Matthew 13:33: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.

We noted in the sermon that leaven often represents something dangerous, poisonous, evil, contemptible, unclean, abominable. Leaven was not allowed on the altar of God, and leaven was removed from Israelite’s houses at the beginning of each year. Jesus warns His disciples about the “leaven” of the scribes and Pharisees, their teaching, while the Jews consider Jesus a dangerous “leaven,” corrupting and bringing uncleanness by His association with tax collectors and sinners. He threatens to spoil the lump of Israel .

Though the image of leaven includes this element, it’s important to see that the ultimate result of the leavening process is a lump of dough ready for baking. The result of this “corruption” of the ground wheat of Israel is bread for the world.

Bread-baking is a metaphor for the Christian life. God inserts leaven into us, a leaven that turns our world upside down. As His influence permeates us, we grow into a lump of dough. But we become bread only when the Lord turns up the heat, only when He places us in the oven. We are food for others only when we have suffered affliction.

We don’t like to go into the oven; it’s hot and uncomfortable and painful, and we want to stay away. If we’re going to end up in the oven, we’d prefer not to be leavened at all.

But this is the way of the disciple. The bread which we break is the body of Christ. Jesus becomes bread for the world by going through the furnace of affliction on the cross. Jesus becomes food by suffering. And so do we.

If we are at this table, we should be expecting to be leavened. And if we’re leavened, we should expect to be put into an oven, a furnace of affliction that will, in union with Christ, bake us into bread for the world.