Have you ever had your thoughts flowing in a direction and someone comes along with a comment that seems to fit–but it doesn’t? It breaks the flow and makes you wonder–or ponder. In my profession as editor of a technical magazine, I practice this often. People come in with a PowerPoint presentation of 50 slides or so, where 45 slides are preamble designed to impress me with the speaker’s knowledge of the industry and technology–stuff I already know. I’m impatient for them to get to the important stuff. I ask a question that points to the heart of the matter. Almost always, they’ll say something like “I’ll get to that, I have to build up to it.” In other words, they have to stay within the script that they’ve already planned.
Well, Jesus’ closest friends also had that problem. Mark (Chapter 8) writes about a time when they were apart from the crowds. Jesus had just fed 4,000 people with physical bread along with the spiritual bread he always distributed. This time, though, someone forgot the bread. And they were getting hungry. Boy, a piece of bread and some hummus would really go well right now. Who forgot to pick up the bread? What are we going to do without bread?
Then Jesus says, “Beware the yeast of Herod and the yeast of the Pharisees.” Broke their chain of thought. Caught them off guard. They’re thinking bread. Yeast goes in bread. He must be talking about bread.
We do that often when we read The Bible. We’re thinking at one level. God’s at another. We forget to stop and read with spiritual eyes. When you read Jesus’ interpretations of his sayings, he always goes directly to a spiritual explanation. But spiritual doesn’t mean “otherworldly.” It means how do you live your life with God.
So, yeast? It’s something that permeates the dough. It completely changes the character of the dough. Yes, it’s about bread–except it isn’t. The yeast of Herod? That is the part of human nature that wants power. You want to be in charge. Boss people around. It’s all about me, and “me” manipulating others to perform my will. The yeast of the Pharisees? That’s all about the human nature to want lists of rules to follow. I make the rules. I interpret the rules. I make others follow the rules–or at least judge them by how well they follow the rules. These are both attitudes that interfere with living with God–another way of saying living in the Spirit.
It took Jesus’ friends a couple of years to learn these messages. Actually, they really grew up when he wasn’t there physically to be the teacher and they had to become the teachers. Have you learned, yet? It’s really a life-long process.
Faith Venture 
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