Yeast
Read Mark 8:14-26.
I have made a lot of bread in my time. I love my bread machine. The problem is, I also like bargains, so when yeast would go on sale, I would buy a lot, just to be ready for any future bread-making needs. Sometimes, though, the yeast would sit too long in the drawer, and when I would confidently pour it into the mix and turn on the bread machine, it wouldn't work. It wasn't "active" anymore (no matter how much the package promised it was). You know what you get when you bake bread with non-active yeast? A big lump of nothing.
With the second incident of fish and loaves just behind him, Jesus capitalizes on the imagery during the boat ride he takes with his disciples. "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod," he tells them. And what do they hear? They think Jesus is scolding them for not bringing bread. What?!? Did they not just experience (for the second time) this man making bread out of nothing? Why would he be concerned whether they brought bread with them or not? No, Jesus is using the imagery, still fresh in their minds, of the power of yeast.
Yeast, when it is active, works its way through the dough and causes bread to rise. It causes it to become larger than it otherwise would. Without the yeast (or with dead yeast), the loaf of bread is not very edible. It's nasty. It's gross. The yeast affects the whole loaf, for good or for ill. Jesus is comparing yeast to the teaching of the religious (Pharisees) and political (Herod) systems—if allowed to go unchecked, these teachings and policies will adversely affect almost everything. The followers of Jesus have to be on alert, to make sure the yeast those systems are putting out is "dead" and not allowed to affect everything around them.
This is a teaching we need today, maybe more than any other time I can remember. Christians look to politics for the answers, for the hope, for true change, and yet as Chuck Colson said (and I often quote), "Salvation will not come on Air Force One." Politics is not the answer; the yeast of Herod will not save us. That is not to say we shouldn't be involved in politics; we of all people must make our voices heard. But we must not put our hope and trust there.
Nor should we put it in religious systems (Pharisees). My own denomination is honestly struggling with where to go from here, how to work and serve and live together when we have varying understandings of social and Biblical issues. I sometimes get asked if I am discouraged by all that (and I understand, to a point, those who are), but my hope is and has never been in the yeast of any denomination or church group.
My hope is in the one who can multiply the fish and the loaves, who can bring hope out of hopelessness, who can bring life out of death. My hope is in Jesus, not the yeast of the Pharisees or Herod. And that hope, I have found, is never misplaced.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling the need to make some bread...
I have made a lot of bread in my time. I love my bread machine. The problem is, I also like bargains, so when yeast would go on sale, I would buy a lot, just to be ready for any future bread-making needs. Sometimes, though, the yeast would sit too long in the drawer, and when I would confidently pour it into the mix and turn on the bread machine, it wouldn't work. It wasn't "active" anymore (no matter how much the package promised it was). You know what you get when you bake bread with non-active yeast? A big lump of nothing.
With the second incident of fish and loaves just behind him, Jesus capitalizes on the imagery during the boat ride he takes with his disciples. "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod," he tells them. And what do they hear? They think Jesus is scolding them for not bringing bread. What?!? Did they not just experience (for the second time) this man making bread out of nothing? Why would he be concerned whether they brought bread with them or not? No, Jesus is using the imagery, still fresh in their minds, of the power of yeast.
Yeast, when it is active, works its way through the dough and causes bread to rise. It causes it to become larger than it otherwise would. Without the yeast (or with dead yeast), the loaf of bread is not very edible. It's nasty. It's gross. The yeast affects the whole loaf, for good or for ill. Jesus is comparing yeast to the teaching of the religious (Pharisees) and political (Herod) systems—if allowed to go unchecked, these teachings and policies will adversely affect almost everything. The followers of Jesus have to be on alert, to make sure the yeast those systems are putting out is "dead" and not allowed to affect everything around them.
This is a teaching we need today, maybe more than any other time I can remember. Christians look to politics for the answers, for the hope, for true change, and yet as Chuck Colson said (and I often quote), "Salvation will not come on Air Force One." Politics is not the answer; the yeast of Herod will not save us. That is not to say we shouldn't be involved in politics; we of all people must make our voices heard. But we must not put our hope and trust there.
Nor should we put it in religious systems (Pharisees). My own denomination is honestly struggling with where to go from here, how to work and serve and live together when we have varying understandings of social and Biblical issues. I sometimes get asked if I am discouraged by all that (and I understand, to a point, those who are), but my hope is and has never been in the yeast of any denomination or church group.
My hope is in the one who can multiply the fish and the loaves, who can bring hope out of hopelessness, who can bring life out of death. My hope is in Jesus, not the yeast of the Pharisees or Herod. And that hope, I have found, is never misplaced.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling the need to make some bread...
Me, too! Great imagery.
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