Dig a little Deeper. Read Matthew 16.

High school yearbooks are distributed in the last couple weeks of the school year. When a student gets a hold of hers, she first checks for pictures of herself, and then begins thinking of getting her friends to sign her yearbook. Though it has been many years since my yearbook was signed, I remember one obtuse signature very keenly. Don Katich, who was funny, a year older and a lot wiser than me, wrote this in my book: Roses are red, violets are blue or purple. I like peanut butter—can you swim? Silly, but decades later, I still remember it, because the familiar rhyme was altered and sentences added that did not fit together. 

Sometimes in the gospels, something is said to Jesus, and he replies with a seemingly obtuse comment. If we simply read right past it, we are left with question marks hanging over what Jesus was communicating, and are left feeling rather odd in our lack of understanding about Jesus. We need to dig a little deeper. 

Take for instance these two verses: When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”1 Obtuse? Whatever was Jesus talking about? And what to do when we do not understand his instruction? Dig a little deeper. It was not many years ago when I read a scripture verse I did not understand that I would have to go to my bookshelves and pull down a thick Bible commentary, or several, and search to find the meaning—either from the context in which they were spoken, the original language and what was meant or something else entirely. Now, through the wonder of technology, typing the sentence into the search line, immediately brings up a number of arteries of understanding. Hence there is no reason for befuddlement or frustration! But, it takes some diligence. 

First, to whom was Jesus speaking? Who was he warning when he said ‘be careful—be on your guard’? Jesus was addressing his disciples who had been taught by the greatest Teacher, who had front row seats to one demonstration after another of Jesus’ divine thinking and works. And of course, they had committed themselves fully to following Jesus; they were not lukewarm, mediocre or casual followers. One wouldn’t think then that they would be easily taken in, right? Yet the warning. 

The Pharisees and Sadducees were the two main sects of Judaism in Jesus’ day. Matthew 16.12 says that Jesus was talking about being on guard, careful about not being influenced by them. The doctrine of the PHARISEES may be summed up in three words: they were formalists, tradition-worshipers, and self-righteous.2 The doctrine of the SADDUCEES, on the other hand, may be summed up in three words: free-thinking, skepticism, and rationalism. Do we not see these pressing in about us today? On one hand, there is self righteous, legalistic thinking of some believing Christians vs. the one who constantly debates the truths of Jesus Christ, afraid that lack of questioning means she is gullible? Or then one who accepts ‘anything goes’ in regard to the faith, (so long as one is sincere), because there is freedom. Of course, there is freedom in Christianity—that is why Christ came! But freedom that is bounded by truth-- Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus said that immediately following, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.”3 
~We must be certain we are neither trapped by ‘religion’ or 
~influenced by the arrogant scoffing of those who will not follow truth, 
~but instead endeavoring to walk in the footsteps of Jesus ourselves, reading and applying the truths of scripture. 

The Word of God is alive4 and gives us what we need to live and love well. When Jesus’ words seem incongruous, we dig a little deeper to understand his thinking. The words attributed to Jesus by the gospel writers were not accidental or superfluous either – “For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.”5 Sometimes we have to dig a little to understand. 

Christine

PastorWoman.com

1 – Matthew 16.5-6 
2 – Pharisees and Sadducees, J. C. Ryle 
3 – John 8.32, John 8.31 
4 – Hebrews 4.12 
5 – John 12.49