Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod - March 18
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; PM Psalm 119:121-144; Gen. 50:15-26; 1 Cor. 12:1-11; Mark 8:11-26
I’m not really that surprised by the exchange with the disciples. As I grow in my faith, I have plenty of moments where I experience the miraculous love of God through others and can rest with confidence in the hope of Christ. If you have been following my journey with the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer, this would be the last section:
Q. What is Christian hope? A. The Christian hope is to live with confidence in newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God's purpose for the world. – page 861
I’m telling you—the catechism is theological gold.
And then, I have moments where I pivot, read something, or just witness humanity at its absolute finest (I’m being sarcastic), and I forget that hope, or at least I don’t let it define what I’m seeing. Kind of like the disciples in this reading, who once again are worried that they don’t have bread, even though the passage just before this is Jesus feeding 4,000 people with seven loaves.
Why don’t they trust in God’s abundance?
And if I’m honest, the better question is: why don’t I?
Because I have seen it. I have experienced it. I write about it, preach about it, teach about it, and hope to embody it. And yet, it doesn’t take much for me to slip back into doubt—to start worrying about what I don’t have or what is beyond my control.
Those words hit hard today: “Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see?”
Maybe the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod isn’t just something out there. Maybe it’s that slow, subtle way of seeing the world that forgets grace, or assumes scarcity, or makes us doubt that God is working to make all things whole, not just in our lives but all of it.
And the invitation of Jesus is not just to believe more, but to see differently. We are called to remember this truth. Certainly, our faith helps us to recognize that love is the most powerful force in this world, that the way to life is through the giving of ourselves, and that God is present in those very moments, inviting us into the radical way of Jesus Christ.
Christian hope is choosing, again and again, to trust that the God who fed the thousands is still at work. God is still providing, still multiplying, still bringing life out of what feels like it can’t possibly be hopeful. This is the miracle of Jesus Christ.
John+