Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees and Herod

Mark 8:15 (ESV) says, "And he cautioned them, saying, 'Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.'"

Jesus warned us about "Christian nationalism". Really, religious nationalism of any kind. They're all counter kingdom's to the kingdom of God. The context of Jesus's warning here is right after he feeds the 4000+ Gentiles. He had already fed 5000+ Jews, and now he had done the same for the Gentiles. The leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, would be counter to this. They were nationalistic in nature. They sought a kingdom on earth that “imaged” their nation, their religion, their culture, etc. This is what nationalism or ethnocentrism’s aim is.

The kingdom of God, though, is counter to this. Jesus feeding the 4000+ Gentiles (among many other things he did among the Gentiles) showed that he was not a national Savior or political Savior. He was the Savior of all nations, tribes, people, and languages. The disciples did not pick up on this easily. In fact, it would take the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 to seal once for all that the kingdom of God did not belong to any one nation or people or tribe or language. In that particular council it related to the Jewish nation. People did not have to become Jewish in order to be saved, but that didn't stop a powerful faction from continuing to preach that message.

That faction were known as the Judaizers, or the circumcision party. Paul addresses them very directly in his letter to the churches of Galatia. We see their influence in that book, too. They were so influential that Paul had to confront Peter in Antioch who began to distance himself from the Gentiles he was fellowshipping with when the Judaizers came to town. Paul confronts him, but why? He confronts him because it was hindering the gospel! Peter’s hypocrisy was leading other Jewish believers astray, even Barnabas (see Galatians 2:11-14). Paul opposed him to his face, because Peter stood condemned (Galatians 2:11). Paul says that Peter eating with the Gentiles, but when the Judaizers came from Jerusalem he stopped. He separated himself, it says (Galatians 2:12) out of fear of the circumcision party. Verse 13 says the rest of the Jews with them acted hypocritically, and Barnabas was lead astray by it. But, in verse 14, Paul gets to the heart of the matter. He says, “But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’” Paul “saw their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.” Let that sink in for a bit.

There is an obedience that comes from the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel of Jesus. All mankind were created to have dominion over all creation. We were made to be kings and queens or princes and princesses. Genesis 1:28-31 tells us this. God blessed mankind, commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. He commanded us to subdue creation and have dominion over all of it. We were created as his perfect image bearers, and given a global mandate to fill the earth with his glory. And this would be for our very good. Since Genesis 3, mankind has been on a counter mission. We have sought dominion, but it is a rebellious dominion. It is a counter kingdom. Nations rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There is no peace on the earth. We all in our rebellious pride seek to establish global dominance. We seek to fill the earth with our image, not God’s.

Thus, all throughout history we see one nation dominate another and bring them into submission to their will and way of life. Every kingdom and empire thinks its kingdom and empire is the best. They all think they are exceptional, and they all think that every other nation would be better off if they were like them. This is as old as Genesis 4. It doesn’t matter what nation, tribe, people, or language you belong to, all seek to conform the world to their will and way. You have to speak their language; worship and pray like they do and to what they worship and pray to; do government like they do; the economy like they do; family like they do; everything like they do! If you choose not to or are seen as lesser than them, then you are forced into slavery, killed, or so marginalized that you have no real way to live. The kingdoms of the world are brutal to those who will not willingly submit to their will and way. All of these are counter kingdoms to God’s kingdom.

The kingdom of God is both the same and extremely different. The kingdom of God is about submitting to his will and way, too, but it is an upside-down kingdom to what we see in the world. When Jesus came to earth, he preached the gospel of the kingdom. The good news was not just a message about personal life change. Jesus didn’t come as some self help guru. He wasn’t proclaiming some private, personal to you faith that made you a better person. No, when Jesus came proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, he was announcing that the King has come. He was announcing that God’s kingdom is here now. And he was a threat to pretty much everyone. I mean think about it. If you kill him, he will just come back to life. If you take all his food away, he’ll take a crumb and feed an army. Let’s just say you could send a natural disaster his way, he would calm it. Strike him with disease, he’ll heal it. Make him lame or blind, he’ll restore it. I mean what in the world do you do with this man?! If Jesus wanted to flex on the whole world when he lived here, he could have done it with great ease. No one could stop him. NO ONE!

