Beware!

And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (Mark 8:15)

Leaven was often used in scripture as a symbol for sin. Like leaven, sin puff us up with pride, makes us appear to be greater than we are — to ourselves and sometimes to others. Like leaven, where a little permeates the whole loaf, so sin permeates the whole man. We cannot cut it off, or make sure boundaries for the sin that we let slip into our thoughts and habits — we must fight it at every turn and limit it all we can. There is no place for any amount of sin in our lives, and if there is something that God has convicted you about, then you must confess this to him and abandon it completely. Taking a little sin with you is like taking a little cancer with you, a little tuberculosis with you, a little leprosy with you.

The leaven of the Pharisees: This teaching followed after the Pharisees asked for a sign from God. The Lord might have perceived that the question appealed to some of his disciples. Or perhaps that they thought that it was not an entirely unreasonable request. Remember that in a short time the apostles would be performing miracles. In fact, Christ said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). In the early days of the Church Age God did great miracles through the believers — more than even Jesus performed.

Christ knew that they, like us today, would be tempted to think that miracles are all that is required to convert people. Show them enough miracles, enough healings, enough mighty works, and they will all become followers of Christ, at least that was the mistaken idea. But it is truly said that the greater miracle is not the healing of disease but the changing of the human heart. Christ warned them not to be taken in by this appearance of religion.

There was much about the Pharisees to commend them. In fact, with so much spiritual adultery and idolatry in the Old Testament, it would be refreshing to have read about a few Pharisees in the days of the Old Testament. In those years they had had the opposite problem — spiritual apathy and lusting after the “gods” of other nations. The Pharisees were in some sense a sincere but misguided attempt to correct the unfaithful past of Israel. They were a powerful religious sect, the right wing conservatives of the Jewish religion. Their error was that they became legalists, emphasizing outward adherence to the Law to the neglect of inward devotion to God.

Conservative legalism has an appeal to it, and though it presents a logic that we might find compelling, we need to be careful of being taken in by it. They are able to outwardly measure one’s devotion. The Pharisees did it by wearing special clothes, by personal achievements and attendances, by fastings and feats of Scripture memorization, by outward displays of piety through dramatic public prayers and displays of gifts. The outside of their cup was clean, gilded, impressive, and alluring, but they had neglected the inside.

The Christian message is the reverse of the Pharisee method. Christianity begins in the heart with God, with repentance and faith, not with the outward display before people. Christianity continues with inward love for God and obedience to him in gratitude, and then reaches out to others with grace and compassion. A little bit of self-righteous pride can permeate our whole heart until we are judgmental, arrogant performers of religious rituals, and not obedient worshipers of Christ.

The leaven of Herod: In Matthew’s account of this teaching, he wrote “Sadducees,” who were closely aligned with Herod (Matt. 16:6). Mark wrote several times of the Herodians who plotted with the Pharisees to destroy Christ (Mark 3:6 and 12:13). They were loyal to the regime of Herod and his descendants and were also loyal to Rome.

The Sadducees were also an organized religious sect and the left wing liberals of the Jewish religion. They were in charge of the temple and politically and financially powerful. It was political and religious pragmatism that held to as few ideals as possible — other than the absolute ideal of their own empowerment. That they were completely committed to!

They also held to ceremonies and special dress. They were wealthy and did not burden themselves with all of the rules, etc., that the Pharisees did. They had no problem in befriending the powers that be and working with them to achieve what appeared to be common goals. The coolness of their religion, in contrast to the hotness of the guilt and shape of the Pharisees, could masquerade as a reasonable religion. They believed only in the first five books of the Bible and rejected the rest of the Old Testament. They did not believe in the resurrection or afterlife, nor in angels or demons. They rejected the idea of fate and believed in free will of man.

These thoughts also have an appeal to them — the aloof deism that accepts the existence of God but does not expect him to do much for us. This allows for someone not to wear the title of “atheist” but to go ahead and live like one anyway. It is the common religion of many who have few ethic or moral convictions but still freely speak of “God” in the most personal terms. This is also a “yeast” we should avoid. We cannot please God and mankind. We must choose.

The dispute among the disciples: When Christ spoke about yeast, the disciples missed his point at first and discussed among themselves — meaning they argued and blamed each other — that it was because they had not brought bread along for their journey.

At first sight, the rebuke of Christ to them seems as though it is disconnected to his previous teaching. He had been speaking about rejecting the unbelief of the Pharisees and Herod and then jumps, or so it seems, to an unrelated matter of trusting in God to supply bread to eat.

But there is a very steady continual theme in these matters — the call of Christ to live life in the constant trust of God. The disciples showed they were thinking like these others when they began to obsess on the absence of bread. Christ rebuked them for their lack of faith reminding them of the miraculous feedings (Mark 8:17–21). The answer to all of life’s challenges was and is constant faith and trust in God. The constant awareness of the reality of God, and his readiness to help and touch us, shapes our attitudes, thoughts, values, perspective, and expectations.

The Pharisees and Herodians were alike in their absence of faith in God — one became self-righteous through religious rules, not expecting God to help with salvation, and the other became simply a political animal, not expecting God to help with world affairs, and the disciples were acting in a similar spirit, not expecting God to help with ministry provisions.The Christian who does not see God as the Source of his daily bread is acting in the same spirit.

Trust in God is not something we use just from time to time or when emergencies strike. It is to be our response to all situations and circumstances because it is constantly in our hearts.

The call to follow Christ is a call to live constantly in faith. We see everything in life through the lens of God, through his help and guidance and purpose. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” (Prov. 3:5), and “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33), profess this truth. God first always in every situation.

The attitude that omits from daily life the reality of God is what Christ cautioned us to avoid. “That which is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).