Sunday Sermon

"Where's the Bread?"
[Mark 8:11-21]
April 23, 2006 Second Reformed Church

Who and what can we believe? Where hear reports on the "Gospel of Judas" and the "Da Vinci Code" and some of us wonder if there might be truth in them. We read the books and articles; we watch the news reports and the movies; we listen to "scholars" who talk about "alternate Christianities" and conclude that all religions are the same. There is a movement within Christianity called the "Emergent Church" that argues that there are no absolutes. And then we have Paul, who writes, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn from listening to the truth and wander off into myths" (II Timothy 4:3-4).

In this morning's Scripture, we learn four sound teachings: First, hypocrites must be recognized and not endured. Second, false doctrine must be recognized and not endured. Third, willful ignorance must be recognized and not endured. And fourth, we must not endure our laziness, but know, commune, and remember Jesus through His Word and the sacraments.

Jesus had delivered a little girl from a demon, healed a deaf and dumb man, and fed four thousand people, when the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked Him for one more -- greater -- sign, to prove that He is that Savior. Their request was hypocritical: they came to Him, not desiring that He really prove to them that He is the Savior -- they didn't believe Him and had no interest in being convinced. No, they came to Him, hoping to trap Him, to make Him publically fail, so He would be discredited. They came to Him, after they had witnessed Him do miracle after miracle, and they asked Him for "just one more" -- which was completely unnecessary.

Hypocrites are people who ask questions, but who have no desire or purpose of ever putting the answer into practice.

And hypocrites are people that neglect the means that God has provided and seek, instead, extraordinary means. God has given us His Word and the sacraments, but rather than look to them, which, for the most part, are in plain English, hypocrites look to the evening news and say, "See, I knew it!"

Jesus heard their request and looked to the heaven, and sighed deeply in His Spirit. He recognized them as hypocrites -- He rebuked them by His sigh, and He also grieved for their sin, just as we ought to grieve sin, both our own and others. And Jesus said, "Are you kidding? I promise you, I swear to God, that no sign will to this lot of hypocrites." Why not? Because it was unnecessary; He had performed plenty of miracles. And because their request was for an evil end -- to see Him fail. And they willfully condemned the teaching of God by not receiving Jesus based on what He had said and done already. Hypocrites must be recognized and not endured. And they left.

And we're told that the at disciples forgot to bring the baskets of food they had collected; they only had one loaf of bread on the boat. And Jesus cautioned them, emphasizing His caution, as He said, "Look out Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod!"

What was Jesus saying to them? Leaven -- yeast -- is put in many types of bread to make them rise, giving the little voids in the bread that makes it spongy. Leaven is a very small thing, but once it is mixed into the dough, it permeates and affects the whole loaf. If there is any leaven, the whole loaf will be affected.

What Jesus meant was: False doctrine must be recognized and not endured.

The Pharisees and Herod, the religious and political leaders of the day had the duty to protect the people and teach them the truth of God's Word, but they had allowed and even created sinful and false teachings and added them to the Word of God. And like the leaven, those false and sinful teachings had permeated everything they taught. Even when they used God's Word to preach and teach, the leaven of their heresy affected the way they interpreted and taught the rest of the Scripture.

Today, the Christian Scientists leaven the Scripture by teaching that there is no material world, and they come out with false doctrine. The Jehovah's Witnesses and the other descendants of Arius leaven the Scripture by saying that by calling Jesus the Son, that He is not the same Being as God, and they come out will false doctrine. The Open Theologians look at the Scripture and reinterpret the verses where it is said that "God repented" by leavening the Scripture with the idea that God has no idea what the future is going to be, nor does He have any control over it, and this is false doctrine. And there are many more false teachers -- coming out of the woodwork of the church itself.

The Lord, YHWH, said, "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him" (Leviticus 19:17). If someone comes to us with false doctrine, false teaching, twisting the Scripture, or adding to it, we must frankly refute that teaching with God's Word. Paul also says, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted" (Galatians 6:1). And this has to do with more than physical transgression, but any sin, including false doctrine that a person might bring in.

Yet, if there is no repentance for false doctrine, as was the case of most of the Pharisees and Herod, Paul says, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8-9). False doctrine is not to be endure once it has been recognized.

But the disciples didn't understand that Jesus was talking about doctrine. They huddled together and said, "Jesus is mad at us because we only have one loaf of bread. We should have brought more. And now He's telling us that He's not about to eat at the same table with the Pharisees and Herod. We should have remembered to bring the baskets of bread."

And Jesus said, "Why are you talking about bread? Are you really that dense? Are you really that ignorant? Have you hardened your heart against My teaching?" Jesus said that He had taught and explained God's Word to them again and again, but now they were acting as thought their minds and heart and eyes were calloused over, and they didn't have any understanding of the simple Gospel.

Jesus didn't get angry with them because they had never heard, or because what He said was too complex for them to understand. Jesus was angry because He had taught them simply and explained to them when He left others with no explanation. Jesus was angry because they were willfully ignorant, and willful ignorance must be recognized and not endured. They had done like the three monkeys -- hear no evil, speak not evil, see no evil, but they had done it about the Gospel.

So Jesus said, "Don't your eyes work? Don't your ears work? Where were you when I fed the five thousand men? Where were you when I fed the four thousand people? Do you remember how many baskets of food you collected each time? What don't you understand?"

Now, before we think Jesus is too harsh with them, let us understand that Jesus is mad at them for acting ignorantly about things He had taught them over and over. He was mad because they should have known and remembered what He had said and taught them. He was mad because they had allowed their sin to callous over their understanding.

We know that there are things that we won't understand during this earthly life. Paul said, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away" (I Corinthians 13:9-10). In other words, in this life, the Holy Spirit helps us to understand a certain amount of the Word of God and about God Himself. But that is not all there is to know; it is not all that God is. When Jesus returns, we be perfected in our understanding, and we will know and understand far more than we ever do in this life.

The same is true of us and the disciples: some things we can understand and some we will not understand until that final day, and some we will never fully comprehend in our finiteness, but that does not excuse us from understanding what we can understand. We must not endure our laziness, but know, commune, and remember Jesus through His Word and the sacraments.

How do we understand? Relying on the Holy Spirit, we understand:

(1) By praying. The Psalmist prayed, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law" (Psalm 119:18).

(2) By not being overly worldly. David said, "Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved" (Psalm 55:22). Remember what Jesus said to Martha, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41-43). And Paul reminds us, "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are earth" (Colossians 3:2).

(3) By faithfully attending worship, reading, hearing, and listening to God's Word preached, receiving the sacraments, and through learning from and encouraging each other. The author of Hebrews wrote, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:23-25).

(4) By remembering. Moses warned Israel, "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children" (Deuteronomy 4:9). And Asah wrote of the sin of the Ephraimites, "They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them" (Psalm 78:11).

Who and what are we to believe? How can we understand? Let us pray. Let us restrain ourselves from becoming consumed with the world. Let us join together in worship, in the Word, in the sacraments, and in communion with each other and Christ. Let us remember -- what Jesus has said and done and promised.

So, let us pray:
Almighty God, we come desiring to be Your faithful children and servants. Make our excuses fall away. Keep us from being hypocrites. Make us living examples of Your Truth. And build our trust and hope on Your Truth, all You have done and will surely do, and may it all be remembered by us as we walk in the good works You have ordained for us to do. In Jesus' Name, Amen.