Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁵³ When he spoke this way to them, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees began to hound him, and to stop his mouth with many questions, ⁵⁴ laying wait for him, and attempting to catch something out of his mouth that they could use to accuse him.

The leaven of the Pharisees. Christ strengthens his disciples against persecution, and warns them to beware of covetousness by the similitude of a certain rich man. He does not want them to hang upon earthly things, but to watch and to be ready for his coming.

12 As there gathered together an innumerable multitude of people (insomuch that they trod on one another), he began and said to his disciples, First of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ² For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, nor hid that will not be known. ³ For whatever you have spoken in darkness, that same shall be heard in the light. And that which you have spoken in the ear, even in secret places, shall be declared even on the top of the houses.