Eternity 122 - The Parable Of The Leaven
(Darby) He spoke another parable to them: The kingdom of the heavens
is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until
it had been all leavened.
The way the term leaven is used here is highly unusual. In the OT "leaven"
was always used as a negative metaphor for contagion - particularly the
contagious nature of sin. Jesus even used it this way when He spoke about
the contagious legalism of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:6-12). Leaven was that
which was fermenting, contagious, sinister, defiling. In the Old Testament
if the clean touched the unclean - then it become unclean, but the reverse
was not also true. Sin was contagious but holiness was contained (Haggai
2:11-13). Thus the unclean could change the clean, but the clean could never
purify the unclean. Sin could work its way through a community and ruin
it, but righteousness could never spread like that. It had to be guarded
from contamination at all costs. A little leaven was dangerous and could
ruin "the whole lump".
But this is turned upside down in the Gospels where the Kingdom of the Heavens
is incorruptible and when the clean touched the unclean then purity resulted!
For instance in the OT if a priest touched a leper then he was defiled and
unable to perform his duties. However when Jesus touched a leper He was
not defiled, for He is incorruptible, rather the leper became clean. In
the OT if anyone touched a dead body, they were unclean, but when Jesus
touched a dead body, He was not defiled, rather that person rose from the
dead.
The Pharisees went to great lengths to avoid defilement, to not touch leaven,
to be pure by separation from all defiling things. But Jesus went and sought
out the most unclean and defiling people - the lepers, the woman with the
issue of blood, the prostitutes, the tax-gatherers, the Gentile soldiers
contaminated twice by race and contact with death, the Samaritan woman,
and sinners,drunkards and the gluttons. He willingly plunged into their
midst ate, with them, drank with them, healed them and called them to repentance
and transformed their lives. Jesus was never defiled, never corrupted, never
made unholy by them. They did not defile Him. Rather He transformed them!
Jesus could turn being touched by a distraught prostitute into a moment
of grace.
Leaven is all about intimate close contact. Its put right inside, its mixed
in, its hidden, its intimate in the closest way with the flour and in that
close contact, in that mixing, it leavens the whole loaf. In the OT view
where ritual purity was a very important issue intimate close contact was
spiritually dangerous "you could catch something", impurity could
"accidentally" pass along to you from a menstruating woman, a
dead body, even touching a dead lizard defiled you until evening. You had
to watch your step and not get too close to anything or anyone. But Jesus
got intimate with a sinful world, taking on the likeness of sinful flesh
and living and dying amongst sinful people. Jesus died in disgrace, executed
by Gentiles, on a cross, between two thieves and even this did not defile
and destroy Him but became our purification.
The Kingdom of God is leaven turned upside down. Its the holy transforming
the unholy - impossible by OT standards but possible with God. It means
Mother Teresa can minister to lepers and Calcutta and come out a saint.
It means you can minister among gangs and street kids and prostitutes and
remain pure. The Kingdom leaven wins. Kingdom purity is indestructible.
It means intimacy with sinners is spiritually safe. You can love a drug
addict and still be a good Christian, you can be married to an alcoholic
(though I don't recommend it) and the Holy Spirit will not desert you.
While we can minister fearlessly knowing that no food, no substance, no
person can defile us we still need to exercise some caution. Particularly
around the powerful and the respectable! The only place a Christian can
be defiled is in their own spirit. When leaven is used in its negative sense
in the NT it refers to hypocrisy (literally acting, using masks), (Luke
12:1, Matthew 16:6-132), licentiousness ( 1 Corinthians 5:6-8), and the
teaching of the Judaizers in Galatia (Galatians 5:8). These are the sins
of the spirit. They are contaminating attitudes that must be uprooted from
the Christian community. But most of these wrong attitudes are spread by
the "respectable and powerful" (Mark 8:15) not by the sinners!
The parable of the leaven says that transformational Christians do not stay
separate - but get intimate! The salt does not stay in the salt shaker (but
neither should it lose its savor)! Christians can be truly incarnational
in their ministry without fear of contamination. You can go into a bar without
losing any measure of holiness - providing you are holy in attitude. You
can be like Floyd McLung and live in the red light district of Amsterdam
and be Kingdom Leaven there. You can dwell in gay districts in Sydney or
St. Francisco and carry out AIDS ministry and Jesus will be there right
beside you. There is no reason to fear sinners.
A Pharisee being touched by a prostitute would experience extreme discomfort
and spiritual panic. But Jesus was relaxed and gave out grace not fear.
How do you react around "extreme sinners" ? Do you freeze up and
run, or can you cope with being leaven? Do you have grace and acceptance
for them or just fear and rejection? Are you confident that if you plunge
into this messy world that it will be the one transformed - and that your
spiritual purity is indestructible? Yes, you do need to guard your heart
and your teaching and stay salty, but that is no reason for rejecting people.
You can be leaven, you can get mixed up with this hurting world and change
it. For yours is the indestructibly pure and incorruptible, Kingdom of Heaven.
1 Peter 1:3-4 ASV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) unto an inheritance incorruptible,
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.