Mark 8

¹ In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, ² “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. ³ And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” ⁴ And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” ⁵ And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” ⁶ And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. ⁷ And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. ⁸ And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. ⁹ And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. ¹⁰ And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. ¹¹ The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. ¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” ¹³ And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. ¹⁴ Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵ And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” ¹⁶ And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. ¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” ²¹ And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

One morning this past week I opened my email and saw an email from a friend of mine that contained only one line. It read: “Feed the white dog.”

I suspect many of you will know immediately what that refers to. It is alluding to an old story that many attribute to an elderly Cherokee elder. There are a number of different versions but that does not matter right now. In this version, an old Cherokee elder was telling some children in the village about his life. “There is within me,” he said, “two dog: a white dog and a black dog. The white dog is good and kind and virtuous. The black dog is wicked and mean and cruel. And all day every day the two dogs fight within me.”

“Which one wins?” asked one of the Cherokee children.

“Whichever one I feed,” answered the elder.

Thus, my friend’s email, “Feed the whited dog,” could be translated to mean, “Choose the right path, make the right decisions.”

The Bible is filled with metaphors and images of two different ways, two different realities, that present themselves to us. Jesus spoke of a broad way and a narrow way. Jesus spoke of people being either sheep or goats. Jesus spoke of the wise virgins and the foolish virgins. Etc.

Feed the white dog. It is a poignant and powerful little story and one that makes a good point. Paul got at something like this idea in Romans 7.

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. ²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul saw within himself two forces at work, each vying for mastery over his heart. Again, this is a common theme in scripture.

We might approach it in yet another way, a way that would have been understood by the Jews of the first century. Instead of “Feed the white dog,” we might say, “Don’t eat the leavened bread.” That is an image that a first century Jew would have understood. It is an image that was employed by Jesus in Mark 8:1-21. In this text, we have three episodes but they are bookended with bread. Bread forms what is called an inclusio, a literary device in which a section of scripture begins and ends with a single idea or object or concept that informs everything in between.

This passage, then, is about bread, both literally and spiritually. It contains a miracle and a warning not to eat the leavened bread.  This is a miracle we need to remember and a warning we need to heed today.

Jesus always offers us bread. The devil always seeks to corrupt it with leaven.

The chapter begins with a miracle that closely parallels the earlier miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.

¹ In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, ² “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. ³ And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” ⁴ And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” ⁵ And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” ⁶ And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. ⁷ And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. ⁸ And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. ⁹ And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.

Like the feeding of the five thousand, there is a great crowd present. They have been with Jesus as He taught for three days. The crowd is hungry and they need to eat immediately. Their homes are too far away. Jesus asks how much food the disciples have. They produce seven loaves of bread and “a few small fish.” Jesus blesses the food, it is miraculously multiplied, and everybody is fed. There were seven baskets of food left over. Michael Card notes that the only real difference between this story and the feeding of the five thousand involves these leftovers.

All that is different is the Greek word for “basket.” Here, as in Matthew 15:37, the word used is spyris, a man-sized hamper or basket. It is the word used of the basket in which Paul was lowered in Acts 9:25. There are seven extremely large baskets of leftovers when initially there were only seven small loaves of bread. The miracle is clearly one of abundance.[1]

Again we see the glory, the power, and the compassion of Jesus Christ evident in a startling miracle! The people are fed once again.

The scene moves next to Dalmanutha and a conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees.

¹⁰ And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. ¹¹ The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. ¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

Amazingly, despite His demonstrations of power, they argue with Jesus and demand a sign. Mark tells us their motive: “to test him.” They did not want to worship Jesus. They wanted to test Jesus. “Give us a sign!” they demand. Jesus’ answer is chilling: “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

The Pharisees did not want to worship. They wanted to destroy. Their motives were both disingenuous and malicious. As a result, Jesus informed them that they would not receive a sign.

Next, quickly, the scene shifts to the boat. Once again, bread is discussed.

