It's Not About the Bread

 “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread?”                                                  Matthew 16:8-11a (NIV)

Sometimes, when I read about Jesus’ interactions with His disciples, the ones he was planning to leave in charge of the mission, I wish I could see his face and hear his voice, when they act like the humans that they are.

Time to back up and get the full picture of what leads to these questions. Jesus and the guys had been busy – healing people, teaching, feeding the multitude and then the religious leaders turned up to test Jesus by asking him to show them a miraculous sign from heaven. Jesus says nope and He and the guys leave. They cross the lake and the guys realize they hadn’t brought any bread with them. While they are looking at each other, I can imagine them being like – I thought you were getting the bread, no I thought you were getting it. When Jesus declares” “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” It would seem the guys heard Jesus but didn’t actually listen to Him, cause they start arguing about not having bread.

Here’s where this week’s questions come in and where I imagine the look on Jesus’ face. You know the kind of look that might be accompanied with something like: “Dudes why are you fighting about bread? Weren’t you listening to what I said? We have fed the multitudes with very little and had left overs, so I am not worried about lunch or dinner, plus I specifically said Pharisees and Sadducees. Then Jesus repeats His warning about the yeast of the religious leaders. The disciples have a light bulb moment and are like “Oh, He’s talking about the deceptive teaching of those guys – duh!”

Now I feel a little need to cut the guys some slack. Sure they had witnessed and participated in some miraculous things, but they were living this out live, up close and in person. The Book hadn’t been written yet they couldn’t step back and see the whole picture and well they were human. We have the book and can see the broader picture but we still don’t always listen to what Jesus is saying – because we are just human too.

Jesus says, don’t worry but we do. Don’t fear but we do. Beware of the yeast of the leaders – but we have a tendency to believe what we see in our social media feeds instead of His truth.
There are people in the world who do rightfully worry about what’s for lunch – but most of us have our daily bread. We need to guard our hearts and minds by filling both with the truth that calms our fears and brings us rest and peace in the midst of the storms of life.

Let me know your thoughts. Know someone who might be encouraged by this – please share. I will be praying for you. Until next week – Beware of deceptive teaching and fill your mind with Jesus.