Great Relationships. A Look at how Jesus interacted with people. (The Law of the Bread Roll)

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1 Great Relationships A Look at how Jesus interacted with people (The Law of the Bread Roll) Some time ago I went to the airport to drop someone off, but because I wanted to see them off, I parked in the undercover pay parking area. When it was time to leave, I went to pay for the parking at one of those automatic payment terminal machines the ones where you insert your ticket, and it calculates how much to pay. I inserted a R50 note, but the machine just ungraciously spat it back how rude! I looked in my wallet for another note, but there were no more, and so I tried again, but of course, it wasn t accepted. Not for lack of trying, I tried many combinations of turning the R50 note over, straightening, flattening, inserting at an angle but no matter what I tried it would not accept my R50 note. The queue behind me was growing. I tried pushing the help button to speak to a real person, but the voice that came back was too garbled to understand verbal hieroglyphics. The queue behind me was growing longer and impatient. No matter what I tried this machine would not cooperate, and the thought crossed my mind, Oh no! I'm going to spend the rest of my life in the airport because of this stupid, stubborn machine! This reminds me of the phrase The penny dropped, presumably from the time when old slot machines were notoriously unreliable and was only when the penny had dropped, the machine started doing something useful. But the phrase carries the idea of having to grapple with a concept, struggling to understand what is going on and then something switches in your brain, and suddenly you understand? Maybe at school, you battled with an algebra problem and then suddenly the penny dropped and Aha yes, now I get it. When you first starting using a your smart cell phone it was all so confusing, but then the penny dropped, and now you would take it into the shower with you if you could. This morning we are continuing with our series Great Relationships," with a sub-title A Look at how Jesus interacted with people, and this morning I want to look at two groups of people who never got what Jesus was saying they simply didn t understand and never got it the penny never dropped. As we look at how Jesus interacted with these two groups, we will see how the outcomes were so different. Mark 8: The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. 12 He sighed deeply and said, Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it. 13 Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. 14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15 Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. 16 They discussed this with one another and said, It is because we have no bread. 17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don t you remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? Twelve, they replied. 20 And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?

2 They answered, Seven. 21 He said to them, Do you still not understand? Jesus and his disciples were in the region of northern part of the Sea of Galilee, where many miracles had been seen, and consequently, large crowds of people followed Jesus. There are two groups of people that Jesus interacted with that I want to focus on this morning; firstly the Pharisees and then his disciples. In Matthew chapter 16 we read the same account, but Matthew includes the Sadducees with the Pharisees. The Pharisees and Sadducees were the religious leaders of the time, and the difference between them was that the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead and angels but the Sadducees, although religious, didn t. Both the Pharisees and Sadducees were very strict legalists, who meticulously followed the rules and regulations of the law. The other group was Jesus disciples, but here is the point, neither the Pharisees nor the disciples got what Jesus was saying both missed it completely. The Pharisees asked for a sign from heaven (v11). Prove yourself is what they were saying, (v11) If you have all these claims give us some evidence, back up your claims. Jesus sighed deeply and said, Why does this generation ask for a sign? There were many signs, but in their stubbornness, the Pharisees refused to see what was going on. In chapter 6:55 we read that many people in the area were healed as the sick were brought on stretchers and others who touched the tassel of his robe were healed. The Sadducees didn t believe in miracles and in today s language would have written those miracles off as psychosomatic or placebo effect. But in chapter 6 we see 5000 people fed from just a few loaves and a few fish, and if that wasn t enough on a second occasion in chapter 7, another 4000 people were fed. A loaf of bread in those days was more like a bread roll, and I have one with me today which is probably a more accurate representation. This bread roll would perhaps be good for lunch and satisfy your hunger. If I broke this bread roll in two, it might satisfy some small appetites, but if I split it into four, you wouldn t be very happy. However, if I broke this roll into a thousand pieces, you would only get a crumb. Jesus fully satisfied the hunger of 5000 people and then another of 4000 as he multiplied the loaves. (With their tummies full I m sure they all had a little nap in the afternoon sun.) You see that s a lot more problematic to write off this can't possibly be coincidence, chance, psychosomatic or placebo. Come on Pharisees and Sadducees there were 9000 witnesses. But still, they asked for a sign. Jesus response: V12b Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it. We ll come back to the Pharisees and Sadducees later. The other group, the Disciples, also didn t get it. Immediately after, Jesus and his disciples left and got into a boat to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee that is in the north-west part of the sea. But there was a problem, ah-oh! V14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.

