Spiritual Blindness and the Church in America
Mark 8:14-21: “14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. 15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. 17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? 18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? 19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. 20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. 21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?”
Following immediately on the heels of the Feeding of the 4,000 (Mark 8:1-10), the disciples forgot to pack food and there was only one loaf amongst the 13 men in that boat. This one loaf would have been a small pita-sized flatbread approximately 8 inches in diameter and only about 1 inch thick. This one loaf would not have even constituted a snack for 13 men and this inspired the concern in the minds of these disciples because of what Jesus said next.
Jesus ordered His disciples to “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” This was a solemn order by Christ to His disciples that had to be obeyed in no uncertain terms because what we see in the Greek text are two present tense imperatives back-to-back with words that are nearly synonymous. The repetition is what makes the warning emphatic.
The question becomes what exactly were the disciples to beware of? What were the disciples to be careful to avoid? The “leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod.” “Leaven” refers to the small amount of starter dough left over from the previous week’s batch used to make bread. The “leaven” would cause the bread to rise. “Leaven” in Scripture can be used neutrally or even positively (Matthew 13:33), but most often it is used as a symbol of unholiness, sin or evil. When Paul rebuked the Corinthian church for tolerating – even glorying in their tolerance – of sexual immorality in the church, he commanded them to excommunicate the man committing sexual immorality with his father’s wife. Paul declared this in 1 Corinthians 5:6, “6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” “Leaven” then generally represents the permeating power and influence of sin.
Mark does not tell us what exactly the “leaven” of the Pharisees and that of Herod consisted of. In Matthew’s parallel account the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees was their teaching (Matthew 16:11-12). In Luke’s gospel, the leaven of the Pharisees was “hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1). Here in Mark, not only are we not told precisely what the leaven is, but the leaven is that of the Pharisees and also of Herod Antipas and the combination at first seems odd. But, we have seen this alliance before between the Pharisees and Herod, or more specifically his followers the Herodians. In Mark 3:6, they colluded with one another to find a way to kill Jesus. In Mark 12:13, this alliance reappears in an effort to trap Him. And given the immediate context of the Pharisees’ permanent spiritual blindness and their obstinate rejection of Jesus Christ in Mark 8:11-13 it seems the “leaven” here refers to opposition to Christ, even to the point of constituting a genuine threat to His life.
Ultimately, however this is neither here nor there because this train of thought jumped the tracks long before it even left the station because the disciples so mangled Christ’s warning. The disciples’ response came straight out of left field and their spiritual blindness takes us on a massive detour that completely overshadows Christ’s warning to such a degree that the detour itself and its cause now become the main point of the passage.
Jesus warned against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod and the disciples thought Jesus was speaking about literal bread. The immediate question for us is how on earth is this even possible? The spiritual blindness here frankly takes your breath away. Certainly, there is no excuse for this level of spiritual blindness. But, given what has transpired, there is scarcely even an explanation for it. Nevertheless, Mark 8:14-21 gives us important insight into the causes of spiritual blindness. Insights that are essential in our day, perhaps more so than at any point in church history.
Before we get to the causes of the disciples’ spiritual blindness, we need to say something upfront. The disciples’ spiritual blindness bewildered Jesus as evidenced by a series of rhetorical questions He posed to them in Mark 8:17-21. And notice the final question in Mark 8:21, “And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?” This presupposes that Jesus expected them to understand – their spiritual blindness could have been avoided, it could have been helped – but it was exacerbated by mistakes the disciples themselves had made. I believe we see two of them here in our text. There are two causes of spiritual blindness.
Taking Christ’s Words Out of Context
The first cause of spiritual blindness we see in this text stems from the fact that these disciples took Christ’s words completely out of context. They weren’t really listening to all that Christ had said. It is instructive to compare the disciples’ response here to that of the Syrophoenician woman’s in Mark 7:27-29. “27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. 29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.” This Syrophoenician woman demonstrated remarkable spiritual insight by listening to all that Christ had said, internalizing all He said and then extending Christ’s own parable to her advantage. The disciples demonstrate remarkable spiritual blindness by doing the exact opposite when they were confronted with a parable – one of Christ’s metaphors. The question is how?
The only thing I can come up with is that these disciples were not really listening and so they took one word completely out of context and they ran with it. How else can you explain their response? In Mark 8:11-13, the disciples saw yet another dispute with the Pharisees, they were confronted yet again with their obstinate rejection of Jesus Christ, which caused Him to disassociate from them. They then got into a boat to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and Jesus told His disciples on the way, immediately on the heels of all of this, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod.” And their first thought was, “Oh, we forgot the bread.” It’s as though they were playing some bizarre game of word association. Leaven. Bread. And they ignored everything else Jesus had said and disregarded completely the context within which He had said it.
