Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod

 Meditations of the Gospel of Mark

 September 7, 2020

Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod

 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

Mark 8:15

Read: Mark 8:11-21

 The religious leaders knew Jesus’ message about the Kingdom of God was subversive. They didn’t want to believe Jesus because he had much to say about how they abused their authority over the people. Their asking Jesus for signs was their way of dismissing Jesus.

 When Jesus warned his disciples about the ‘yeast’ of the religious leaders, the disciples didn’t get it because they were distracted by their failure to bring food for their journey in the boat. When Jesus reminds the disciples of his feeding the 5,000, and the 4,000, he wasn’t challenging their lack of faith because they were grumbling about their present lack of food. He was challenging them to recognize that the religious leaders had an altogether different perspective of the Messiah.

 The yeast Jesus was warning the disciples to avoid is as much an issue in our time as it was when Jesus first issued the warning. We are surrounded by many different churches and Christian denominations, each having their own worldview and their own perspective of God’s purpose and mission in Jesus Christ. The yeast of the Pharisees in our time is a vision of Jesus and the Kingdom of God that is not consistent with the Messiah Mark is presenting in his Gospel.

 My Takeaway: Can you tell the differences between the way Jesus is presented in your church and the way Mark is presenting Jesus as God’s Messiah?

 Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

 Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.