(Matthew 16:6-12)
6 And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet understand nor remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you picked up? 10 Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets you picked up? 11 How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.TODAY'S TAKEAWAY:
Muscle-memory is a very interesting thing, and can be good and quite helpful in so many areas, like carrying out tasks, doing various jobs, or playing sports, or music. It's in the repetition of daily training, exercises, drills, practices, scales... So we don't even have to think about it, we will develop "habits" that become instinctual. In the same way though, we will develop bad habits. For those, in human efforts, the only way to try to stop bad habits, is to replace them with good habits.
Even in relationships, with others and with the Lord, we can develop schedules and well-choreographed patterns. Good habits, like daily devotions and praying, are good, until we find ourselves just "going through the motions" - just "doing a task", instead of truly connecting. Then, when we are faced with an issue or an enigma for which we haven't prepared ourselves, we have to stop and think (if we can).
Depending on how serious and immediate the issue is, we can get stuck, or go into panic mode. If we have become more dependent on our muscle memories, our thought process will probably start with - what can I personally do to fix this? Or, our emotions will just take over, and then we'll be hyper-focused on how we feel, and this will start to drive our decision-making.
It's very easy to get hyper-focused on the physical things that are happening to us or around us, and completely forget about God's blessings and provisions and His overwhelming love and patience with us! Just like with that good friend or relative who "gets us", and loves us (flaws and all), and is always there for us, we can start taking our relationship with the Lord for granted... until of course we're in trouble, and THEN we might think to run to Him! This just drives home the point that it is so easy to take our focus off of our relationship with the Lord. So, here Jesus is giving the disciples a warning to THINK about, which caught them off guard.
Matthew may have been the only disciple (besides Paul) who had had "further" education, while the rest of them probably only went to school until they were 12. Even still, from all of their traditions and celebrations, Jews knew exactly how the Lord delivered them from Egypt and slavery, and then provided manna, guidance and protection as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. As well, most would have known that Jewish teachers often spoke figuratively. For example, "false teaching" was often likened to "poisoned water". And "yeast", a common ingredient which spreads and inflates dough, was often used as an allegory to symbolize "evil", and how easy it is for evil to take root and spread.
Therefore, we need to figure out ways to keep our muscles, as well as our hearts and minds, connected to the Lord in a close relationship! The better we know God and the closer we draw to Him, and the more we interact with Him in all that we do, the less likely we will be caught off guard or fall into danger, or dangerous thinking. So, how else can we recognize a lie, except to know the truth!
Like with any other relationship, if and when we listen to gossip, slander and lies about someone we love and trust, it can very easily diminish our love and trust. And as these rumors spread, the more and more people will believe them. Just so, the Sadducees spoke out against resurrection, and the Pharisees emphasized human traditions and going through many muscle-memory-motions, and both aggressively opposed the Lord Jesus, and worked tirelessly to keep people from going to Him and/or believing in Him.
What do we tend to do when we hear gossip about someone we love? Well, even if a person's words are very persuasive, and they have used an incident that may seem to support what they are saying, we shouldn't just take their word for it! Besides keeping in mind what we already know about our loved one, we need to go to that person and hear their side of things. And if the gossip is true, that person has an opportunity to then make things right. It would be very unfair if they were smeared forever in our mind and we severed all ties with them, when it wasn't warranted. Would we want to be treated this way? And remember, nobody is perfect, not even us.
As for Jesus - He is perfect! He is good! And He most definitely went to the cross to die for all of our sins, and He rose again to have victory over sin and death!!! Not only can we read the facts written in His infallible word, there are archeological findings and other historical records which support the Bible. And very importantly, we can experience and see, firsthand, the evidence of God's goodness and blessings in our own lives when we continue to trust in Him and remain obedient to His directions!
Then, if and when we hear others speaking against the Lord and His word, we will immediate go to the Lord, Himself. And for everything, as we continue to study His word and His truth, and as we grow closer to Him, striving to remain cognitively connected, we will continue experiencing Him, and His blessings and goodness. Which would we rather live by, act on, cling to and help spread: rumors and lies - or - God's truth, love and His most certain hope?!
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