The World is Flat (Without the Kingdom)

My son Joseph and I make pancakes together almost every Sunday morning. We have fun and make a delicious breakfast for the family. My wife Mary and Sophia (our infant daughter) get to sleep until the food is on the table and the coffee is ready. Everybody wins.

I’ve been giving Joseph more and more responsibility. At first, he only flipped the pancakes. Then he started pouring the batter. Now he’s measuring the ingredients. It’s a great learning experience that doesn’t feel like school work.

One time, Joseph added just one teaspoon of baking powder instead of the five the recipe needs. It happens. Baking powder is the leaven that makes the pancakes light and fluffy. Pancake batter with only 20% of the necessary leaven made pancakes that were flat and dense.

They tasted fine with enough syrup (which can also compensate for too much salt), but they just didn’t melt in my mouth the way they normally do. I had to wrestle with them a bit.

Without Leaven

Bread without leaven isn’t something that Joseph invented. For roughly 3,400 years, God has gone to a great deal of trouble to make unleavened bread part of “the Story.” When the Israelites prepared to flee Egypt, God commanded them to eat bread without yeast for seven days (Exodus 12:15-20). God further tells them to get rid of all of the yeast in their homes, and condemns anyone who eats yeast during those seven days to be cut off from Israel. To this day, observant Jews use unleavened “matzah bread” to celebrate Passover.

One reason for using unleavened bread is evident from the circumstances. The tenth plague was about to hit Egypt and there wasn’t time for bread with yeast to rise. In the same chapter, God instructs the Israelites to eat the Passover lamb with their loins girt, their sandals on their feet, and a staff in their hands. And they weren’t supposed to dilly dally at their meal. God wanted them to eat in a hurry and burn the leftovers. This was going to be their last meal as slaves.

The tradition of unleavened bread carried forward into the New Covenant at the Last Supper. Jesus celebrated the first Eucharist on the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Roman Catholic practice still requires that the communion hosts at Mass be made of unleavened bread.

Jesus points to the deeper spiritual meaning of the leaven when He tells His Disciples, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod.” (Mark 8:15) He elaborates and explains that the leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy. (Luke 12:1) The “leaven of Herod” might refer to the King’s wickedness, licentiousness, and murderousness.

When the Israelites left Egypt, God wanted them to leave the leaven of Egypt behind. He made it a part of their annual religious observances so that the lesson will stick. The leaven of Egypt might be recognized in the idolatry, the doubt, the desire for comfort and ease, and the rebellion against Moses and God that came up repeatedly in the desert.

The Fluffy, Delicious Kingdom

God isn’t a killjoy. He doesn’t eliminate leaven entirely. He knows that light, fluffy bread is more delicious than unleavened bread. He just has a better leaven. Jesus points this out with the parable, “For the Kingdom of God is like leaven that a woman mixed with three measures of flour until the whole batch is leavened.”

The interesting thing is that bakers use three basic kinds of leaven. There’s biological leavens like yeast and sour dough, chemical leaven like baking soda and baking powder, and mechanical leaven like steam or whipping the ingredients to open up air pockets in the dough. Each kind of leaven imparts a different taste and texture to the finished baked good. When Jesus points out the competing leavens of Pharisees, Herod, and God’s Kingdom, He’s pointing to the fact that human beings must make a choice. Which kingdom will rule their lives?

Here is the key that Exodus teaches. I can only be a part of one kingdom. I can only have one kind of leaven. When making pancakes, I don’t use baking powder AND yeast. I must choose one or the other.

The leavens of the world are different today. Jesus might point to the leaven of Hollywood, with its hedonism, relativism, and occultism. Or He might point to the leaven of Silicon Valley, with its materialism, rationalism, and transhumanism. Or again, He might point to the leaven of Wall Street and its love of money, status, and luxury.

Jesus wants us to recognize that these are all types of artificial leaven that try to imitate, but can’t replace, the living leaven He offers. His kingdom is characterized by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The World is Flatbread

Astronomy tells us that the world is round, but experience tells us that the world is flat. God made it this way on purpose. He designed our world so that it would be incomplete without the leaven of the kingdom of God. Human beings have done their best to build their own kingdoms, but it just doesn’t work out the way we want. God’s leaven is essential.

The difference between matzah and challah bread reveals the need for God’s leaven in edible parables. Matzah is served on Passover, as preparation for an exodus. Challah is prepared for the Sabbath, for entering into God’s shalom peace. One is dry, brittle, and mostly tasteless (this is my experience of matzah, and I admit the possibility that somewhere in the world there might be matzah that knocks your socks off). The other is light, tender, sweet, and moist. Just the tiniest bit of leaven does this. In a regular challah recipe, you might use just one part yeast to fifty parts flour.

And this is where using living leaven makes all the difference. Joseph was working with chemical leaven, so one teaspoon of baking powder only does 1/5 of the job needed for light and fluffy pancakes. Living leaven, on the other hand, will keep reproducing within the dough and will make the bread rise if you give it enough time. The living leaven keeps working until the whole batch is leavened.

Being a father is a lot like teaching an 11-year-old boy to make pancakes. It’s a mess, especially when you are first starting out. You have lots of opportunities for failure. Too much salt, not enough leaven. Griddle too hot. Griddle too cold. Flip them too soon. Flip them too late. Lots of opportunities for victory.

Every day, God gives me another day to mix leaven into my son’s life. But what leaven am I using? Am I using enough? Am I teaching my son about the Kingdom of God or, through my actions, am I teaching him about the Kingdom of Wall Street or the Kingdom of Hollywood? Or does he see in me the kingdom of hypocrisy that Jesus so rightly despised? Do I demonstrate the righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit that is the sign of the Kingdom of God? Or does he see me angry, impatient, or disengaged?

I have to remember that God’s leaven takes time. I can’t get baking soda speed with yeast results. I have to choose. I have to wait. I have to trust. God is at work, His kingdom is present, even when I can’t see the results immediately.

God willing, one day the oven timer will go off and my son and I will taste and see that He is good.