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The confusion in the stories of the gospel arises because the Apostles interpret the words of the Lord literally. When The Lord said, You must take care of the yeast of Herod and the Pharisees, He spoke of yeast that is symbolic of corruption. For the Jews, the symbol of purity is unleavened bread – bread made from water and flour. To mix it with yeast would corrupt the bread.
When the Lord said, you must take care of the yeast of Herod, he was referring to Herod’s corruption and not Herod as a baker selling yeast. Unfortunately, the apostles took it literally and said, “They have no bread.” The apostles’ fault is that they interpreted the Lord’s words literally and, therefore, became confused.
Is it not the same with us? We tend to interpret our lives literally. For example, when things go badly for us, we conclude God is punishing us. When things go well, we are healthy, and everybody is happy, we say God is blessing us. When somebody is sick or there is a problem with the family, we say God is testing us.
Are you sure of all these notions? Or are you not interpreting events as literally as the apostles did? When they heard “Yeast,” they immediately thought “bread.” When we hear bad, we immediately say “evil.” When we hear of good, we immediately say “God.” Are you sure? The cross is bad, yet from the “bad” of the cross, we are given life. When something bad befalls us, we cannot immediately conclude that God is not with us. Neither can we say that When we have lots of money, God is blessing us. Perhaps God is blessing us in poverty. Perhaps the devil is temping us in prosperity.
It is only through prayer that we will be able to recognize the evil working in prosperity, and the power of God working in adversity. When bad things happen to us, we cannot literally say God is absent. When we are prosperous, we cannot conclude the devil is far away. The devil is as real as God is for us. We will only realize God’s love and plan for us, if we subject everything to prayer.
LITERAL MEANING
Mk 8:15
Jesus In My Heart
