Today’s scripture: Mark 8:11-21 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message)
As you read, consider: What might God be saying to me? Summarize your thoughts in a sentence or two.
My thoughts (Mark Shoup):
Yeast can be great stuff. It turns paste into bread, and barley tea into beer. And it only takes a pinch to get the process rolling, as the yeast begins to multiply.
Since we know Jesus enjoyed both a glass of wine and a baked good on more than one occasion, we can be fairly certain that “yeast of the Pharisees” was more than just a brand name for baking or wine making supplies. No, what he was talking about was how certain traits of Herod and the Pharisees could “get into” the people and begin growing, just like the yeast in bread dough or a batch of beer or wine.
Jesus was probably referring to, among other things, the Pharisees’ tendency to require people to follow the letter of the Jewish law. In their opinion, if people didn’t, they couldn’t connect to God. Jesus was all about helping the “least” of the people connect to God, and he often rebuked the Pharisee’s attempt to separate those same marginalized people from God.
Sadly, I’ve seen the same things today. When my cousin was planning her wedding, her home church (the one she had been a part of since birth) refused to marry her and her fiancé because he had been divorced. She had to pick a church out of the phone book. To add insult to injury, her mother died two weeks before the wedding, so at a time when she really needed to be surrounded by her loving church family, she was in an unfamiliar church being married by a minister she hardly knew.
When churches refuse to allow divorced people to take communion or when they exclude LGBTQ people from fully participating, it is the same as when the first century Pharisees didn’t allow foreigners, people with birth defects, or women into the inner parts of the temple. The yeast of the Pharisees is still infecting people 2,000 years after Jesus warned us about it!
So what can we do about it? You can do more than you think. When you see the yeast of Phariseeism, call the person out on it. Send an email, write a letter, or better yet call them on the phone. Tell them you think they are acting to separate people from God, and in direct conflict with the teachings of Jesus. Matthew 18 gives us some guidelines to follow, so that we keep the right spirit when we’re in our “yeast destroying” mode. Our goal is always to restore fellowship with a brother or sister, not to obliterate them.
Thought for the day: Does anything I do promote the “yeast of the Pharisees”? Am I aware of any “yeast” I should try to eradicate?
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.