Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
The Pharisees and Herod and his followers didn’t have a lot in common. The Pharisees were all about the ritual and the law of 
religion; those who followed Herod, on the other hand were devoted to a decadent, corrupt lifestyle. They agreed, however, on the danger this Jesus and his teachings about God presented to them. They challenged Jesus and attempted to set traps for him, so as to have a reason to do away with him.
Jesus’s way can be difficult. Challenging. Especially that part about having to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow daily. By contrast, the excesses of the Pharisees and Herod required less discernment. The Pharisees’ way was exacting, setting forth the right way to do virtually everything. There was little room for error… and a whole lot of room for judging others who didn’t follow the rules quite as well as you did. Herod’s followers? They liked to be entertained, and woe be onto you if you didn’t find them fun and engaging… or vice versa.
The lesson in today’s Gospel reading from Mark 8 on beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod isn’t about a lack of physical nourishment. It’s about the danger that even a tiny bit of the wrong sort of spiritual food can do to our souls. A little gossiping or a little judging doesn’t seem dangerous. But it can be. A little excessive vacationing or a little excessive personal pampering doesn’t seem dangerous. But it can be. It’s like the struggles some of us have with an opened bag of potato chips or Girl Scouts’ Thin Mint cookies. The first is the easiest to refuse.