¹³ And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. ¹⁴ Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵ And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

Here is a common dynamic in the Bible: a person or a group of people will view an issue or question on a lower, earthly sense, but Jesus will speak of it in a higher spiritual sense thereby confounding the limited vision of the people. This is what is happening here. The disciples are on the boat and they realize that they only have one loaf of bread. They begin to discuss this unfortunate fact. Jesus says, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

They are thinking in a earthly sense but Jesus is speaking in a spiritual sense. It is a metaphor that should have been clear enough to them given the Jews’ approach to the issue of leaven and leavened bread. The IVP Dictionary of Biblical Imagery says this about leaven.

Used since prehistoric times, leaven includes various agents, the most common of which is yeast, causing dough or batter to rise through the process of fermentation. Yeast, a fungus that ferments carbohydrates in various substances, is also responsible for the fermentation in making beer, wine and spirits. Yeast occurs widely on plants and in the soil.[2]

“[T]he ordinary leaven,” says Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary, “consisted of a lump of old dough in a high state of fermentation, which was mixed into the mass of dough prepared for baking.”[3]

There was some place for leavened bread in Israel’s life. It was “the normal fare for the ancient Israelites (Hos 7:4),” it was “employed in the peace offering (Lev 7:13), and the offering of the first fruits of the grain harvest consisted of two loaves baked with leaven (Lev 23:17).”[4] So the point is not that leaven was always considered to be a metaphor for evil. Furthermore, Jesus once used the idea of leaven in a positive sense to speak of the kingdom of God. In Luke 13, Jesus said:

²⁰ Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Regardless, “the most prominent idea associated with leaven is connected with the corruption which it had undergone, and which it communicated to bread in the process of fermentation.”[5] Joel Marcus observes that leaven “is a common Jewish metaphor for the Evil Inclination, the destructive and anarchic impulse within the hearts of human beings, which causes them to sin” and that “Jesus…is warning his disciples against being infected by the same evil impulse that has hardened the hearts of his enemies, the Pharisees and Herodians (cf. 3:6; 12:13).”[6]

If we step back and consider Jesus’ statement in a more general sense (“Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”), we find the principle that Jesus always offers us bread but the devil always seeks to corrupt it with leaven.

Feed the white dog.

Avoid leaven.

Understand that the devil is always seeking to introduce corrosive, corrupting elements into the pure gifts that God gives us daily for our growth. Paul’s inner struggle, mentioned above, is but evidence of this fact: we are always having to fight off the leaven.

Ask yourself this question: where in your life has leaven been introduced? Where has the corrosive element been allowed entry into your soul? Paul, in calling the Church to repent in 1 Corinthians 5, wrote:

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷ Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees!

The effects of the devil’s leaven.

And what is the leaven of the Pharisees?

¹⁶ And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. ¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” ²¹ And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Let us consider the marks of spiritual leaven in terms of its fruit in the individual’s life. Simply put, you have allowed leaven into your life if:

• You have a hard heart.
• You see without seeing and hear without hearing.
• You have allowed the appearance of your current circumstances to lead to forget the faithfulness of God.

You have a hard heart.

Jesus, amazed at their fretting over a lack of bread, confronted their hard heartedness.

¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?

“Are your hearts hardened?” Put another way, “How on earth is it that you have seen me feed five thousand and then four thousand and you still dare to fear that I will let you starve? How can you be so close to what I am doing and yet miss the point in such spectacular fashion?”

How is your heart? Do you find that whenever an opportunity for needless anxiety arises you indulge it? Is your walk with Jesus merely consumeristic and observational? Do you see the miracles without allowing the truth of them to take root in your heart? Does the grand application of the life and miracles of Jesus never find its way to your heart? Is your heart a shut door?

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees! It hardens and calcifies. It puts a heart of stone where a redeemed heart should be.

You see without seeing and hear without hearing.

