The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”
Luke 8:14,15
I won’t ask if you’ve ever forgotten to bring something when you left the house. Keys, wallet, phones, glasses, the list of things to pick up at the store, dog, child, children, spouse. Or my personal favorite, forgot the reason you walked out the front door in the first place.
Or you go to the store and you’re unpacking things back home. Then the light goes on and you have to decide if the item forgotten was important enough to go back for.
Today, it’s simple enough to turn around, go back in and pick up the missing item. My personal best, or worst, depending on how you look at it, is four. Four. Yes, I said four. Four trips to the same store in the same day to keep picking up something else that I could have picked up on the first trip.
Another option is to just suck it up and do without whatever you forgot. My most memorable forgetfulness happened when I traveled to upstate New York in the dead of winter and forgot my winter coat and gloves. Now, I said the dead of winter for a reason. On the following morning, I awoke to find my rental car covered in a thick layer of ice. Matters were complicated even more because there was no ice scraper in the car.
Necessity, being the mother of invention, I took out a credit card I didn’t need and used it as a makeshift ice scraper. I moved the credit card across the ice, being held by my now frozen, bare hands. This is why, to this day, always have a pair of gloves permanently pre-packed in my suitcase.
The final option is to just buy whatever you’ve forgotten. Again, my personal “best” was a business trip to Cincinnati only to discover that I had not packed a sports coat. Yes, I stopped in a department store and bought a dark blue sportscoat in about 4 minutes, 30 seconds.
If you’ve never done anything like this, then you can just skip this chapter and move on. Heck, go write a book on how you do it. Or, should I say, how you don’t do it.
Here we have the disciples, people just like you and me. When they were getting ready, they’d set aside bread to take with them. But someone forgot to bring the additional bread with them. Oops.
It’s interesting to note that there is no record of them discussing who forgot the bread. I can assure you that if this had been the family I grew up in, there would have been an extended and heated “discussion” of who forgot the bread.
It’s into this stew of events and emotions that Jesus gives a warning. And his warning is to watch out for the “yeast” of the Pharisees. This isn’t exactly a checklist of clear and specific things to be on the lookout for.
So, what did Jesus have in mind?
Jesus wanted them, and us, to use our heads. To not be gullible and just accept what people say or think. Jesus wants us to think about what people say, chew on it, compare it to what God has already said, and then make a decision on what to do, how to move forward.
In this age of instant communications, where any wingnut on the other side of the world can communicate with you, we need this instruction from Jesus more than ever. I know this is going to come as a shock to some, so I’m first going to ask, no instruct you to sit down. Are you ready? Here we go.
· Not everything on the internet is true. Shocking!
God doesn’t want his people to be naïve. But it gets worse. Companies are recording, evaluating, and selling your likes, preferences, history, everything that appears on your screen, and your reaction to it. They sell that information to people who then send targeted information to you.
The information on your screen is not an accident, nor is it the same information that everyone else is seeing. Those screens, images, and options are personally tailored to you so that you will respond, click, and ultimately buy.
In the spiritual world, things are the same. The enemy is watching everything that we say and do. Then they bring people and circumstances in order for you to fail. They’re not interested in your improved relationship with God and people, comfort of progress. They are focused on your failure. Period.
I have a friend that had a terrible fall. He didn’t trip and scrape his knee. He fell and it changed the rest of his life and that of his family, friends, and reputation. In talking with him about the “how,” his insights were impressive.
Looking back, he saw how the enemy maneuvered and controlled events, people, circumstances. He took total responsibility for his decisions, but he now sees that he was led to the edge, and then he chose to jump.
Jesus has nothing but our good in his heart. That’s a definition of God’s love – he wants nothing but the absolute best for us.
We may think him a killjoy, or overly restricted. But he wants nothing but the best for us. When will we trust him for that best before it’s too late?
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