Yeast of Herod
“Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?”
Mark 8:17
Jesus says these words to the disciples who have just watched Him perform a miracle, feeding thousands who had travelled to hear Him speak. The disciples are now on a boat with Jesus and have forgotten to bring enough bread for lunch. There is just one loaf for all of them. Jesus overhears them and says, “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod!” (Mark 8:15)
Whenever I read this, I wonder what Jesus meant–and schools of thought differ–but the essence of it is that it only takes a small amount of something undesired in a batch to ruin it completely. Yeast in Jesus’ parables is regularly used to illustrate the pervasiveness of sin and how damaging just a small amount can be.
Reading these verses this week, I was amazed again how after so many bread miracles where Jesus was providing for strangers, the disciples were still lacking confidence that He would provide. It’s hard to know exactly what was happening: were the disciples talking loudly, hoping to be overheard by Jesus? Were they just blind to His faithfulness?
Either way, the disciples were looking at the world around them and not really seeing. They had missed the point if they were sat on the boat whining about the lack of bread. Even when Jesus warns of the “yeast of the Pharisees,” they think He’s still talking about actual bread. How much I can be like them!
If I look back over my life with the right “eyes”–of faith and trust–I see before me innumerable times when God has stepped in. I see the time I prayed as a seven year old when I’d locked my mum, sister and myself out of the car some 300 miles from home, and a man appeared with a clothes hanger and a history of breaking into cars. Or I see the present day, when Alex and I found our dream home that had gone overlooked by all others for three years, which meant we could actually afford it.
Yet, if I look back with cynicism and a desire to test God, I see only the pain and hardship, times of loneliness or grief; the same life, but a radically different perspective. If I spend too long looking at life this way, bitterness becomes that pervasive yeast which taints all it touches, and I cannot see all that is good and holy.
Today, would you banish the yeast of Herod from your mind and heart and look instead at God’s provision, faithfulness and kindness? Resist being like the disciples who had seen so much, but chose to focus on what appeared so measly in their hands. Lift your eyes heavenward. Name and thank Him once again for how He has shown Himself faithful in your life, knowing He will do so again. And again. And again.