But Jesus wasn’t coming to flex on us. Not this time, anyway. He was coming to serve and to save. He came to die for us. He came to bring us back home to God. He came to establish his rule and reign on the earth through his people — those who would trust in him alone for salvation. Salvation is a word that we have sort of messed up. We hear salvation and immediately think heaven. That’s not wrong, necessarily, but that’s not all it means. Salvation has more to do with wholeness than a destination. When we say you are saved by trusting in Jesus, we mean that you are made whole in Christ Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, according to Colossians 1:15. Thus, when God made mankind in his image, Jesus the “model” you could say. He is who we were fashioned after. Thus, Jesus is who we must put our lives up next to if we are to see how holy and just and righteous and pure we really are. In coming to earth, Jesus wasn’t just saving us for some future place called heaven. No, Jesus was making us whole. Jesus was making us like Him again. God has given us his Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of his Son, Jesus (Romans 8:29, Colossians 3:10).

So the kingdom of God is about submitting to the will and way of Jesus. Jesus welcomed people from all backgrounds. He welcomed Pharisees, Roman Centurions, Prostitutes, Diseased, Adulterers, Outcasts, Tax Collectors, Sinners, Gentiles, Women, Children, the Rich, the Poor, and many more. He touched the dead, the sick, the unclean, the shamed, and the unwanted. He did not use any swords, knives, bow and arrow, or other weapons. He was full of justice and righteousness, grace and truth, and mercy and judgment. He was humble. He was gentle. He loved us to death, literally. And he didn't die to affirm our lives and just accept us as we are. No, he died because "as we are" is the problem. He died to give us real, true, whole life. His life. He is not like any king on earth past or present. The way of King Jesus is the ay of humility. And his kingdom is not like anything we have ever seen or known.

In Matthew 5-7, in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus laid out how the kingdom of God works. Jesus begins his ministry on a mountain with his disciples in Matthew’s gospel account, and he ends his time on earth on a mountain with his disciples in Matthew, as well. Jesus begins in Matthew 5:2-12 where God began in Genesis 1:28 — blessing. Jesus gives us the Beatitudes. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus ends where God ended with those made in his image in Genesis 1:28-31 — a global kingdom mandate. Those who belong to Jesus are to become more and more like Jesus, not just individually, but as a global people who represent his kingdom on earth — the Church. And this kingdom is a kingdom made up of people from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages (Matthew 28:19, Revelation 5:9; 7:9).

There is much I could and am not saying for the sake of time and space, but let’s get back now to Paul and Peter. Paul opposed Peter to his face in Galatians 2 because Peter was not acting in accordance with the truth of the gospel. The gospel call us to live a certain way, and Peter was engaging in “racism” basically. He was distancing and separating himself from the Gentiles when the Judaizers came to town. It lead other Jews and even Barnabas astray and into his hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the right word here because we know that Peter didn’t really believe what the Judaizers believed. He made that abundantly clear at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. If he did believe as the Judaizers, well, then Paul made it abundantly clear in Galatians 1:6-10 that Peter would be accursed, literally condemned to hell for preaching a false gospel. Peter was acting counter to the way of Jesus. He was acting out of line with the truth of the gospel that he truly believed. He was being a hypocrite because he was afraid of the Judaizers.

The Judaizers were a tricky bunch. They used very similar language to that of Peter, Paul, James, John, and others, but they were preaching a different gospel, which, Paul says in Galatians 1:7, is no gospel at all. Their goal was to see everyone become Jewish, and circumcision was the big key to this. This is why they were known as the circumcision party, and why Paul was so adamantly opposed to Gentiles getting circumcised. The Judaizers were saying that if you were not circumcised, then you were not truly saved. It was a threat to the true gospel of Jesus, the gospel of the kingdom, which is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. It was also a threat to the gospel in that it did not produce obedience to Jesus, rather it hindered it. Nationalism, in this case Jewish Nationalism, lead to segregation of Jews and Gentiles. It did not allow for table fellowship with the "other". They were not truly "Christian" since they had not been circumcised. They were still Gentile, and not one of "the Jews".

