B
elieve it or not, Jesus Christ offered his own recipe to all “Christians” who would follow him across the ages. It was spoken in a simple warning.... “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.” Since Websters defines leaven as a yeast like substance that produces a fermented gas, causing batter to rise, I’d say our Lord was right on target when offering this warning about the religious of His day.
The Pharisees loved to be seen of all men as, “holy”, while praying loud public prayers, and observing the very letter of religious law. In the eyes of the Pharisees, all people fell into one of two categories. Either they were part of the high and holy, or the useless and lowly. Yes, I’d say Jesus was right on target to caution us to beware of becoming full of nothing more than religious gas, designed to elevate us as nothing more than, “Legends in our own minds.”
You don’t have to scan social internet sites like facebook and myspace very long to encounter much of the leaven to which Jesus cautioned us to avoid at all costs. They can be found in rantings about everything from how blessed it is that Oprah Winfrey is retiring, to long winded speeches about the corruption of America under our liberal President. “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.” It always serves to puff us up under the elevation of our own religious gas while tearing down the reputations of others through nothing more than slander, coated in nice religious phrasing.
I wonder what our recipe for life would look like if we substituted every second we spend leaking our leaven into the atmosphere, with one hour spent in private closet prayer and true Thanksgiving to the God of mercy who crossed a filthy road one day to redeem us all from the mud and decay of our past sins and poor choices.
What would happen if we then added a pinch of love, a dash of understanding and a few words of blessing to those who despitefully use and reject us? Then, wrap it all in a layer of forgiveness…just for good measure.
The recipe to following Jesus Christ is still the same today that it was over two thousand years ago. Treat others as you would like to be treated, heap coals of love and blessing in substitution for words of judgment and condemnation, and replace that gaseous leaven that only tends to cause us to elevate ourselves higher than we ought, with a good helping of unleavened humility.
This Thanksgiving, let us serve up a fresh recipe of God’s love, redemption, forgiveness and hope to all mankind, and “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.”
You don’t have to scan social internet sites like facebook and myspace very long to encounter much of the leaven to which Jesus cautioned us to avoid at all costs. They can be found in rantings about everything from how blessed it is that Oprah Winfrey is retiring, to long winded speeches about the corruption of America under our liberal President. “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.” It always serves to puff us up under the elevation of our own religious gas while tearing down the reputations of others through nothing more than slander, coated in nice religious phrasing.
I wonder what our recipe for life would look like if we substituted every second we spend leaking our leaven into the atmosphere, with one hour spent in private closet prayer and true Thanksgiving to the God of mercy who crossed a filthy road one day to redeem us all from the mud and decay of our past sins and poor choices.
What would happen if we then added a pinch of love, a dash of understanding and a few words of blessing to those who despitefully use and reject us? Then, wrap it all in a layer of forgiveness…just for good measure.
The recipe to following Jesus Christ is still the same today that it was over two thousand years ago. Treat others as you would like to be treated, heap coals of love and blessing in substitution for words of judgment and condemnation, and replace that gaseous leaven that only tends to cause us to elevate ourselves higher than we ought, with a good helping of unleavened humility.
This Thanksgiving, let us serve up a fresh recipe of God’s love, redemption, forgiveness and hope to all mankind, and “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.”
