Beware of the Yeast of the Pharisees

(But if you’re going into town, pick up some brewer’s yeast)

What does yeast represent in the western scriptures? A lot of teachers are telling people its a metaphor for sin, its evil, its yucky. Yeast isn’t any of that. Jesus didn’t say beware of yeast, he said beware of the yeast of the Pharisees. Thats a specific function of yeast. Its the yeast that has been mixed with bread dough. What yeast does in bread is feed on the starch and sugar and gives off a gas in a reaction called fermentation (it could be called worse). The dough seems to increase in volume, but is the same amount of substance puffed up with . . . ferm. This is the yeast of the Pharisees. They filled themselves with pride and performed instead of serving.

Thats not the function of yeast when it is used to make wine. It consumes sugar, this time turning it into alcohol. The wine does not increase in volume, it increases in strength. In fact, everytime the wine is poured off the dregs into another bottle, the volume decreases, but the quality increases. This is the yeast of Jesus. He was as zealous to display the power of God as he was disinterested in adding stale air to the flesh. The unleavened bread that came down from heaven, was an example of a quiet life without self-exaltation or self-service. Finer than the wine served at the feast of Cana, the servant who made the wine from water was an example of a life exploding with spiritual power.

Yeast is neither good nor evil. Yeast is just an agent of multiplication. What it multiplies depends on where you put it. You can seek to increase the material substance, or you can increase spiritual power. Either way, remember that a little goes a long way.

Examples of Bakers Yeast

• The desire to be established, secure, accepted.
• Excessive use of the words, "I, Me and Mine".
• Using contributions as a tax deduction.
• Any displays of whining, complaining or worrying.
• You always ask the question, "What’s in it for me?".

Examples of Brewers Yeast

• The desire to stretch out, explore the unknown, be spontaneous.
• Whatever you own doesn’t own you.
• Another’s happiness always comes before Your’s Truly.
• As you walk through peoples lives you leave them energized.
• You only ask the question, "How can I help?"

Learning to make wine was an excellent help toward understanding spiritual maturity. I discovered, for example, why I was struggling to get free of my personal "dregs". What are dregs? In wine making it is the fine residue of the "flesh" of the grape. Being heavier than the liquid, it eventually settles to the bottom. The bottle must be blissfully still if the flesh is going to separate from the spirit(s). Then the tilters (Jer. 48: 11,12) or wanderers in the KJV, will gently pour the wine off of the dregs and into a new bottle. The old bottle, complete with dregs is broken so it won’t be used again.

Hold on, I said to myself... That’s not the way I’ve been dealing with my residual flesh. I’ve been trying to throw the dregs off. I’ve focused on getting rid of my bitterness, but only succeeded in stirring it up and ruining the whole bottle. I would only become a "fine vintage" by focusing on the flow of the spirit and transfering the clarity of spirit into a new creature. Gravity will do the work of separating (merismos in the Greek) flesh from spirit without my involvement. I effortlessly rise above the more dense expressions of life by focusing on the higher self and its attributes of lightness and spiritual strength. But there must be something we are required to do in all this. Yes. You have to realize that once you envision a higher expression of love and seek to become it, you have to smash the old bottle and move into a new one. Forsaking the dregs is not enough. Hanging on to the person I am trying to divorce has been my tallest obstacle in this process.

Let’s say you have a personality that is prone to outbursts of anger and other expressions of violence. The outbursts themselves are the dregs. The impetus to rise above such violence is the pure wine. The ego who is having the outbursts would be the bottle. As long as I am deceived into thinking I am an angry man who needs to control his rage, I will not rise above it. But if, in addition to throwing out the behavior I also fling the angry man against the wall, then I am separating my self from the dregs and the container. I am not an angry man. I am pure spirit which is pure love. I keep my eye fixed on the perfect expression of love that is my true identity and nature. One day I will look around me and discover that I am in a new personality while the old man and his bitter taste are not even a memory.

Now, this new vintage requires even more sensitive handling. The dregs are fewer and finer, but they will fall to the bottom after a long, long time on the shelf. Then we will repeat the process and gently tilt that bottle and pour ourselves into yet another container, and so on until there is nothing of the mortal man left. This is a vintage of the highest value. I have to determine in myself - Am I willing to sacrifice, not only what I am, but who I am as well, to drink of the smooth flavor and sweet aroma of pure spiritual being.