In the process of baking bread, leaven or yeast was added to the dough to cause it to rise. Thus, Jesus was saying that the kingdom of God had a power out of proportion to its size that caused it to permeate and influence all of society.

Jews ate unleavened bread during the celebration of the Passover to remember the circumstances under which the Israelites were delivered by the Lord from Egyptian slavery.

They left so quickly that they didn’t have time to add leaven to the bread they were baking at the time (Exodus 12:34, 39).

LUKE 13:20-21 – The kingdom of God . . . is like leaven [yeast, NIV], which a woman took and hid [mixed, NIV] in three measures of meal [a large amount of flour, NIV], till the whole was leavened [until it worked all through the dough, NIV].