Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees andthe leaven of Herod.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and

the leaven of Herod.

 

Mark 8:14-20 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, he said unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.

Jesus performed the miracle of feeding 4,000 people with seven loaves and two fish. The Jews who saw this miracle should believe, “He is the Son of God,” but instead, they were testing Jesus and demanding a greater sign. It depends on whether you see Jesus’ miracles through human eyes or through God’s eyes. From the perspective of man, it is the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

After Jesus showed this miracle, the disciples took a boat across the lake and on their way to a region called Dharmanuda, the disciples saw that they had only one fish to eat, so they remembered the bread left behind through Jesus' miracle and took it. They say it didn't come.

 

If you look at Jesus properly, you don't have to worry about food. It can be seen that the disciples momentarily forgot that Jesus is the Son of God. However, on the contrary, the Pharisees saw Jesus' miracles and demanded more signs. They are telling Jesus to prove that he is the Son of God. Although the disciples said that Jesus was the Son of God, they did not achieve the faith that Jesus wanted, and the Pharisees only had the intention of causing Jesus to stumble even though they saw Jesus' miracles.

『Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.』Yeast makes bread rise. The Pharisees must realize that Jesus is the Son of God through his miracles. They only try to see Jesus' weaknesses in order to keep causing him to stumble. When people see it with their physical eyes, they may think so. However, the point of Jesus' leaven is related to sin. Leaven symbolizes sin. Leaven leaves something to rise, but it also transforms the original. So leaven symbolizes falsehood.

“The leaven of the Pharisees” is that they do not see what Jesus is doing and cause Him to stumble. That is hypocrisy and hypocrisy. They should look at the work of God's kingdom through the miracles of Jesus, but they seem to be using their power to further disparage Jesus. They were a group of priests chosen by God, but they were very offended that someone like a country bumpkin dared to say he was the Messiah and perform miracles. So the Pharisees only think of ways to kill Jesus. All they could think about was catching and killing Jesus. We can see that the hearts of the Pharisees were filled with sin, just like leaven spreads in bread.

『beware of the leaven of the leaven of Herod.』Herod was a descendant of Esau and was not an orthodox Jew. After the Hasmonean dynasty established in the Maccabean War was destroyed by Rome, At the time, there was a war between Octavian and Antony (War of Actium). Herod falsely negotiated with Octavian that he would help Octavian become Roman emperor if he would make him king of Judea, claiming that he was a Jew. Eventually, Herod becomes the king of the Jews. And he reorganized the temple on a grand scale to win the favor of the Jews. He had always heard from the Jews that the Messiah would appear.

However, one day Herod heard through a rumor that the Messiah had been born. Herod thought that in order for him to continue as king, he had to kill everyone who was born as the Messiah. He called the scribes together and asked them where the Messiah was born, and the scribes answered that it was Bethlehem. So, the tragedy of babies dying in Bethlehem occurred. His greed to become king and his wrong thoughts to keep his position as king continued to spread like leaven, reaching the point where they were killing children.

Herod's leaven continues to his son. Herod Antipas, meaning 'son of a hero who replaced his father', was the second son of Herod the Great and was the tetrarch of Galilee and Berea (4 B.C. - 39 A.D.). Herod Antipas remarried Herodias, his niece and his half-brother's wife. When John the Baptist rebuked him for unlawfully remarrying his brother's wife, Rather than turning around and repenting of his sins, he instead imprisoned the innocent John the Baptist.

Herod Antipas committed the immoral sin of remarrying his brother's wife. However, his sins did not end there. In order to justify his illegal remarriage with Herodias, he ultimately committed another sin: killing John the Baptist. In this way, human sin does not end once and for all, but has the property of causing other sins to be committed in a derivative and serial manner. In James 1:14-15, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.』

The reason Jesus told his disciples to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod” was because the disciples at the time also thought of Jesus as the Messiah who could overthrow Rome. So, they argued about who would be greater, and when Jesus became the King of kings, they showed that they wanted him to sit on the right hand or the left hand.

If you look at Jesus with human desires, your thoughts will spread and spread like leaven. That was the mindset of the disciples. Judas Iscariot sold Jesus to the Pharisees for money. He may have believed that Jesus would exercise tremendous power as the Messiah. However, upon seeing Jesus being humiliated and being dragged to the cross, he hanged himself and committed suicide. Greed gave birth to sin, and sin gave birth to death. Likewise, when Jesus stood on the cross, all the disciples ran away. Wrong thoughts of desire continue to spread like leaven. That is why Jesus warns them that thoughts that spread like leaven bring destruction.Today, the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod would be humanism based on faith in blessings and fortunes. Numerous humanistic religious acts, such as people doing business using the name of Jesus and passing the church on to their sons, are the leaven.