The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 364

senUng their respective sexes in owning his Messiahsbip. So afterwards, on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the crowd that went before and the crowd that followed after had cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna. in the highest I" the children in the temple responded, Hying in the selfsame strain, "Hosanna to the Son of David I" Old and young, male and female, Gentile and Jew, thus unite their tribute to that Saviour whose mercy they need, whose grace they share, by whose work they are benefited, and in wh088 salvation they participate. But not so these captious, sceptical, falie-hea.rted, and malignant Pharisees. Un three other occasions we read of a sign being demanded-fter the cleansing of the temple, the journey through the corn-fields, the feeding of the five thousand; so also on the occasion mentioned here. What was the nature of the sign for which they clamoured? The signs they sought were marvels of a. garish kind-ppea.r- ances in the sky, such as manna. coming down from heaven, as they themselves hiti- ma.ted in John vi.; or the standing still of the sun and moon, or the sudden descent of thunder and hail, or some change of the atmosphere, as Theophylact suggests; or the calling down of fire and rain, or the receding of the sun's shadow on the dial, or some great, overmastering, and stupendous miracle. "They thought," says Theophylact, "he could not perform a sign from heaven, as one who in league with Beelzebub could only perform signs on earth." Ilut had they not seen even greater signs than these ? And, had they been favoured with the signs of their own choosing, would they have been satisfied? 'l.'here is no reason to believe they would. Our Lord, however, never gratified an idle curiosity, nor wrought a miracle to create wonder, but usually to supply some want or relieve some necessity. III. THE DIBOIPLEB' WANT OF SPIBITUAL DISCERNMENT. Our Lord, e.s we have seen, had to contend with the hostility of the Pharisees, their stubborn disbelief and ensnaring captiousness. In view of these, and of the subtilty of the temptation which claimed a. miracle to prove his Messiahship, as also perhaps of the crisis that was hurrying on. there welled up from the depths of his heart that sigh of mingled patience and pity. But he had more to contend with than Pharisaic opposition and disbelief; he had the perverse- ness of his own disciples. If he had the stolid stubbornness of the Pharisees to encounter on the one hand, he had the stupidity of his own disciples to oppose on the other. On the one side there was sullen scepticism, on the other so.d slowness of heart ; on the one malignant frowardness, on the other wayward misconception. How often is the disciple of Christ similarly situated I He meets with open enmity on the part of godless, Christless men, while unaccountably he fincis obstacles thrown in his way by the pro- fessed friends of truth. If foes are bitter in their opposition, friends sometimes fail to render the expected and much-needed support-often, however, more from want of thought than want of will. But when distressed and depressed, what by fightings without and fears within, we have the example of our Lord to encourage us and keep us from desponding. If such things were done in a green tree, what may we not expect to be done in a dry ? IV. MEANING OF THE WARNING AGAINST THE LEAVEN. Our Lord broke off his inter- view with these hypocritical Pharisees abruptly, and re-embarked rather hurriedly. He aba';J-doned them in their unbelief, renouncing and rejecting them as impracticable mahgno.nts. The disciples, whose duty it was to provide for their own and Master's wants, had somehow overlooked or neglected the duty that thus devolved on them. ~ither, owing to their hasty re-embarkation, they had forgotten (ir•Acl8ol"l'o being used lD a pluperfect sense) to provide bread before starting-a. strange oversight after having collected seven large baskets ( INnlplBa.s) full of fragments; or, after landing, and when tl~ey h_ad come to t~e other side, they forgot ( lr•>-.tl9o,rro having the ordinary past sig- mficat1on of the aonst) to take bread for their land-journey further, though they had had _only o!le loaf with them in the ship. Our Lord, as usual, improving the occasion, and mte~dmg to guard his disciples from the subtle, insinuating errors and example of the Phansees, warned them against their plausible but pernicious teaching, and in doing so he employed terms, as was his custom, suggested by recent occurrences. " Take heed, beware," he said," of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod;" or, as Meyer understands the word (/JAl1r•T•), "Take heed, turn your eyes away from the leaven of the Pharisees, and from the leaven of Herod;" or, as St. Matthew has it, from "the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees," so that Herod, from his Sad• 362 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. :MARK. [en. vm. 1-38.