven is nothing like the meal.  Within each pairing, a qualitative difference.

Recalling the consistent reminder of Lloyd-Jones in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount: Christians are to be nothing like the non-Christians around them. 

Quoting St. Justin (Popovich):

The action of the leaven is like the action of Christ’s teaching.  Just as the leaven gradually fills up the entire loaf until it changes its taste completely, so the theanthropic teaching of the Savior gradually fills the soul, the body, and the heart of a person, until it overwhelms the smallest part of his essence.

A reminder that the leaven is not only to effect change in the world around us, but also within us.  In fact, it must begin here.

Conclusion

It must also be noted that the parable indicates a very precise quantity of flour: three measures.

One measure of flour is around thirteen liters; three measures, around forty.  It was enough flour to bake bread for over one hundred people.

We should not picture a loaf of bread for dinner, but a large amount of bread for a feast with many guests present.

For example, a wedding feast!