The Second Oldest Profession

11.23.14

Matthew 14.6 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

One of the dangers of reading Scripture is to read something (like the above), mentally process it, and go away thinking, Got it! And we really don’t get it. I’m not really sure how old the human concept of news is, but I suspect it’s been around since there’ve been people who want to know what’s going on – or what happened, or who got hurt, or who won. I think we humans have an innate need to know. I think news is the second oldest profession…

Jesus warned His men about their need to know and about the influence that happened to them when they felt they needed to know. Specifically, Jesus was referring to the religious leaders of the day who seemed to dispense all of what anyone, who was, needed to know. If one wasn’t, then one didn’t need to know. Jesus was warning His men about influence.

It’s one thing to find out what’s going on. (It is absolutely maddening when someone posts on Facebook of something dramatic and won’t divulge any details but instructs: you just need to pray!) What!? Pray what!? Pray that they will die? Pray that they will live? Pray that the divorce doesn’t happen? Pray that they will wisely spend their lottery earnings? Beware the leaven of Facebook.

Or we turn on the news because we think we need news and we need to know what’s happening around us so that we can know. The residual effect of news is we know what someone else needs to know and what someone else wants us to believe about what it is we just found out we needed to know. Do we stop and consider what we just found out we needed to know, or did we just find out what someone else wanted us to know? Beware the leaven of the news media.

You see, the stumbling block is simply taking in the information and then not taking the time to consider whether the information is necessary, or useful, or not. How does what we just found out help us in our devotion to Jesus? If Jesus told His men to beware of the leaven of leaders, is that something I ought to pay attention to as well, or am I somehow immune to the leaven all around me because I live in such an enlightened age? And, am I immune to the leaven of what I learn in my safe places (church, friends, home)?

Jesus, there is leaven all around me every day. There is the overwhelming leaven of simply listening only to what it is I want to hear. I pray for wisdom. I pray for guidance as I float about in this ocean called the Information Age. I need to know what is right and I need to know how it is I can help my fellow creatures come to know You better and rise about the leaven around us all. Lord, give me words to say and actions to take that will help me help others who may suspect the leaven yet feel powerless to do anything about it. Amen.