Rise!

Luke 12:1-12
by Brian Knitter

Today’s passage is all about yeast. Yeast changes things. You can think of
yeast as a bug that eats all the sweetness of the sugar and yields a whole lot of gas.
It’s no wonder that Jesus compared the Pharisees to yeast.

Jesus was surrounded by a crowd that was so large, they were stepping on
each other: quite a gathering! Jesus could have addressed the crowd, but He
decided to talk to His disciples first about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He
warned them: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” What
He was really saying was: “Don’t buy into what they are saying. Their words may
say something, but their actions will do something else. Eventually, they will be
known by the ‘bread’ they produce.”

So why call hypocrisy leaven (yeast)? Well, a little leaven is all it takes to
make bread rise. If we want to make flat bread, it can’t have any leaven in it. A little
leaven spreads throughout the dough, making the bread rise many times over. You
can easily see if there was leaven in the dough by the outcome of the bread! Our
lives are much the same. Our actions show our true nature. It didn’t take long for the
Pharisees to show theirs.

Jesus then went on to say some (mostly) positive words to the disciples —
words that they would soon need to hear. He told them not to fear men, but be
bold in God’s Word. Do not worry what to say, because the Holy Spirit will instruct
you at the very moment you need the words. Relax, you can go and preach the
Good News knowing that God will take care of you! This, as the disciples soon
found out, did not mean that they wouldn’t suffer, even die, for the sake of the
Gospel. Jesus did tell them not to worry, because they could only be killed once.
This may not sound positive, but there is eternal life with God after an earthly death
for those who believe. All in all, it’s not a bad deal! You can find hope even in the
face of death.

I think Jesus knew what he was doing when he addressed the disciples first.
He was spreading his own kind of leaven. A little bit of Good News can go a long
way as well. Once this good leaven got into the hearts of the disciples, the bread of
the Good News began to rise. Jesus spoke to 12. Billions have read what He said
through what some of the disciples wrote down in the Gospel. Now it’s in your
hearts and minds as well because you just read it. The Good leaven is spreading!
Continue to spread it.