Matthew 16:5-12
Little faith forgets the King's provision and misses His warning against false teaching.
5 The disciples came to the other side and had forgotten to take bread.
6 Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They reasoned among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”
8 Jesus, perceiving it, said, “Why do you reason among yourselves, you of little faith, ‘because you have brought no bread?’
9 Don’t you yet perceive, neither remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?
10 Nor the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?
11 How is it that you don’t perceive that I didn’t speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
12 Then they understood that he didn’t tell them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Little faith forgets the King's provision and misses his warning against false teaching.
Matthew shows Jesus warning his disciples against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees while exposing their anxious forgetfulness after his repeated provision of bread.
Yeast was a familiar household image from bread-making and could function metaphorically for a small influence that permeates a larger whole. Pharisees and Sadducees differed in many convictions, but Matthew highlights their shared opposition to Jesus and the danger of their teaching for the disciples.
The Confession of the Christ, the Church Christ Builds, and the Cross-Shaped Way of Discipleship
Jesus is the Messiah and Son of the living God who builds his church through the path of suffering, death, and resurrection, and all who follow him must embrace cross-shaped discipleship in light of his coming glory.