Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 3 Study # 2
September 6, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(338)
1901 ASV
8:15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
8:16 And they reasoned one with another, saying, We have no bread.
8:17 And Jesus perceiving it saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? do ye not yet perceive, neither understand? have ye your heart hardened?
8:18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?
8:19 When I brake the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
8:20 And when the seven among the four thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces took ye up? And they say unto him, Seven.
8:21 And he said unto them, Do ye not yet understand?
- I. He Was Charging Them.
- A. Mark uses this verb in four of the six places it is found in the New Testament.
- 1. In every case, He was "commanding" someone in regard to the behavior He insisted upon from them.
- a. Jairus' daughter was raised from the dead and He "demanded" that no one should know (5:43).
- b. The deaf mute was healed of both of his problems after Jesus had taken him aside from the crowd and He "demanded" that they "not tell anyone" (7:36).
- c. In our current text, He "demanded" that they "beware" of the leaven of The Pharisees and of Herod (8:15).
- d. In the last of his records, Mark says that Jesus "demanded" that they tell no man what they had seen until after His resurrection (9:9).
- 2. In 7:36 the people flagrantly disobeyed Him.
- a. This is not unlike 1:45, though the particular word "He demanded" is not present there.
- b. There are no particular reasons given by Jesus for His insistence upon "secrecy", but it is clear that He strongly wished for obedience and got none.
- B. Mark's record is that they didn't know what He meant.
- II. He Was Warning Them.
- A. The four-fold "demanding, saying, see, beware" is strongly emphatic. As it turns out, this is the main reason for this Gospel record.
- B. Jesus took their attention upon their lack of bread and turned it into His occasion to warn them.
- III. They Were Totally Off Target.
- A. He was strongly warning them.
- B. They were discussing among themselves that "they are not having loaves".
- IV. Jesus Questions Their Fixation Upon "Loaves".
- A. That they do not have "loaves" cannot be their problem, given His overwhelming demonstrations of His ability to "create" loaves.
- B. What they need to understand is that there is a "leaven" attempting to make greater headway in them than they can survive if they tolerate it.
- 1. In regard to the use of "leaven" in the New Testament, we have 11 verses.
- a. Matthew uses it four times.
- 1) In 13:33 he puts the word in Jesus' mouth in the form of a "parable" which likens the Kingdom of Heaven to "leaven". In this context, this "parable" is directly linked to the Kingdom having the characteristic of mustard seed that is extremely small but, over time, it becomes a very large tree that the birds nest in its branches. The "point" seems to be that the Kingdom is to grow to an enormous size over time though it doesn't initially appear to be of any significance at all.
- 2) In 16:6 he quotes Jesus in His warning against the "leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees" and, when the disciples do not understand, he says that Jesus was speaking of the teaching of those groups (16:11-12). This indicates that there is a certain kind of "leaven" that results in doctrines. But, those doctrines arise out of a deeper level of the "leaven".
- b. Mark only uses it this one time (8:15), yet it has been on his mind from the beginning of chapter six. For Mark, it is THE critical issue of "discipleship" as to a powerful hindrance.
- c. Luke uses it twice.
- 1) In 12:1 he says that Jesus was referring to "hypocrisy" and its inevitable unveiling to the dismay of those who thought they were operating in the safety of "secrecy".
- 2) In 13:21 he reports the same "parable" to which Matthew referred in Matthew 13:33.
- d. Paul uses it in four texts.
- 1) Three of those are in 1 Corinthians 5:6, 7, and 8. In all three of these, the "leaven" is a reference to the behavior of a believer who is living in serious, blatant, sin and to "the leaven of malice and wickedness" in contrast to "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth".
- 2) In Galatians 5:9 he uses it to refer to the "doctrine" of "merit through performance" rather than "faith working through love" on the basis of the doctrines of "grace".
- 2. In summary, what we find is that "leaven" is a multi-layered factor that has the capacity to completely subvert whatever into which it is introduced. Mark, alone, does not specify exactly what he understands Jesus to mean in words. Instead, he allows the "Herod" material and the "Pharisee" material to speak for him. In both sets of verses in his presentation of "Herod" and "The Pharisees" there exists the multi-layered reality, but he presses for a kind of "bottom line": the ultimate foundation of all of the "layers". That "foundation" is what John characterized as "the arrogance of functional capacity" in 1 John 2:16. Ultimately, the "leaven" is the driving force of the "lust" for the exaltation of oneself in the eyes of others who are not "God" and, therefore, not "important". This "leaven" will produce murderous opposition to anyone who threatens that sought-after "status". This "leaven" will produce "doctrines" which are intended to subvert men into seeking to impress and be impressive. This "leaven" will have the fruits of "malice and wickedness". It will also produce extremely perverse immoral behaviors.