Mark 8:13-21 — Spiritual Yeast Infections

Mark 8:13-21

And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.
Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying,
“Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them,
“Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”
They said to him, “Twelve.”
“And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”
And they said to him, “Seven.”
And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Comments:

In v. 15 when Jesus warned them saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod” he wasn't talking about the ingredients of physical bread, but about a realistic view of who they (the disciples) were and who he (Jesus) was.

Leaven in Scripture is almost always a negative image. Leaven was not like the commercial yeast we use today but was actually raw dough that was saved from the previous baking day and mixed in with the new dough to help it rise. It was possible to still have some of the raw dough for up to a year in that lump. So it was somewhat like our sourdough starter…passing on the corruption from batch to batch. Each year, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a time of cleaning & purification, which was both hygienically practical and spiritually necessary. Leaven indicated the presence of bacterial waste products and it caused something to appear to be more than it really was. Jesus always spoke harshly of judging by appearances and of falling into the error of hypocrisy. Here, Jesus warned the disciples about the leaven of both the Pharisees and the Herodians. What did he mean? Why is this in the Bible?

To encourage a realistic view of ourselves:

When Jesus warned his disciples to beware of “the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod” he was speaking of their corrupting influences. The Pharisees were filled with hypocrisy and the Herodian rulers were sold out in their support of the Romans and were devoid of godly convictions. Everything was about staying in power and enjoying the fruits of such privilege.

·       The leaven of the Pharisees = religious self-righteousness and hypocrisy that causes us to appear greater than we are. It also can cause us to think more highly of ourselves in relation to others. It leads to a spiritual superiority complex that looks down on the "less holy."

·       The leaven of Herod = These were the people who were overtly wicked, who exercised ungodly authority, position, and the kind of pleasures that tend to make us think we are more important and valuable than we are. Sin makes us think that we are "somebody" when really we are a miserable nobody.

Both leavens puff us up. Remember, the bread dough is puffed up by the waste product of the bacteria. Corrupt ideas and values work the same way. So what are the ideas, values, and behaviors that pervade and corrupt our own culture? Are we suffering from a spiritual yeast infection? We need the unleavened bread of confession and true faith in Christ—

the Living Bread come down from Heaven! He cleanses us from the inside out!

To encourage a realistic view of Christ:

The disciples were worried that they had only brought one loaf of bread with them (and that would have been for Jesus) so they probably thought that there would be nothing for themselves. Ironically they worried about bread while in the very presence of the Bread of Life. They were worried about procuring their next meal while in the company of the One who had just fed 5000 and 4000 people with nothing more than a couple of barley bagels and a sardine or two.

The Pharisees and the Herodians thought too much of themselves and not enough of God. They saw the temporal more clearly than the eternal. The disciples were doing the same thing—thus, Jesus warned them of their danger.

They thought he was talking about bread—He said, "You're missing the point again!" Jesus is not dependent upon us for his next meal. Instead he provides us with our daily bread!

And for that meal I am truly and abidingly thankful!

Mark 6:14-29 — He's Back?

Mark 6:14-29
vv.14-16 Now King Herod heard of Him, for His name had become well known.
       And he said, "John the Baptist is risen from the dead, 
                                                   and therefore these powers are at work in him."
       Others said, "It is Elijah."
And others said, "It is the Prophet, or like one of the prophets."
             But when Herod heard, 
            he said, "This is John, whom I beheaded; 
                                    he has been raised from the dead!"

Panoramic view of Herodium, the ruins of Herod's hilltop palace SE of Jerusalem.
Photo by Eitan Ya'aran - Own work, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21498477

Comments:

Today, the ruins of Herodium stand witness to the ruined life of its builder. He had many opportunities to repent at the teaching of John but did not do so. He was all about entertainment but not much on humility before God. 

These three verses above are the only contemporaneous narrative in this section. Verses 17-29 are a parenthetical flashback offered by Mark as an explanation of Herod's paranoia regarding a possible return of John the Baptist.

Why would Herod have thought that Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected? 
Jesus had been teaching before John had been killed, although much of his fame came afterward. John is not reported to have performed any miracles, while Jesus did too many to count. John neither ate nor drank "normal" food nor wine, while Jesus did. John lived in the desert while Jesus ministered in the cities and towns (until the crowds became too large). So what would have made Herod think that Jesus was John raised up from the dead? 

There are three possibilities that cross my mind...

First, and most likely would be that they spoke the same message—repentance. They both urged a sincere return to God on the part of the people. I find that we don't normally think of Jesus preaching repentance, but it was, in fact, a major tenet of his teaching. 

Second, both John and Jesus enjoyed a tremendous amount of popular support and that would have been something of concern to Herod, since he was more than a little insecure about his authority over the people. The loyalty of the followers of Jesus would be tested later, however, at this time Jesus'popularity was very high.

Third, it may be that while John didn't perform miracles during his life (John 10:41), there is an explanation of Herod's statement in verse 14, "John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him." Herod might have been referring to the supernatural works he would expect someone who had returned from the dead to do, rather than what John had done during his earthly ministry. If John had been granted the miracle of resurrection, why wouldn't he also have been granted the power to do lesser miracles? In this light, it seems like a more reasonable assumption on Herod's part if it was John. But it wasn't. It was Jesus!

What if we applied this kind of thinking to the resurrected Christ? If Herod could believe that John the Baptist, having been raised from the dead would do many great miracles, why do we have trouble believing that Jesus, having been actually raised from the dead, can do miracles in our lives today?

Up from the grave, He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

(Robert Lowrey, 1874)



The Garden Tomb, Jerusalem