3 One loaf? We are not told where this bread roll had come from. Possibly someone s mom had packed a lunch which got left in the boat. Maybe it was stale or discarded. If it had been left in the bottom of the boat perhaps it was soggy or smelled a bit fishy. V15 Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. It was probably one of those awkward moments, and a subdued mumbling and whispering came from the back of the boat. V16 They discussed this with one another and said, It is because we have no bread. Who forgot to bring lunch? It s not my job to buy bread. Why didn t you organise lunch? Who was on the roster? Well I swapped with Simon, who swapped with Jude, who swapped with James. Is this in the budget? This is, of course, conclusive proof that the disciples of Jesus were in fact Baptists. The first question they asked is, Who s bringing the food. V17 Jesus asked them: Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? The disciples got it so wrong; the penny hadn t dropped at all because this had nothing to do with bread. Jesus asked them if there was something other than bread they had overlooked: And don t you remember? Jesus continued remember what? Just days before large crowds had gathered to hear Jesus and because he had compassion on them took seven loaves of bread and fed 4000 people, and seven basketfuls of pieces were picked up afterwards. Then on another occasion, possibly a few weeks before, Jesus took five loaves and a few fish and fed 7000 people, and 12 baskets of scraps were collected. Let s think about that for a while. Imagine a graph. On the horizontal we have loaves, and on the vertical, we have baskets of leftover pieces. X axis loaves and Y axis baskets. We know we have seven loaves and we know seven baskets were left. We also know that five loaves produced twelve baskets. So if we draw a line, direct proportion, connecting the seven loaves intersection to the five loaves intersection, the one loaf (the single lonely loaf they had in the boat) intersection would have resulted in 23 baskets of pieces left over.

4 But the disciples missed it completely, and obviously Jesus was not teaching about figures, numbers or proportions, but about a principle that God can provide abundantly more than we can imagine. There was, however, something more serious going on: V15 Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. There was a double warning that Jesus gave them be careful, watch out. In the Bible, yeast is symbolic of something invasive, spreading, slowly and subtly taking over. The warning of the Pharisees is a warning against legalism. The Pharisees were very religious and strict and followed the Law of Moses, but within their dedication, their hearts were cold and hard. They followed thousands of their own rules and regulations and looked down on anyone else who didn t. Not all Pharisees were bad, Nicodemus for example, was a Godly man, but for the most part, their message was clear, You must change and be like us perfect, just put in more effort and try harder, follow the rules. They pointed fingers saying, the problem is out there, but didn t look inwardly into their own hearts. The other warning was that of Herod. You will remember the account when on Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. As a result, John the Baptist was executed by Herod (Matthew 14:6.) This speaks of plain worldliness where culture is overtly anti-christian. This warning is about a secular world where there is no room for God, where behaviour is based on feelings - if it feels good then do it. God is dismissed entirely and Christianity is openly rejected. Verse 13 carries an awful, tragic message. V13 Then he left them. My blood runs cold when I read that verse, and it raises the question, is there a point when God speaks so often to cold, stubborn hearts that eventually He leaves? Jesus left. Jesus no longer spoke into their lives and no longer offered hope and salvation; how very, very sad. May God never stop striving with our stony and obstinate hearts. We need to pray for our families, city and country that God will continue to speak. Both the Pharisees and the disciples got it wrong. However, there was a fundamental difference between the two groups because the disciples were teachable, but Pharisees were unteachable - this made all the difference. Jesus told a parable to illustrate the difference. In Matthew 25, we read a story of a businessman who went on a journey and entrusted his property to three of his servants. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to the third servant he gave one talent and told them to go and invest the money. When the businessman returned, he called his servants to give an account. The five talent employee and the two talent employee had doubled the money, for which they were commended, but the one talent servant buried his money and returned only what had been given to him. The businessman was furious. You wicked, lazy servant! he said, Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That is pretty harsh language I m sure CCMA would have something to say about that! The talents in this parable are not about our natural gifting or talents as we understand talents. This is not John is an excellent musician and should use his talent in the church. This parable is not about aptitudes or skills, but it s a heart condition, it s all about being either teachable or

5 unteachable. Teachable people don t always get it right and make many mistakes, but they are open to the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit. Sadly there are other people, organisations, governments and even some churches who, just like airport parking pay terminals consistently rejecting notes, reject the voice of God and the Holy Spirit leaves. John Maxwell, well-known author and speaker who focuses mainly on leadership, wrote a book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Law No1 is the Law of the Lid, which essentially teaches that within an organisation, or church for that matter, one can t raise the people above that of the leadership because there is a lid. I, however, believe in the Law of the Bread Roll. Let me explain. In a small wooden boat bobbing about on the Sea of Galilee was Jesus, 12 disciples and an obscure bread roll. One bread roll changed the world. In Mathew s account we read: Matthew 16:12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood they looked at the bread roll and the penny finally dropped. These 12 disciples went on to change history as they spread the good news of the gospel around the world. You and I owe our Christian existence to these disciples. Billions of people down through the ages have found salvation, reconciliation and fellowship with God. Jesus invested the Church, the Bride of Christ into the hands of these 12 imperfect, fallible, often getting it wrong, but teachable men. This is such an encouraging truth because God can take what others reject and use it for His glory and purpose. But this is more than God using what others reject it s not some spiritual recycling bin, it s not recovering from a bad situation or making the best of a bad situation, but rather it is a total transformation into something glorious. Jesus said in (Matthew 5): Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. It s those who are merciful, pure in heart, and the peacemakers God uses. This is the Law of the Bread Roll,