An exasperated Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 16:11, "How could you fail to perceive that I was not speaking about bread?"
Jesus had just told them to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the disciples thought Jesus said that because they forgot to bring bread with them.
Prior to that the Pharisees and Sadducees had asked Jesus for a sign.
Prior to that Jesus had just miraculously fed 4,000 people seven loaves of bread and a few fish. And not long before that Jesus had miraculously fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish.
It reminds me of Monty Python's film "Life of Brian." Brian is a Jewish peasant born at the same time as Jesus. Brian and his friends are present at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, but they are in the back and can't hear very well. When Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers," they misunderstand it as "blessed are the cheese makers." To which an aristocratic bystander interjects, "It's not meant to be taken literally but rather to refer to all manufacturers of dairy products." [Insert Jesus face-palm here]
Probably what happens to the disciples in Matthew 16 is a classic case of overthinking and trying to be too profound, and yet missing the point entirely. They had been wrong before, Jesus has had to correct them and spell things out for them. This time the disciples want to figure it out all on their own, but in the process fumble yet again.
Keeping in mind that the disciples grow and develop in faith throughout the gospel stories, and keeping in mind that the four gospels we have today were written down to help instruct new believers, what would it mean if we read this passage in light of what it means to grow as followers of Jesus?
What if it's not about how literally or metaphorically we take the meaning of "yeast"? What if it's not about how cleverly we can put together all the pieces?
What if it's about rushing off to interpret divine things without being fully formed as disciples yet? What kind of things might we misunderstand and get wrong that are of much greater significance than bread and yeast (and cheese)?
