mark 8:14-21 :: the yeast of the pharisees and herod

it’s not a matter of having enough supplies here…

praise God for having so much patience with us. we are dense and so focused on what is immediately visible that we often forget to look past ourselves. Jesus is speaking to the disciples here about the dangers of thinking and acting like the pharisees. their attitude and behavior creeps in, infecting people and ruining them. their false gods of religious rules are worshipped rather than God Himself. the herodians were concerned with their own lives and prosperity and getting along with the government and current culture, but did not persue God’s approval for ther lives.

Jesus was warning them against selfishness and wrong attitudes, and rather than listening into the depth of His words, they immediately go into a defensive stance, and bring unneeded guilt on themselves. Jesus wasn’t chiding them over bread, He wasn’t chiding them about anything at all. instead, He was advising them to steer clear of the lifestyles of two groups. to avoid particular habits and attitudes that had a tendancy to creep in unnoticed at first, but slowly work their way through every part of your life, tainting everything they come in contact with.

and since His simple teaching was taken as a correction, they missed out on what He was really trying to say. they were stuck in the physical world, and He was trying to reach so much deeper with Him.

aren’t we so guilty of doing the same thing? Jesus comes to speak to us through the Scriptures, or the Spirit and we deflect the teaching in trying to cover our backs. we get defensive, and sheild ourselves from an enriching experience with our Savior. Jesus is trying to speak to us, to reach into our very lives, and we start apologizing for things that are completely unrelated at best.

Jesus’ desire to teach us and grow us is so strong, and so ddeply rooted in His love for us, that He still tries to get the point across, even if it takes a second or third time to make His point. trusting Him to work in our lives, means trusting in His Word and looking into how to He wants us to live and act and move.

if we go on the defensive every time Jesus talks to us, then we will never be able to really explore the depth of our relationship with Him. we must understand that sometimes when He is talking to us, He is just talking to us. while other times He speaks to us in order to do some work in our lives.

be ready to listen when Jesus is talking, and remember that when He does, it isn’t all about you…