According to the president of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety 1.2 million crashes a year are caused by driver distractions. Of course we all know that with the way cell phones have taken over in our society that cell phones are definitely a distraction for many drivers. But to my surprise there are other distractions that are higher on the list. According to one study done by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center the biggest distraction was simply reaching or leaning. That was followed up by fiddling with the Radio, conversing, eating and drinking, grooming, dealing with passengers and reading and writing, and the list goes on. Now if we are all honest we all have allowed ourselves to be distracted in our driving with one or more of those things, and some of us have been distracted by all of those things. Technology just adds to the distractions. There are actually some luxury models that are now fitted with internet terminals specifically designed to offer information while the car is on the move, such as the location of parking places and filling stations. But there is actually new technology being worked on that is called the Smart Assistant, and when complete, the assistant will decide when it is too dangerous for a driver to be disturbed, and will divert phone calls to voicemail, hide arriving emails and lock the controls of the satellite navigation system and CD player. But let’s face it, in reality technology can’t control people from being distracted. We as people are easily distracted. Even in our own spiritual lives, we allow ourselves to get distracted. Today in our series on the Questions that Jesus asked we see Jesus and the disciples in a boat together, and the disciples had gotten distracted. Their distraction was causing them some problems. In the same way when we get spiritually distracted we run into problems.
Mark 8:13-21
Now Jesus and the disciples had gotten into the boat. At some point after they had gotten in the boat Jesus told them, “Be careful, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisee’s and Herod.” It was obvious that Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees were still fresh on his mind. Right before they had gotten in to their boat the Pharisees had tried to test him and ask Him for a sign from heaven. As far as Herod being inserted there, some thing that it might be a reference to the Herodians, a group of Jews who supported the king, and many of them were Sadducees or then again maybe he was simply referring to Herod. But when Jesus said yeast, he was referring to evil. Just as a little yeast would work it’s way through and permeate the whole loaf of bread, so would the hard heart and wickedness of these religious leaders. Well when Jesus used the word yeast, they realized that they had forgotten to bring any bread with them. They had one loaf and that was it. They assumed that Jesus was talking about physical bread, and it sparked a discussion about their situation. Meanwhile while they were focused on their inventory and stock of bread they missed the message that Christ was trying to give them. Hence, the question that Jesus asked, “Why are you talking about having no bread?” But in many ways doesn’t the same thing happen to us when we have allowed ourselves to get distracted spiritually. We miss the message God has for us. The disciples just totally missed it here. Instead of getting the message to beware of being influenced by these Pharisees and their ways they were talking about bread for their stomach. I’m reminded of another person in scripture who had allowed themselves to become distracted and was missing the very words of Jesus. Remember when Jesus went to the home of Martha and Mary. Martha was making all of these preparations that she thought had to be done. Maybe she was making a gourmet dinner and cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Maybe she was trying to clean house at the same time embarrassed at the mess. Meanwhile she had the Son of God sitting in her house. Now listen to what the scriptures said in Luke 10:39,40, “She had a sister Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made…” It’s not that what Martha was doing was so bad, but she had allowed it to distract her from what she should have really been more concerned with. And that was doing what her sister was doing. Sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to what He had to say. There was so much more value listening to the words of Jesus then there ever was doing housework or cooking or whatever she was doing here. You remember that Martha got upset at her sister for sitting there listening to Jesus when she was having to do all the work. And Jesus’ response to Martha was, “Martha, Martha, you are worried about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.” In the same way, so many times if we aren’t careful we are so busy making these preparations in our life, that we neglect to do what we really need to do, and that is just to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to what He has to say. Sometimes we get so busy doing things that are not really bad things, we just give them the wrong priority in our lives. And when we do that we often times miss the message that God wants to give us because we have allowed ourselves to become distracted. Many of us have so filled up our schedule that we haven’t given ourselves the time just to sit as Jesus’ feet and listen. Or maybe we are so distracted with other things that when we do come to our time with God our minds are still filled with things that we need to do or concerns that we have that we really aren’t giving God our full attention and we are missing the message that God is trying to communicate to us. Just as the disciples were so preoccupied dealing with physical bread that they were missing the real message of what Jesus was trying to say. We as Christians need to make sure that we don’t allow ourselves to be so distracted that we don‘t hear the message Christ has for us. I know so many times I’ve been guilty of being engrossed in a basketball game or something and Nancy will say something to me and I will shake my head and act like I knew exactly what she said. But then I’m in trouble when she asks me to repeat it. Sometimes that’s what we do to God. We allow ourselves to get so engrossed in something and we play like we are all ears to God when the truth is He knows better. And you know, the truth is, having our ears and minds open to God is not something that we should just select one time of day and think that after our devotion time with Him that He may not try to speak to us anymore that day. Throughout our day, we need to make sure that we are aware of God’s presence and have our spiritual ears open to what He might try to say to us.
