Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod

 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.  But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign?  Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation."

And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still 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 fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"

Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.  So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.  And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."  Then he put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up.  And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."

- Mark 8:11-26

 Yesterday, we read that at this point in Jesus' ministry, in the region of the Decapolis near the Sea of Galilee, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar."  Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven."  So he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them.  So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.  Now those who had eaten were about four thousand.  And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.  But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign?  Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation."  A sign from heaven would be some sort of spectacular display of power, designed as "proof" of Christ's messianic identity.  My study bible tells us that the time of the Messiah among the Jews was expected to be accompanied by signs.  But Christ, of course, has already displayed many signs in the course of His ministry.  What this is, of course, is a proof test, designed by the Pharisees in order to test Jesus -- rather than their acceptance of His ministry as it unfolds in accordance with the will of the Father.  It's a question of whose authority Jesus will follow.

And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still 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 fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"  The leaven of the Pharisees, says my study bible, is their doctrine (Matthew 16:12) and their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).  The image of leaven is used both positively and negatively in Scripture.  Here, it's a negative.   We should think of a type of enzymatic action, that changes whatever substance it becomes a part of.  My study bible says that leaven symbolizes a force powerful enough (and often subtle enough) to permeate everything around it (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-8).  A hardened heart, we remember, is one that cannot understand, does not grasp what it should.

Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.  So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.  And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."  Then he put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up.  And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."  Jesus has made a kind of ring around the Sea of Galilee, not returning  to Capernaum (where Peter has a family home which functions as a kind of headquarters to Jesus' ministry), but landed further east, on the northern shore of the Sea.   Bethsaida is mentioned by Christ as a place where people did not believe in Him (Matthew 11:21).  Jesus therefore leads this man out of the town to heal him, so that people won't scoff at the miracle -- and, my study bible says, bring upon themselves greater condemnation.  The healing of this blind man in stages, it says, shows that he had only a small amount of faith -- healing occurs according to one's faith (Mark 6:5-6).  But this little faith was enough, and increased with Christ's touch.   My study bible also tells us that Christ's command not to return to the town symbolizes that we mustn't return to our sins once we've been forgiven. 

Today's reading teaches us all about faith and comprehension.  The two are definitely intertwined as the Gospels present it to us.  The Pharisees don't understand who Christ is, but more importantly, they seek to impose a test as if their authority is what is absolute, over all things, even the works of God.  Moreover, their failure to find faith -- despite the many signs already worked in Christ's ministry -- and their demand for proof reflect on their inability to comprehend with the heart.  This is "hard-heartedness" in Scriptural language.  It is the failure to grasp the things of God, the work of the Spirit in the world.  Faith, like love, is voluntary, and cannot be compelled.  The works of "proof" have nothing to do with Christ nor the ministry in which the Father leads Him.  It's not just the Pharisees who are hard-hearted in today's reading, and hard of comprehension, it's also the disciples.  Jesus teaches them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.  That's an interesting phrase, because we know that when Jesus appears before Herod (during His Passion), Herod will also demand a sign.  (See also this reading and commentary on the death of John the Baptist for Herod's attitude toward John's holiness).  Herod's desire to see a sign is more akin to a kind of fascination with some object or marvel a king might collect, and so we can see parallels in the views of the Pharisees and Herod: they're not reverent in the heart.  In both views, the approach to God and the things that are holy is a kind of materialistic approach, one that turns God into an object rather than a Person, that does not grasp the energies of God at work in the world.  Perception for faith demands something different, a way to grasp that which lives and is life itself.  This pernicious leaven, as described by Jesus, is a way of looking at things that objectifies what should not be reduced to mere object, and fails to perceive in either a humane, judicious, or sympathetic way that which gives life the quality of blessedness, holiness, or mercy.  Above all, it seems to fail to grasp love.  "Prove it," in modern parlance, is often a way simply to reduce another person to nothing.  In Bethsaida, we're once again given an object lesson in the importance of faith and our own steps to shore up our faith.  On the "little" faith of the blind man, Jesus can begin a healing -- but like Jairus and his wife at the time of the healing of his daughter -- he must be set apart from those who don't believe, who may damage his faith, in order to find effective healing and to retain that strength and faith to stay on the path of the righteousness to which Christ has called him.  Altogether, the stories in today's reading re-enforce the crucial importance that the care of our faith has to do with nurturing the most central essence of our identity as persons, and how that becomes part of the fabric of our lives.  In today's reading, we're given a portrait of that which harms faith and also the significant deficits that the influence of harmful attitudes can create for us as obstacles to our own fullness and wholeness as persons.  What is the fullness of your life and experience of life worth to you?   How are you called to find the deeper things within yourself as human being, that which draws you into an expanded understanding of what it is to be a full "person"?  These are the questions our reading opens up for us, as it calls us to guard and protect the heart, and enter into this Kingdom as whole beings through Christ's work of salvation.  Most of all, it asks us to begin to understand God as the Being that works among us, whose energies permeate our own lives within the purview of our choice.  And He asks us ever more strongly to make certain we understand the role of our choice in strengthening and protecting that faith and growth and participation in His Kingdom.  If we are truly children of God, it is God's work as love that makes us so, and grows us in that likeness as persons.  Without an experiential faith, how does this grow?