Fixating on the Wrong Things
The second cause of spiritual blindness we see in the text stems from the fact that these disciples were fixated on the wrong thing – the temporal and the material and not the spiritual. They were obsessed with the physical and where their own next meal would come from, so that when Jesus spoke to them of spiritual truths, they missed it. They constantly misunderstood Jesus because they were not on His wavelength. He spoke to them of heavenly things, but those truths were impossible to grasp because they were so preoccupied with their own stomachs.
Jesus then asked these disciples a series of questions – 8 in total. Mark 8:17-21, “17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? 18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? 19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. 20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. 21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?”
These questions are reminiscent of what Christ said to the outsiders in Mark 4:11-12. Now He says the same thing to those who were supposed to be on the inside – His own disciples. Jesus was bewildered by their concern and their preoccupation with the temporal and the material when they knew they were with God Incarnate who creates ex nihilo – out of nothing. Jesus created food to satiate thousands and these disciples were eyewitnesses to this. They saw Jesus take 5 loaves and 2 fish and feed 20,000+ with 12 baskets left over. They saw Jesus then take 7 loaves and a few small fish and feed 16,000+ with 7 baskets or literally hampers left over. Jesus reminded them of what they saw in an effort to get them to stop worrying about where their next meal was going to come from and focus on the vastly more important things of the kingdom of God.
Moreover, not only should these disciples have not concerned themselves with food because they were with the One who could provide it in abundance. But, the feeding miracles themselves expressed something more fundamental about Jesus’ person. Right after the Feeding of the 5,000 when Jesus walked on the water, the disciples presumed Him to be a ghost and they were terrified. Even after Jesus got into the boat and the wind ceased, the disciples were still sore amazed and utterly astonished. Why? Mark 6:52 tells us, “52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.” When no practical concerns over food were present, Mark 6:52 tells us that the Feeding of the 5,000 expressed a truth about Jesus that these disciples should have grasped beyond just His ability to provide food. The feeding miracles expressed something about His identity and His mission as the Messiah. Both messianic banquets should have made that clear. They did not. At least not for these disciples. Their concern for the temporal and the material overwhelmed any concern for the deeper and more fundamental spiritual truths about who Jesus was and what His mission was and that bewildered our Lord.
Conclusion
(i) Taking Christ’s words out of context and (ii) fixating on the wrong things – namely the temporal and the material and not the spiritual – is a recipe for spiritual blindness that never fully grasps the identity and the mission of our Messiah.
What is so very tragic is that when we take even a cursory look over the landscape of Christianity in America those two things are precisely what we see. That’s almost all we see. The Bible has become a hodge podge compilation of timeless maxims and practical proverbs devoid of all contextual meaning. The principal purpose of which is to fulfill material needs and temporal desires that are deeply self-centered. Jesus our Messiah is no longer the center of His church. Jesus has become its afterthought.
The largest church in America by a wide margin has become the standard bearer for this type of superficial Christianity and virtually every other church on any list of the largest churches in America have gone to school on their throw. During the month of July 2024, this church engaged in a sermon series at their various locations entitled At the Movies. This is what is written on their website about that sermon series, “During At the Movies, we’ll watch scenes from popular movies in church, and Pastor _____ will use them to teach us more about God, ourselves, and the life that’s possible for us. And our locations go all out – transforming the lobbies into movie sets from your favorite movies and creating photo ops and other fun for your family.”
These are the titles of some their most recent sermons, “Finding that Someone Special,” “Facing Your Self-Doubts,” “Driven By Your Dreams.” When you scan this church’s sermon archives these themes are repeated over and over again. Some of this might be helpful. Some of it might even be tangentially biblical. But all are aimed at one primary purpose – to twist the Bible, to contort the Scriptures into a practical self-help guide for your best life now. The pastor becomes a poor man’s Tony Robbins. The church becomes a vessel that aims at the lowest common denominator – base self-interest. And they hollow out the Bible to do it. It’s heartbreaking because these men have taken their God given talents and prostituted them to deliver sermonettes for Christianettes Sunday after Sunday, regardless of whether or not those sermons are faithful to the whole counsel of God. Who cares what the Bible actually says contextually? There’s no money in deep spiritual truths. But, self-help is big business. These men have cloaked their churches in spiritual blindness because they may never say this out loud, but their sermons articulate it clear enough: Jesus Christ is not the God of the Bible, you are.
Please make no mistake about this. The Bible is not about you. The Bible is not about me. The Bible is God’s self-revelation. The Bible is about God and His Christ. And if we make the Scriptures about us or anything or anyone other than God and His Christ we miss the point entirely. The church in America has buried the lead. It is no wonder we are dying.