Hello,

Not long after Jesus provided food for the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44) he provided food for the four thousand (Mark 8:1-10). It is after this that the Pharisees come to test Him by asking for a sign (Mark 8:11-13). In Deuteronomy 13:1-3 and 18:18-22, God tells how to test for false prophets and it appears the Pharisees were attempting to test Jesus by using these passages as their guide. Jesus sighs a great sigh of sadness as He realizes that nothing would make these hypocrites believe. We can notice back then (and today) that requests for “proof” are usually smoke-screens for unbelief. Then Jesus and His disciples get into a boat.

What follows is an interesting passage: Mark 8:14-21 – Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 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? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 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.” 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21 And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Jesus gets into a boat with His disciples and the Bible tells us that they had forgotten to bring bread, and they only had one loaf with them in the boat. (I have a friend, named Mark, who was preaching on the Gospel of Mark and he suggested that the author was being somewhat witty here. The disciples had forgotten bread, yet they had one loaf with them. Perhaps this “loaf” was the Bread of Life – Jesus. I like that.)

Jesus tells the disciples to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. The word leaven here is different than yeast, as we know it today. Leaven was used in a batch of bread, but a piece of that dough had to be stored away for the next batch. Then a new batch would be made and a piece would have to be stored away for the next batch. If some leaven was bad (poisonous) it would infect the loaf it was part of, but also all future loaves made from it would be poisonous. The concept here is that the evil teachings of the Pharisees and Herodians would not only infect the current batch of listeners, but all future listeners to those original listeners, and so on. Paul echoes this concept in Galatians 5:9.

I love the disciples’ response (it is so much like us) to this valuable teaching: “How can we be in danger of their leaven if we do not have any bread on this boat?” Isn’t that how we act so often? We completely miss the point. We fail to recognize when God is acting right in front of us.

Jesus follows this with a fairly powerful series of eight questions. I sense His tone was one of frustration and sarcasm: What are you talking about? Don’t you get it? Do your eyes work? Do your ears function? Why don’t you remember anything about what has happened. Bread! You think this is about bread? In the past few days we have seen baskets and baskets of bread. This is not about bread! I’m cooking something here – do you smell what I’m cooking? Don’t you get it?

I see two lessons here:

First, we need to understand that there are false teachers all around us. The impact they can have on us is devastating. But even more destructive is the effects false teaching can have on those who learn from us. We all leave a legacy – will it be right or will it be false? Pay attention! The day for itching ears is here (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Pay attention to what you learn and what you teach!

Second, we need to observe and witness and write down and remember God acting in our lives. God is acting all around us. Yet so many times we are obtuse and miss the point. Pay attention! Pay attention to God working in your life.

Thank you, God, for being a very real Presence in our lives. Thank you for sound biblical teaching. Keep us aware!

You are all significant to me!

-z

Tags: Jesus, mark

This entry was posted by zac on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 8:48 am and is filed under Weekly Jib Jab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.