Mark 8:14-21
14 They had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
15 He enjoined them, "Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
16 They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread.
17 When he became aware of this he said to them, "Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?
18 Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember,
19 when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?" They answered him, "Twelve."
20 "When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?" They answered (him), "Seven."
21 He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"
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This reading provides a great lesson of how easy it is for the flesh to take your eyes off the spirit.
Christ uses levened bread as a metaphor for the dangers presented by the Pharisees, and of Herod. That type of leaven -- the leaven of the world that rejects Him -- will poison the bread that they are trying to make.
The disciples hear this teaching and completely miss it. Sitting here now, it seems amazing that they could miss it. They think Christ is worried about food, even though they have watched him feed 9,000 people with a total of twelve loaves of bread. They've seen him walk on water, and calm the sea. They've seen him heal a leper and a deaf man. It must have left Christ shaking His head.
On the other hand, I completely understand. I can see MANY examples of how I allow the flesh to interfere with what the spirit is trying to teach me. If fact, as I type this I'm literally chuckling, because this just happened to me a couple of days ago. Two of our CRHP brothers witnessed it. We were in a discussion and I drove the discussion off the reservation because I had an enormous blind spot that wouldn't let me see Christ's message.
That's the way it goes here in the world. We need to keep our focus on Christ to be fully in tune with Him.
