Leavening
This time Jesus is speaking to a crowd of people who were trampling over one another. The Greek verb describing the crowd's loud and chaotic confusional state is katapatèo, which means “to trample on until it breaks, to smash, to bang, to clash". This crowd's behaviour is the outcome of mental training based on ignorance, the fruit of a lack of order, a lack of vital procedures, direction, instructions to follow, which is leading them to trample on one another.
In this case Jesus talks only and exclusively to the disciples, to the twelve who will be called to lead the crowds, and he does so to warn them against a terrible, mortal danger. The text literally says: Keep [Greek: prosècho] yourself [greek: heautòu] from the leavening [Greek: zùme] which is the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The verb prosècho – which consists of the preposition pròs, “to, towards”, and the verb ècho, “have, keep, hold, own” – means “to direct the ship to land, to land, to disembark; to pay attention, to be careful; to follow a guide; to watch over:” the reflexive pronoun heautòu, means “oneself, one's own self, one's own person”. Jesus discloses the foundation of every wisdom and prudence: the first thing to do is to watch over, to bring one's own ship to a safe harbor. One's first attention must be for oneself. But attention to what? To the leavening, the hypocrisy leavening. Zùme, “leavening” etymologically refers to the action of stirring up, shuffling, from the Sanskrit root yus- which means “to yoke, to link”. The Greek zùme, translated with “leavening”, is more literally translated with “ferment.” Ferment, by nature, is an infinitesimal reality which is not effective when it is separated from its activating element. When it is in the presence of its element-environment, the ferment is activated and it starts to feed and be fed until it becomes part and parcel of the place where it has been triggered. What is the most dangerous ferment to men's heart?
Hupòkrisis – from the verb hupokrìnomai, “answering, acting, playing the role of, declaiming, faking” – is playing a role, acting, declaiming, it is fiction, simulation. The heart of the word is krìno, a verb meaning separation and judgement.
The most dangerous ferment for the human heart is hypocrisy, the ferment of hypocrisy. The ferment of separation within oneself, separation between what we really are and what, because of fear, ambition, power, vanity, we want to show and prove to others. That is the leavening of separation and of hypocrisy.
We do not need to be perfect and always perfectly coherent in order to avoid being deformed and degenerated by the ferment of hypocrisy, and, in fact, who of us could be perfect? It is not the leavening of perfection that can win the leavening of hypocrisy; it is not always being right and not committing any sins that frees us from the leavening of inner separation. Is there anyone who could possibly be perfect and perfectly coherent within himself? The fact that it is not perfect coherence that saves us from the hypocrisy of the leavening was expressed by Paul of Tarsus, a holy man full of the Holy Spirit, who said of himself: For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want (Romans 7: 19).
It is not the perfect coherence between what we live inside and what we show outside that Jesus indicates as the way to be free from the mortal leavening of hypocrisy, but the holy-love fear of God. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. Jesus uses the words fear and be afraid, because men really let themselves be fermented by the poison of hypocrisy and inner separation because of their gigantic fear and devastating dread of other people's judgement, of losing fame and power in the eyes' of others. According to Jesus, poisonous hypocrisy does not come from weariness or are incapacity to be coherent with what we believe and what we put into practice. The fruit of spiritual ignorance and mental stupidity are, in fact, so closely linked in a cerebral synaptic embrace that only rarely can it be said "he practices what he preaches". What man or woman in human history of any order, holding just about any position, role or responsability has ever been perfectly coherent and transparently honest? The hypocrisy that Jesus invites us to avoid as poisonous leavening is the hypocrisy which is practiced as a lifestyle, as definitive choice of the soul, as a precise mental orientation chosen to guarantee popularity, to keep up one's reputation, to follow etiquette, to maintain a facade, credit, fame, honour.
Jesus insists that it is better to be afraid of God rather than of men and their judgement, and to use hypocrisy as a weapon of prestige and power. That Jesus does not mean to inspire us to be afraid of God but to be wise, respectful of His authority, is clearly explained when He says: Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows. Jesus invites as to free ourselves forever from fear, from the fear caused by vanity and ambition. He inspires us to stop being afraid, to once and for all stop fearing men, their judgement, their aknowledgement, their worldly power.