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September 13, 2009
“Leaven-ly Confusion and a Second Touch”
Mark 8: 14-26 (Exodus 12: 14-20)
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
What an interesting Scripture passage we have before us this morning! This passage has the outdoors touch of a conversation between Jesus and his apostles in an open boat on the sea of Galilee. There is a bit of comic relief here regarding the Apostle’s misunderstanding of the words of Jesus.
Then there is the drama of the healing of a blind man with what seems to be a glitch in it. Actually, it could be argued that we have two passages before us today, the one about the conversation in the boat and the one about the healing of the blind man. But as I go on I think I will be able to help you see why I think it is one passage.
But first I want to tell you what I’ve been up to this week. On Monday, Labor Day, I drove a rental car to my father’s house in West Virginia. On Tuesday morning my brother and I picked up a rental truck. On Tuesday and Wednesday, My brother, My West Virginian Cousin, and I loaded the truck with the things my father is giving me from his house. On Thursday I drove the Rental truck hone and Doug and Steve Varys and Adam Beasley helped me unload the truck into my house. The purpose of this trip was of course to bring home all of the things Diane and I wanted from my father’s house.
So imagine my chagrin when Diane asked me where the apothecary jars where and I realized that I had left them on the counter in the kitchen of my father’s house. She then asked where the miniature chest of drawers containing the silverware was. I told her it was under the counter in the kitchen of Dad’s house not too far from the Apothecary Jars. From then on, every question Diane asked me about various items made me remember my shortcomings as a mover of household goods. She later told me that she stopped asking where things were because she thought she was making me feel bad.
With that experience in mind, I am able to understand the embarrassment of the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. At some time during their voyage they realized that they had forgotten to bring enough bread. With this realization, every comment that could be construed as having to do with food was taken as a reminder of their oversight. Perhaps one of the apostles was the one who was supposed to make sure they had enough food for the journey. Every comment that had to do with food would be seen as being directed to that one.
So when Jesus said “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod” they thought Jesus was talking about their not having brought enough food. And by the way, Jesus said “Leaven” not “Yeast” as is recorded in our NRSV translation. Both leaven and yeast serve the same purpose, they cause bread and cake dough to rise so the end product is light and airy.
Yeast is a fungus that ferments the sugars in flour and other baking ingredients. Yeast is a type of Leavening agent, but it is not the type the Jews usually used in baking. They used what we sometimes refer to as starter dough. They kept a bit of dough from previous batches of bread and used it to leaven the new bread dough.
This kind of Leaven had an interesting history in Israel. When the Jews were preparing to leave Egypt just before the plague of the death of the firstborn Egyptians, they prepared a big meal to be eaten before they left. This meal included unleavened bread, a flat bread or cracker, which is today called Matzoth, because they did not have time to allow the bread to rise.
The Passover meal was to be repeated every year to celebrate the Lord bringing them out of Egypt. Unleavened bread became an important part of the annual Passover Feasts. Over time, the Leaven became to the Jews a symbol or synonym for corruption. So when Jesus warned the Apostles about the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, he was warning then about the corruptions that the Pharisees and King Herod had fallen into. In Luke’s version of this event Jesus identifies the leaven as hypocrisy, which is pretending to be something that one is not.
The hypocrisy that the Pharisees and the Herod’s had in common was their pretending to be servant-leaders of the people. The Pharisees pretended to be concerned about leading all Jews closer to God and showing them the way to obey God’s commands. But in doing so, they became revered by the people and became politically powerful. At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were mostly really concerned about getting more power and keeping what they had.
The Herods also liked to cast themselves as servant kings of the Jews. They built many great public buildings throughout Israel, including a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. But what the Herods were really all about was power. They committed murders to gain and keep power. They even murdered members of their own families.
This warning of Jesus about the hypocrisy of hiding the desire for power was well placed considering the later history of the Christian Church. Throughout Church History we have found church leaders seeking and misusing ecclesiastical and secular power.
Such abuses were part of the reasons for the protestant reformation. I wish I could tell you that the protestants did not seek and misuse power since the reformation but I cannot.
The Apostles were so concerned with the fact that they had not brought enough food that they could not understand Jesus’ warning. In their state of mind. Leaven = bread and Bread = food. They had not brought food. Jesus was criticizing them for their lack of preparations
They were so concerned about their failings and their stomachs that they could not hear the warning Jesus was giving them. Jesus rebuked them. He told them that although they had eyes and ears they were blind and deaf. He also told them that they had no memories. And He asked them how many baskets full of pieces of bread were left over when He miraculously fed 5,000 and then again 4,000 people.
In this rebuke I think Jesus was making two points; 1) Why were they worried about food when the proven multiplier of bread was with them? And 2) They did not understand the meaning of the miracles of the feedings of the 5,000 and the 4,000 any better than the Pharisees. Those miracles were to demonstrate that Jesus was the bread of life, the source of life, the one who gives and maintains life in all people and creatures. They had with them in the boat the bread of life God sent from heaven and they were worried about not having enough food.
I do not think it is too difficult to see how this rebuke might apply to Christians in our time. We might be easily distracted by our income shortages or our decreasing bank accounts or other concerns when we have the bread of life with us.
When they arrived on the other side of the lake, Jesus healed a blind man. But there is something unusual about this miracle. The man was not completely healed all at once. Some have suggested that Jesus failed somewhat on the first attempt or the blind man did not have sufficient faith in Jesus the first time. I think not.
I think Jesus did this healing in two parts to shake us out of our complacency and to give some hope to the Apostles who had not been able to receive an important teaching from Jesus.
The two-step healing of this man was a comfort to the apostles. They had failed to hear Jesus, but they would have the opportunity to hear him on this subject again. Just because you miss some aspect of the faith doesn’t mean you have to stay that way. Jesus offers a second touch, a second chance to receive all he has to offer.
The former blind man did not have to go through life seeing men as if they were trees walking. Jesus offered him a second chance to become fully sighted.
Many of us have not received all that Jesus has to offer us. We love the eternal life we have. But Jesus also offers us a more complete victory over sin than most of us have experienced and he also offers us a closer relationship with himself and his people than most of us enjoy. Don’t be complacent with what you have received from God. Ask for more. He gives second touches, and third touches and more. He wants you to have the fullness of all He has to offer you.
And maybe there is one other reminder in this passage. Jesus does not want us to see people as if they were trees or inanimate objects or anything less than glorious human beings created in God’s image. If you love things and use people, you have things reversed and you are not pleasing God.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at September 13, 2009 05:05 PM