(So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.) But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
“And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
“Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.
Eyes a
nd Ears testingRemember back in elementary school when they tested your eyes and ears. Once a year, you were marched down to the nurse’s office with 4 or 5 other victims and forced to undergo beep listening and reading faded eye charts. This was traumatic for me every year. I received my first pair of glasses in first grade which made life much clearer for me. During the eye test, however, I was forced to remove my glasses and read without the help of prescription lenses.
I always tried to memorize at least two or three lines of the smaller letters and numbers, but somehow, when I stepped up to the masking tape line 15 feet away from the chart of sight, I could not remember the sequence and was forced to read the top two lines, E and F P.
Poor disciples with myopia, the same condition I suffer from. They cannot see beyond their own belly (a growing condition for us all as we age I believe, but back to my point.) The disciples think food when Jesus thinks acting agency or motivations. Yeast for bread: OK. Yeast “acting agency or motivation” of the Pharisees: Dangerous.
Another eye test failed for the disciples. They will catch on, but not until after the resurrection and more completely at Pentecost. The gift of the Spirit is like eyeglasses for us. The Spirit helps us to see things as God sees them instead of the way our warped perceptions view them. Thank God for the Holy Spirit or we all would be trapped in myopia with no escape.
Father, thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit who opens my eyes to see life as you see it. Thank you for enabling me to understand your will and Word through the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. You are an awesome God. - Dan Jones
Eyes Wide Shut
Wikipedia summarizes the 1999 movie, “Eyes Wide Shut” as repeated and surreal sexually charged encounters for New York doctor, Bill Hartford. By the end of the movie the viewer is left wondering if it was all a dream; thus the title.
Sex didn’t consume the disciples’ minds as they sailed across the lake. The other fundamental human drive did – food. As the viewer does with the movie, Jesus watched and listened to them wondering if they had been sleeping through the first year or so of their ministry together.
He’d multiplied loaves of bread twice. So he wasn’t concerned when, picking at the one measly loaf the disciples had thoughtlessly brought for the boat trip, Jesus takes the opportunity to teach. He uses bread baking, and the yeast that gives it fullness, as a metaphor for the danger religious and political leaders often pose to an authentic relationship with God. And his followers think he’s scolding them for not bringing more bread!
That’s me, and, well, you too! We interpret spiritual truth through the lens of what we are thinking at the moment, through what our years in a particular culture have taught us to think, along with our egos and prejudices. These realities dull our ability to hear profound and life giving truth outside our own experience. So we hear the words of that truth, but just don’t get it.
This is why the searching and questioning life is so important for those who want to break out of the shadows into God’s amazing and radically different reality – the one he originally designed all creation to experience. People aware of their own assumptions, prejudices, ego struggles – self-aware people – are the only ones able to experience the glorious freedom Jesus’ truth brings.
Light of the World, shine into every region of my mind and motives. Help me walk in this light and grow increasing self-aware so I can see your reality with my eyes wide open. - Mike Leamon
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