The Leaven of the Pharisees

I've been reading Mark lately, and I've been generally kind of fascinated by Mark 8:14-21. I won't quote the whole passage, but just the first two verses:

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And [Jesus] cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."

What follows is basically one of many times when the disciples just didn't get it. I always think this is kind of sad, but I guess I don't always get it either. Matthew 16:12¹ reveals that the disciples did understand after Jesus' lecture about their hard hearts. What He was saying is to avoid the teachings of the Pharisees and Herod.

Now, the teaching of Herod makes sense. The Herodians² were a very worldly bunch. The Herod mentioned in Mark 6, Herod Antipas, was the son of Herod the Great. Herod II was Herod the Great's son by another woman. Herodias was his granddaughter through a different son. Herod II married Herodias, but they divorced and Herod Antipas married her. Confused yet? Yeah, it was such a tangled web of incest and sin that no wonder that Jesus would want his disciples to avoid it. Herod the Great was also the Herod who ordered the slaughtering of all the young males of a city to kill Jesus. He had also ordered the slaughter of many other people, including family members. I think you get the point now: "Do not be conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2).

The interesting thing to me is the leaven of the Pharisees. Now, to us this is obvious; the Pharisees are the religious bad guys, the false teachers, the oppressive rulers, the Empire (if you will). I wonder if we often think of avoiding the teachings of the Pharisees to mean, "Don't be a judgmental legalist"? Because, while that's definitely part of it, that's not the whole meaning.

Back then, the Pharisees were considered the best of the best. They obeyed the rules, they could quote Scripture easily...they were the religious teachers and scholars of their day. A Jew of those times would probably want to aspire to that level of goodness. But according to Jesus, they were sons of Satan (John 8:44) who needed to be avoided. They had left "the commandment of God and [held] to the tradition of men" (Mark 7:8). They generally sucked so much that they have nearly an entire chapter of the Bible dedicated to how much they sucked (Matthew 23). They were wolves, false teachers leading people away from the true God.

See, the reason this warning speaks to me so much is that times haven't changed all that much. In fact, I'd argue that times are worse due to the speed at which information travels these days. And the church (at least, the visible church³) is literally infested with these false teachers who have absolutely no problem spreading their Satanic influence around the world for millions of unsuspecting people to learn from.

This isn't really a post meant to give advice, it's more just a warning. Be discerning whenever you hear anyone claiming to preach the Gospel. I don't care if that man is your pastor or a man you hear on the radio or on TV; if he's not teaching the genuine, biblical Gospel, he is a wolf to flee from, no better than the Pharisees.

Footnotes

¹ In this particular verse, Jesus talks about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but it's the same general idea: avoid the teachings of false teachers.

² "Herod" was a name used by multiple kings of the Herodian Dynasty, not just one person.

³ The "visible church" is basically all the people who attend church regularly. The "invisible church," however, is all those people of the world who are genuinely saved. The reason for this distinction is because only God, who looks into the heart, knows everyone in the world who is truly saved, whereas we, who only look outwardly, don't. We can, however, have pretty good guesses.