Beware the Leaven of the pharisees

We finished up the Gospel of Mark as a church, and being the shortest gospel of the four, the communication is concise and to the point. In Mark 8, we find Jesus feeding the 4,000, amazingly, miraculously, and compassionately. Jesus was legitimately worried about their well-being, especially after following him for three days, and he cared for their safety. He knew their hunger, because Jesus himself was likely hungry!

With just seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, not only was the crowd satisfied, but there were also to-go containers needed. And yes, Jesus could have stopped here. He could have moved on, feeling great about helping those in need, continuing to give out food abundantly, drawing an even bigger crowd, amassing a bigger following. But Jesus has a way to giving spiritual food after giving physical food.

Right after feeding the 4,000, Jesus starts getting peppered by the Pharisees, and they were demanding a sign from him (Mark 8:11) to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, or at least from God. As if feeding 4,000 people with a single families worth of food wasn’t enough, the Pharisees felt testing Jesus was the best solution to their doubts. After leaving the Pharisees, Jesus gave them strict orders: “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (Mark 8:15)

Now, leaven, or yeast, this is what makes bread rise before cooking. Bad yeast, at its worst, can cause serious illness, while at best, causes the bread to not rise or cook properly. Proper yeast is essential to good, risen bread. Good yeast brings bread to life, makes it edible and delicious, soft and tasty. Jesus is suggesting, then, that the “yeast”, the heart, soul and motives of the Pharisees, is bad. The yeast that is inside of them, prompting their decisions and their motives, the disciples should be wary of.

It was clear that the motives and the heart of the Pharisees and of Herod were not pure. Their “yeast” was envy, rivalry, greed, power. Nothing Jesus stood for. This is something the disciples had trouble understanding, at least at first. But this is something so applicable in our day, because we can get so caught up in things that don’t matter to God. Greed, jealously, the next big thing, money, you name it.

So the question is, what yeast are you filling yourself with? Is it bad yeast that makes you sick? That doesn’t raise you up, that doesn’t give you life? Or is it Jesus, the eternal leaven? Are the things you consume, do they give you life and raise your soul, allowing you to outflow goodness to other people? Because let me tell you, it’s entirely too easy in our day to fill up on yeast that leaves us flat, undesirable, and sickly. Instead, we should fill up on Christ. He is our motivation from the heart, and we should allow him to fill us with his Spirit, which is our ultimate leaven.

The neat thing about yeast, is it multiplies. If you’ve ever cooked bread, the yeast packet is itty-bitty. Tiny. One small packet can make dozens of loaves. This is the same in our lives. We might think a little bit of sin, a little bit of opposition to Jesus, doesn’t affect us too much. But it multiplies. The same thing happens when we allow the Spirit to fill us. With a little bit of obedience, faith and trust, God will multiply so it fills us, and lifts us up completley filling our soul.

So, as you go through this week, fill yourself with the leaven from God. Take the little wins each day, because God will use those, and multiply the yeast inside you. Prayer, Scripture, meditation, silence, community, God will use it all!