Mark 8:14-21 New Living Translation 14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.” 16 At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear? ’Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?” “Twelve,” they said. 20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?” “Seven,” they said. 21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them. Friendship Bread is one of the most delicious breads I've ever had. It's usually given as a gift but not already prepared. You receive all that is needed in order to make the bread along with a piece of dough already prepared, that piece is very important because it contains the yeast you'll need for your dough to rise. Think about it, the yeast is passed on from person to person and is enough to permeate the whole bread.
It's no wonder Jesus said, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.” In the friendship bread the influence the yeast had is a good thing but the yeast of the Pharisees was false teahcing and hypocracy and the yeast of Herod was immoral and curropt behavior, let's not forget that he had John the baptizer beheaded. This is the yeast that Jesus was warning them of. The disciples had no clue what Jesus was warning them of, they actually thought he was talking about bread for them to eat. Jesus quickly quizzed them on the miracles of the loaves and the amount that was leftover for each miracle. this would serve them well and it would seem that they "got it" in light of Peter's confession that we'll read on Friday. Jesus' frustration and rebuke was not unique to the disciples. Both the Apostle Paul and the writer of Hebrews say something similiar in to the church as well. Paul writing to the divided and sin drunk Church of Corinth said, "I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready." 1 Corinthians 3:2 and the writer of Hebrews said to the church thinking of going back to Judaism, "You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food." Hebrews 5:12 We may not know all the answers to people's Bible questions but there are plain truths that we can live by today. Love God and love your neighbor, these two truths can and should keep us busy for a lifetime.
1 Comment
Alan
11/9/2016 11:59:13 am
Amén! 😇 Many times we are very disracted by everything that is going on around us, we seem to complicate things. This reminds me that the best way to bring peace is through love!
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