I was reading Matthew chapter 16 this morning. It's not new to me. I've read it countless times over the years. But this morning something stopped me. Jesus warned his follower to beware the yeast of the Pharisees. Again, not a new verse to me. But this time I stopped to think about just what the yeast of the Pharisees actually is.
This warning is tucked in with a harsh rebuke to the Pharisees for giving their own rules the same weight as the word of God. It dawned on me that much of the Christian church today has a terrible yeast infection. We've built a fortress of rules and doctrines that we claim are rooted in scripture. These man made rules often carry as much or more weight than the actual scriptures. These rules keep the people inside feeling very self-righteous and those on the outside feeling very rejected. If that sounds familiar, it's because the church of today is almost a mirror image of the Pharisaical culture of Jesus' day.
We haven't been vigilant and the result is the yeast of the Pharisees is folded into our Christian culture so completely that we don't even recognize all the places into which it's crept. From our buildings to our classes to our worship services to our seminaries it's amazing how much we look like those Jesus railed against and accused of being the blind leading the blind. Will we ever wake up and realize just what kind of ditch we've fallen into? I sure hope so.
1 comment:
I'm not trying to be funny, but does this have anything to do with Jesus and His disciples eating unleavened bread? Is He trying to tell us to be unleavened, and only use the yeast of our Father in heaven to be raised up? PEACE
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