“Dangerous Leaven”

Matthew 16: 6: “And Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’” What was the leaven of the Pharisees? While Jesus compared leaven with the Kingdom of God (Matthew 13: 33), St. Paul compares it with pride, which causes our attitudes about ourselves to be puffed up like a rising loaf of bread. That the Pharisees were guilty of this is without doubt; it was not an accident that Jesus later concluded another time of warning His disciples against them with the words, ‘Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.’ (Mathew 23: 12) It was the Pharisees’ self-centered teaching that was leading the nation astray; how much teaching in the contemporary Church follows their “Lord, serve me” approach?