But you see something else happens when we allow ourselves to get spiritually distracted. After Jesus asked them what they were doing talking about having no bread. He then said to them, “Do you still not see and understand? Are you hearts hardened? And then shortly after he goes on to say, “Don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” Jesus’ disciples answered twelve. Then Jesus continued, “And when I broke up the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? The disciples responded with seven. Then Jesus said, “Do you still not understand?” Other words, why in the world would physical bread even be an issue. Why are you even concerned about the lack of bread? Hello! Don’t you remember what we fed five thousand people with? Don’t you remember what we fed four thousand with? The disciples not only missed the message when they started focusing on the physical bread, but they forgot about the lessons that they learned from their past experiences. They should have learned from those experiences that a lack of food would never be an issue with Jesus around. They should have learned that when they put their trust in Jesus that He supplies their every need. But their so distracted they simply forgot what they had already learned. But the truth is, we at times have been guilty of the same thing. When we get spiritually distracted in our life we fail to remember the lessons from past experiences. You see when difficult times come up when we are on top of our spiritual game we seem to take it differently. We just have that faith and confidence that God will come through in the clutch because He always has. And we have no problem remembering that and claiming that. But when we have allowed ourselves to get spiritually distracted from where we need to be and then we get hit with a situation, it’s amazing how much we worry. It’s amazing, it’s like we have all of a sudden have amnesia just like the disciples did and we forget how God has helped us out of problems no worse then this time after time. It’s so funny because we criticize the Israelites so much for what they did at times. Yet there are many times that we aren’t any better. We are amazed that after God could part the Red Sea for them and deliver them from Pharaoh and provide for their food needs that there were times that they just thought that things couldn’t get any worse and God had brought them out in the dessert just to kill them. They seem to have already forgotten all that God had already did for them. God had not abandoned them. Yet, how many times have we done the same things. Maybe he hasn’t parted the Red Sea but he has delivered us in miraculous ways and we seem to forget that He has already taught us that we can’t count on Him. He has already taught us that lesson. But when we are spiritually distracted we miss messages and forget lessons.
Now when we go back and look at verse 16, in the NIV it says “They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.” The King James is very similar using the word reasoned instead of discussed. But now there are several scholars, including Matthew Henry, who seem to think that their discussion also turned into a blame game about why they had no bread. One scholar’s translation of the Greek said, “They kept discussing the situation among themselves and saying, “we have no loaves.” Another translation went, “They discussed with one another why they had no bread.” You could see it now. When Jesus made his statement about beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. They started discussing it, and saying among themselves. He’s talking about the bread, because we only have one loaf. Then you can see the discussion begin about why they only had one loaf and whose fault that it must be. What’s ironic, is that it seems it was only earlier that day it seems that Jesus fed the four thousand with seven loaves and collected seven basketfuls, not a month ago, not even a week ago, but earlier that day. That makes their memory lapse of what Christ can do even worse. So you can get the picture of these men beginning to say, “I thought you were going to get the leftover bread.” and the other person shooting back, “Well I thought it was his job to do it.” Then you can see Jesus overhearing them and break in and say, “Why are you talking about having no bread?” They had become so distracted that not only did they miss the message that Jesus was trying to give them, and not only did they fail to remember the lessons from past experiences, but now they were getting into useless arguments with one another. That is another thing that is more likely to happen when we get sidetracked spiritually, we get in useless quarrels with one another. When your focused spiritually you don’t get into useless quarrels and arguments because you know that it is silly and unproductive. But when you are distracted spiritually, it’s easier to lose perspective of that and all of a sudden you get into a quarrel and refuse to yield your position or realize that it’s not all that important. “An amusing news story from Wales told of a feud in a church looking for a new pastor. It read: ‘Yesterday the two opposition groups both sent ministers to the pulpit. Both spoke simultaneously, each trying to shout above the other. Both called for hymns, and the congregation sang two-each trying to drown out the other. Then the groups began shouting at each other. Bibles were raised in anger. The Sunday morning service turned into bedlam. Through it all, the two preachers continued trying to out shout each other with their sermons. ‘Eventually a deacon called a policeman. Two came in and shouting for the congregation to be quiet. They advised the forty persons in the church to return home. The rivals filed out, still arguing. Last night one of the group called a let’s be friends’ meeting. It broke up in argument.’ The item was headlined, ‘Hallelujah! Two Jacks in One pulpit.’ It could have been bannered, “Two Factions in One Fellowship.” Now that was a church with a bunch of spiritually distracted people. If that church was filled with people who were focused spiritually it would have never even came close to getting that far. But when we are distracted spiritually we allow those kinds of silly things to happen. But it certainly can damage our witness when we allow those things to happen. You here of churches who get in arguments over what color the new carpet should be. The devil must have just laugh his head off sometimes at the way Christians and churches can act when He has managed to get them spiritually distracted.
Let me ask you this morning: Is your life spiritually focused right now? Are you focusing on God and what He might be saying to you? Or have you allowed problems that have come your way to distract you and maybe even cause you to forget how God has always got you through in the past. Or maybe, even maybe, you’ve been so distracted that you have gotten into useless disagreements. Let’s put our focus back on Christ and not allow ourselves to get distracted from what’s important.
