Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod

The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.’ And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.

Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’ They said to one another, ‘It is because we have no bread.’ And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to 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 collect?’ They said to him, ‘Twelve.’ ‘And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ And they said to him, ‘Seven.’ Then he said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?’

- Mark 8:11-21

This is one of my most favorite passages of the bible. What I love about these books is their revelation, not simply of divinity and what divinity is and all that it asks of us that we can become, but clearly they also show us our humanity. I feel that we learn not only about God in scripture, but it gives us - through the portrayal of our relationship to the Creator and all the stories that unfold in that picture - a true portrait of ourselves. For some reason, there is nothing more touching to me than the picture of Jesus' disciples when they test his patience: to me, personally, this is indeed a portrait of ourselves (or should I just say 'myself?')

First of all, we must start with the Pharisees in this passage. Immediately after two great miraculous feedings, foreshadowing the Eucharist itself, they demand a sign. Certainly, Jesus' fame as healer, teacher, and messianic figure is by now everywhere, and among many, indisputable. According to my study bible, the Pharisees tempt him, here, with demands for a stupendous miracle such as those he was tempted in the wilderness to perform, to prove himself by fantastic revelation. But Jesus' miracles and wonders don't occur so that he proves himself. He wants faith to come via the human heart, through apprehension and belief. It is, indeed, faith that seems to spark this power that comes from him, such as with the woman with the haemorrhage.

And from this demand, Mark the evangelist goes on to elaborate on this theme: Jesus tells his disciples to 'beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.' This "yeast" is the heart that does not believe without proofs, that will not yield its hardness to an internal understanding of who he is, of spiritual reality. We have already understood "the heart" to be referenced in scriptural language as the center of spiritual apprehension. This is the place within us that is capable of understanding the things of the Spirit - that can grasp relationship in this sense. The demand for signs denotes a "hardness of heart" in the language of scripture. Jesus' healings and miraculous signs work through this connection of the heart to begin with. This is the one necessary thing, scripture seems to repeatedly tell us, about faith and about our relationship to Creator.

But the disciples themselves have no idea what Jesus is speaking about! They see that he is angry, upset, and they debate among themselves what could have so displeased him. They decide that, since he mentioned yeast, he must be talking about bread! He's upset that we forgot the bread! Jesus has to ask them, 'Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?' The disciples themselves seem to fail this understanding of the heart at this moment - they don't understand Jesus nor his love for them, his provision for them in the wilderness. Indeed, they fail to understand what he's referring to: this yeast of nay-saying that poisons one's ability to grasp wisdom, that can pervade all people.

I realized when I was quite young that a sort of nihilism is capable of denying or destroying anything of value. There's a way to automatically oppose whatever one may desire to oppose in order to tear it down; it doesn't really matter what the subject is. This sort of attitude can be used as a propaganda tool to tear down any form of values and taken to an extreme - and has done so throughout political history. We must be able to perceive with this organ of the heart, I believe, in order to practice mercy and to perceive value even in general terms. This is the grasping of wisdom that comes not just from intellectual acceptance. And I think it's important that we understand faith in these terms: faith is more than an intellectual acceptance. It denotes relatedness and relationship. It is about love. Love is what we grasp with the heart and all that is related to it: beauty, truth, goodness. When we recall that God is love, then we begin to grasp Spirit as the "treasury of good things" as it says in an Eastern prayer.

This understanding of the heart is, I feel, necessary for scriptural reading and understanding. I also think it's essential for the comprehension of faith in the first place - and certainly for Jesus' language about the heart and what it means to have a 'hardened heart.' Perhaps most of all, it is something we must keep in mind when we worship and pray: certain forms of prayer and meditation even focus on this central place of the heart. It teaches us about perceiving with our whole selves, and its most identifiable characteristic is love. How deeply we are capable of dwelling in that place, I feel, is how deeply we are capable of grasping this central relationship to Creator, and to all the "good things" that come from there. It doesn't matter to me, in an absolute sense, where we find those good things in human history: I believe they all stem from the same source, the Father of all. Jesus' words are for us all to recall to ourselves, all the time:

Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?