I had to laugh out loud the other morning while reading Scripture from my daily devotional. The disciples had just witnessed Jesus turning seven loaves of bread and a few small fishes into enough to feed thousands with seven basketfuls of pieces leftover. Several events followed, one being that the Sadducees and Pharisees in wanting to test Jesus, asked Him to give them a sign from Heaven. Answering their question with less than what they wanted, He left. Meeting up with the disciples a little later, Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
What happens next is what started me chuckling.
“And they (the disciples) began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.””
Can’t you just see it? Jesus has just been in a most unpleasant discussion with the “snakes and vipers,” of that day—those who twisted the Jewish law for control of others and benefit for themselves—when He hears the disciples in confused conversation basically shrugging their shoulders, saying, “What is He talking about? We don’t have any bread, therefore we can’t have leaven.” Or even—by Jesus’s full response to them, (see below)—maybe a few were worried that they didn’t have anything to eat.
If Jesus was just an ordinary Jewish man, can’t you see Him sighing deeply, shaking His head, while uttering the Yiddish phrase, “Oy vey?” Thankfully though, because He is God, with much patience and love, He spells out what He meant.
Read on.
“But Jesus, aware of this, said, ‘O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Do you see yourself in the disciples’ shoes? I know I do. So much of the time, I miss the point or worry about things that don’t matter. Twisted in knots upon knots, I get anxious about that which I have absolutely, unequivocally, no control over. Becoming tangled and distracted, I miss the meat of the matter by being caught in a self-absorbed web of my own making.
Jesus call us to faith, that freeing-us-to-take-our-eyes-off-of-self-and-our-circumstances, faith. Like the disciples who missed what Jesus was saying by focusing on what doesn’t matter, or in not trusting that Jesus will take care of them by providing for them, we, like them take on that which we cannot shoulder or have no business holding onto.
But how do you truly believe that God will take care of you? How do you let go of those things that you can’t control? How do you trust when you feel like all you have hold of, is just a thread, if even that? When your knees are shaking and it seems like you can’t stand up, much less go on, how do you have faith? It is much easier to say that you will let God take over, but when push comes to shove, it is so much harder to do. In fact, without God, it is impossible.
I believe, that is one reason why Jesus’s last words on the cross were, “It is finished.” Because truly it is. He takes care of all our needs. He takes all our sin upon His shoulders. He even takes care of giving to God our “impossibles” because left to ourselves, we cannot, in our own strength, give one iota of anything to the Lord. Even surrender to God is unattainable. Without Jesus, we cannot come into the rest He longs to give us. Jesus in us is our only hope of glory. (See Colossians 1:27.)
After being “introduced” to Jesus at a Christian retreat when I was fifteen years old, I searched five long months trying to find Him, answering every altar call given. It wasn’t until one Sunday morning in July, when walking down the aisle to the front of my church one more time, I told my pastor, “I’ve lost Jesus and can’t find Him anywhere.” The surprise. Jesus found me. He had been waiting all along for me to come to that place of confession and realization. I can’t, but He can.
When speaking with the disciples about entering the kingdom of heaven, Jesus tells them that, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
Jesus calls us to love mercy and walk humbly before Him. (Micah 6:8)
If you’re wrestling with anything—forgiveness, problems, burdens, sin, worry, giving everything over to the Lord, giving it over and taking it back, missing the meat of the matter, or getting tangled in self, (the list can go on and on)—confess that, because anything else—trying to change or fix ourselves, doing it in our own strength—is a form of pride. If we confess those things to Him, He will forgive and change us from the inside out; the transformation being lasting and complete. (See 1 John 1:9.)
James 4:6 ESV tells us, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
It’s so easy to get distracted from the Truth by the worries of this world, but look up and look heavenward. Jesus is waiting to give us all the grace we need. All we have to do is to call out to Him.
Kimberly