The leaven of the devil also mocks our eyes by keeping us from seeing and mocks our ears by keeping us from hearing.

^18a-b Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?

The reason for this question is obvious enough: they had seen the miracles and they had heard the teachings yet they still failed to understand what all of it meant for them! How is such a thing possible? It is possible because this is what leaven does. It introduces just a tiny bit of doubt and cynicism into the dough and that spreads to the point that we can see and hear all that Jesus is doing and saying and yet totally miss the point!

Think of your own life. Those of you who attend church regularly, how many sermons did you hear this past year? How many songs of praise did you sing? How many Sunday School classes or small groups did you sit through? How often did you join in prayer?

Did any of it matter? Hearing, did you not hear? Seeing, did you not see?

Beware the leaven of the devil! It can blind. It can deafen.

You have allowed the appearance of your current circumstances to lead you to forget the faithfulness of God.

One of the most pernicious effects of the leaven is that it causes us to make the appearance of our current circumstances too big. In fact, it can cause us to allow the appearance of our current circumstances to lead us to forget the faithfulness of God.

^18c And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” ²¹ And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

That initial question, “And do you not remember?” is so important. One of the ways that we keep our trials and struggles in proper perspective is by remembering. When faced with only one loaf of bread among thirteen of them (i.e., the disciples and Jesus), the disciples should have remembered that Jesus fed the five thousand and then the four thousand!

We too must do the same. When faced with the challenges of life, the trials of life, the questions of life, and the fears of life, we must remember all that God has done for us in and through Christ. By remembering all that God has done for us in Christ our hearts and eyes and ears are opened to perceive and see and hear all that Christ Jesus is doing at this very moment.

It is telling to consider that Jesus left for us a rite of remembrance: the Lord’s Supper. Thus, in Luke 22 we read the words of institution:

¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

“Keep doing this! Remember! Remember that I gave my body for you! Remember that I gave my blood for you! Remember so that you will not be led to despair. If I did all of this for you, will I abandon you now?”

Look back over your life. Has He been faithful to you? Then trust that He will be faithful even now!

Perhaps you have heard the beautiful story of the martyrdom of the early Christian Polycarp.

As Polycarp was being taken into the arena, a voice came to him from heaven: “Be strong, Polycarp and play the man!” No one saw who had spoken, but our brothers who were there heard the voice. When the crowd heard that Polycarp had been captured, there was an uproar. The Proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. On hearing that he was, he tried to persuade him to apostatize, saying, “Have respect for your old age, swear by the fortune of Caesar. Repent, and say, ‘Down with the Atheists!’” Polycarp looked grimly at the wicked heathen multitude in the stadium, and gesturing towards them, he said, “Down with the Atheists!” “Swear,” urged the Proconsul, “reproach Christ, and I will set you free.” “86 years have I have served him,” Polycarp declared, “and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”[7]

There it is! “I have 86 years of memories of God’s faithfulness to me…and you expect me to forget all of that right now and despair? I will not!”

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees! Beware the leaven of the devil! It seeks to get you to forget. It causes amnesia! Beware!

Reject the leaven and cling instead to the pure bread of life! And what is this pure bread? Not what…Who?

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus said in John 6:35, “whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

In Christ there is no impurity. In Christ there is no corrupting leaven. In Christ there is only the pure love and pure truth of Almighty God.

Beware the leaven of the devil.

Hold fast to Jesus, the Bread of Life!

 

[1] Michael Card, Mark. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), p.105.

[2] Lelan Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III. Gen. Eds., “Leaven, Leavening.” Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), p.498.

[3] F.N. Peloubet, ed., “Leaven.” Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978), p.356.

[4] Lelan Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III. Gen. Eds., p.498.

[5] F.N. Peloubet, ed., p.356.

[6] Joel Marcus, Mark 1-8. The Anchor Bible. Vol.27 (New Haven, CT: The Anchor Yale Bible, 2005), p.510.

[7] https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/study/module/polycarp/