Daily Reading, 11/12

Oh man. Today's passage contains one of, in my opinion, the funniest moments in the Gospels. I laugh out loud every time I read it, even though it probably wasn't meant to be a funny moment. Maybe it's because I can envision the disciples whispering to one another while I read this, or maybe it's because my sense of humor is sometimes strange. Whatever the reason, I find it funny. What's so funny, you might ask? Well, read on!



Today's Gospel is again from Matthew, 16:1-12. In the first four verses, Jesus is telling the Pharisees that they're blind to the signs of God's coming (in Jesus). The part I want to talk about, however, is verses 5-12. Here it is from the NRSV, mostly because The Message leaves out the funny line:



"When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, "Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They said to one another, "It is because we have brought no bread." And becoming aware of it, Jesus said, "You of little faith, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not 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 could you fail to perceive that I was not speaking about bread? Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."



Let me set the stage for you, so to speak. Jesus is probably not in a great mood, because he's had yet another run in with the Pharisees, trying to get them to understand how blind they are. Then he does off with his friends and grumbles "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees..." Then, and this is the hilarious part, the disciples look at each other and think Jesus is upset with them because they brought no bread. In the words of Homer Simpson, "DOH!" The disciples are usually thick headed, especially Peter, but this is priceless. They just don't get what Jesus was saying to them, and think he's made about the fact that they forgot bread (and, by the way, I think the hilarious part for me is their very obvious statement "It is because we have no bread!" HA. Oh I am still chuckling).



Then Jesus gets flabbergasted with them and tries to explain to them that he's not talking about actual bread. Duh. He's talking about something more important-about what is wrong in the Pharisees' and Saducees' teachings. The last sentence of the passage drives home how thick the dicsiples were: " Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Of course they understood, because Jesus had just spelled it out for them!



What does all of this say to us? First, I think it reminds us that we don't always keep our eyes open. Most of the time we're too tied up in our own worries and egos to think about something else that's going on-to look at the "big picture." I don't know how many of you watch The Office, but Michael Scott is, I think, a perfect picture of the disciples. Every now and then he gets it, and when he does he does some pretty fantastic things. Most of the time, though, he's too thick headed to figure anything out (hence the comedy in the show!). I'm hoping to preach on Michael Scott and the disciples one of these days. I'll give y'all a heads up when I do! So that's the first part: we don't look at the big picture. The second part follows from the first-we don't tend to look at the big picture and so this passage, and Jesus reminding the disciples to beware the teachings of the Pharisees and Saducees (such as the teachings on Sabbath that I discussed on here last month) that get us tied up in the little details and forgetting that it's Jesus that matters.



So there you go. I think it's hilarious and insightful. I hope you can take something away from it too.