Peter was acting contrary to the gospel, but so, too, were the Galatians. Pauls says in Galatians 5:7-10 (ESV), “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.” (emphasis mine) They were running well. Someone hindered them from obeying the truth of the gospel. Then Paul says that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. This is what Jesus warned his disciples about. This is what Jesus said to watch out for. This leaven, teaching, persuasion of the Pharisees and Herod. This teaching sounds biblical, but it’s fruit reveals something very different. It does not produce the obedience from the truth of the true gospel. Actually, it hinders your obedience. See what Paul did there? He did not say it brought about some new obedience or some close-to-the-real-thing type fruit. No, it hinders your obedience. Jesus’s global kingdom mandate is that we disciple all nations teaching them to OBEY Jesus’ commands. This Jewish Nationalism wasn't just wrong theologically and ideologically, it was actually hindering obedience to King Jesus. Someone had cut in on them as they were running well. Someone with power and influence told them that they weren’t true Christians because they weren’t circumcised. Or, as you might here today, true Christians vote for ___________, or some other variation.

This damned gospel (and I mean that as it is really meant) is hindering folks from obeying the truth! Christian Nationalism is leaven that leavens the whole lump. It is hindering obedience to the truth. It has lead many to fully subscribe to its condemned message, and it has lead many others to hypocrisy. It is anti-Christ and anti-kingdom of God. When Jesus says to ”watch out” or “beware” of something, we need to understand that he is not just saying this to create fear. He means it! He is telling you what are the true, genuine threats to the kingdom of God, to the Church, and to your life. He tells us to watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. Both were setting themselves up against Christ and his kingdom. And when combined into a religious nationalism, even more so.

The kingdom of God is not America or American. The kingdom of God belongs to NO nation on earth. Jesus is merely a mascot for American Christian Nationalism. They profane his name with every breath. They are like the unmerciful servant who is forgiven millions, only to turn around and choke the life out of those who owe them $5. But, the unmerciful servants will pay back every last penny. The prophets and teachers of this damnable message love to draw lines of division. They love to add to the gospel tests to see whether you are a "true" Christian or not. They constantly produce new “threats” to be aware of, but this a ploy. They use fear to prey on the vulnerable and the weak. They exploit the poor, the needy, the minority, even the unborn for their advantage. They take what are good and noble causes, and make them tests of genuine faith. They are puffed up with knowledge, and love to use that knowledge to lord it over others. They claim all kinds of outside influences as the greatest threat to the Church, and while so many eyes are looking outside, they continue their corruption inside. They hinder all who follow them from obeying the truth of the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus.

The craziest part of all this, is that Jesus likens their influence to yeast, or leaven. Just tiny, seemingly insignificant, yeast. But don’t be fooled, yeast is alive and it has one job — work through the whole batch of dough so that it rises. You can try all day long to go back and take the yeast out, but you have to throw the bread out. Renaming it won’t work, either. You have to toss it. Jesus makes us new. Jesus makes us whole. And, good news, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to yeast in Matthew 13:33 when he says, “He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.’” Right before this he spoke of the kingdom as like a mustard seed. It’s tiny, but it grows to be tree in which birds make nests. The kingdom of God he says is like yeast that works through the flour until it is all leavened. The kingdom of God may seem tiny and insignificant, but the kingdom of God, like yeast, is moving through the whole world right now. It is here now, but not fully. Soon Jesus will return and make all things new forever, and we will be his kingdom of priests who rule and reign with him forever from every nation, tribe, people, and language (Rev. 5:9).

Soon there will be no more earthly kingdoms, countries, empires, etc. All of those are vapors that appear for a bit and are gone. America, too. Our image will not fill the earth, nor the image of any other global power. Only God’s image will fill the earth, or as Habakkuk 2:14 says, “For the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk says this right after he talks about how nations like Babylon build their cities on the bloody backs of slaves and those they have killed. In seeking their vain glory, they sought to destroy the image of God in others and fill the earth with their own image. God’s not having any of it! They will suffer severe judgment, and God’s glory will fill the earth! That is how THE story ends.

Bryan Padgett