Are You Irrelevant?

Matthew 16:5-12 NKJV Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”
8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?[c] 9 Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 10 Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? 11 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Matthew 21:17 NKJV "And he left them..."

My Lord and my God,

The power-mongering, politically manipulative jockeying for position defined the factions of Your day.  The scribes and Pharisees plead the special interests of their carefully articulated legalism, shrouded in proof-texting, theological jargon, and hundreds of years of tradition.  You warned: "Take care lest you make your religion a series of 'thou shalt nots' in the way the Pharisees do.  Take care that you do not identify religion with a series of outward actions, and forget that what matters is the state of a man's heart" (William Barclay in The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2, p. 145).

The Sadducees dismissed theological precision and replaced it with protecting their wealth, practical expediency and political power.  They manipulated the state, the temple, the law, the people, and the Roman oppressors by any strategy necessary in order to preserve their wealth, position, and power. In the Sadducees, You warn us that nationalistic political power is poison to Your Kingdom.

Both groups used their own definition of control and intimidation to maximize their dominion.  You saw these controlling factions and rightly judged them as choking the very life out of their people, true religion, and the fulfillment of Your design for the Hebrew people.  The evil influence of the Pharisees and Sadducees spread through the population like a virus.

The tragedy of it all is that You came to these spiritual and political leaders, and they could not accept You.  Therein is our warning.  If spiritual and political leaders fail to accept the plan and person of Jesus Christ, they will be abandoned by God as irrelevant.  "And he left them..."

You have called me to a place of spiritual leadership. You have laid upon me a mantle of responsibility. You have placed me here.  I did not seek it. I carry in my heart a deep and prevailing concern that You see me as authentic and acceptable.  I loathe pretense, exploitative power, and self-promotion.  I see the dangerous temptation of becoming what I hate in the pursuit of practicality, expediency, and success... even in Your work.  "And he left them..."

I accept Your warning against seeking outward respectability through legalism.  I accept Your condemnation of materialism.  I accept Your injunction against substituting political reformation for spiritual transformation. I recognize that a changed heart through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is our only hope.  I purpose to be among the ones the Spirit of Christ indwells, rather than be among those He leaves.

In the Name of my God and Savior,
Amen.