Matthew 16:5-12

Matthew 16:5-12

And after the disciples came into the other side, they forgot to take bread.  And Jesus said to them, “See and be on the lookout from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  And they were reasoning among themselves while saying that, “We did not take any bread.”  But after Jesus knew this He said, “Why do you reason among yourselves, you ones of little faith, you ones that have no bread.  Do you all not yet understand?  Neither do you remember the five loaves of bread of the five thousand and how many baskets you all took up?  Neither do you remember the seven loaves of bread and how many hampers you all took up?  How do you all not understand that I did not speak to you all regarding bread?  And be on the lookout from the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”  Then they understood that He did not say to be on the lookout from the leaven of the bread, but from the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Let’s look for a second at what Jesus chastises the disciples about.  Look carefully at His words.  He says, “Why do you reason among yourselves?”  Jesus doesn’t have an issue with lack of understanding.  His disciples seldom get anything the first time around.  They certainly don’t understand the big things like His crucifixion until it is explained in hind-sight.  What Jesus seems to take issue against the disciples is the fact that they are keeping their confusion to themselves.  Rather than coming to Jesus, admitting that they don’t understand, asking for help, and getting the help that they need the disciples try to reason it out so that they don’t have to admit to Jesus that they are confused.  This shows self-centered thought.  This shows that in this instance the disciples care more about how they appear than actually knowing the truth.  This is actually quite common among human beings.

Have you ever been too embarrassed to get the help you need?  Why can our own selfish opinion about our appearance of intelligence actually get in the way of our discipleship?

Second Thought:

As long as Jesus is correcting the disciples, Jesus reminds them a simple truth.  The disciples shouldn’t be worried about temporal food.  At the very least, the disciples should realize that Jesus is not concerned about temporal food.  If Jesus can feed multiple thousands of people with what seems like an incredibly small amount of food, then why would Jesus be concerned about feeding Himself and His disciples?  Jesus shows the disciples that they not only missed the boat on what Jesus was saying, they missed the boat on remembering His perspective, too!

Do you ever mistake God’s perspective?  Do you ever convince yourself that God really cares about temporal things more than He does?  Why do we as human beings convince ourselves that God cares about the temporal things more than the eternal things?

Third Thought:

What Jesus actually is talking about is the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Remember that they came out to trap Him.  They had just come out to try and take some powerful demonstration from God and twist it against Him.  Jesus tells His disciples to beware of this kind of thinking in addition to being on the lookout against this kind of people.  This is sound advice even into today’s culture.  Even in today’s culture we have people who are willing to take God’s action and twist it against God’s people.

Where in your life do you know that you need to heed Jesus’ advice?  Who are the people around you who look to squash what God is doing in you?  Are you ever one of those people who look to take God’s work and turn it against the person doing the work? 

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 16:13-16