Who´s Got the Bread?

So they began to reason among themselves, saying: ¨We did not take any loaves along.¨ Matthew 16:7  (Reference Bible)

Have you ever been reading the Bible and then stopped to think how many times Jesus had to rebuke people.

Here in Matthew 16 verses 5 to 12 we find the story of when Jesus crossed the lake and the Disciples forgot to take along any bread.  He had just had it out with the religious leaders about their propensity for bringing all heavenly things down to earthy interpretations. (verses 1-4)

Now when He warns His disciples of falling into the same trap of the Pharisees by failing to See God at work in His creation, they too come up short by thinking He was referring to their slip-up and forgetting the bread.

It is nothing short of incredible and we can see by our Savior´s reaction, just how stubbornly we trip over this same stone.  In verse 8 Jesus is forced to rebuke us again.  ¨What are you going on about?´  `What´s all this talk of bread, and what we have and don´t have?´  `Do you still have no faith?´  `Don´t you have eyes and ears and haven´t you been paying attention to all that is happening here?¨

Don´t take the easy road and throw everything on those poor Disciples for their tendency to relate all things to the physical world around.  You and I are implicated here and we do it every day.  We look with our eyes and we weigh things against our experience.  We start a big discussion on who forgot to bring the bread.

But Jesus is never concerned about mere food.  There were baskets left over after feeding 4 and 5 thousand.  When is it that we will start to lift our eyes up above all this?  Why do we waste time with our reasoning and our discussing?  When will we learn to lean on a pillar that really can support us, like the pillar of faith?

Jesus felt the need to call us ¨you of little faith.¨  When we get all caught up in our tiny reality and miss the wonder and amazing things Jesus is doing right in front of our faces, this is what we have.  When we forget to lift up our hearts and understanding to the Lord for His instruction and His enlightenment, then we begin to quarrel about who forgot the bread.

Dear Jesus, forgive us today.  We have done it again and keep doing it so often.  We see only the fact that we forgot the bread, we wasted time in discussing it and all the while You are merely trying to instruct us.  You show us Yourself and Your ways daily, if we choose to look and we accept Your rebuke, perhaps we too may see when we get caught up in our frivolous things.  Please do not hold our limitations and tendencies against us and keep us from Your instruction.  Don´t let us think of bread when you talk about leaven (oops again, …HEAVEN).  Let us keep our eyes on You.  Let us hear Your voice and know that You are forever drawing us closer to You and a heavenly kingdom and wonders far more important than food.

In You and for You, we pray.

Amen