FEEDING THE RIGHT DOG

Jesus had already explained vividly that what defiles us comes from within. His original allegory was prompted by the Pharisees’ external piety, but now he targets their wrong attitude of heart and mind. The powerful spiritual symbol of bread sailed with Jesus and the disciples on the boat and now Jesus expands it. The little bit of yeast in the bread dough determines its final form. The parable of the two dogs fighting within us has been used by many preachers and writers, including Billy Graham and George Bernard Shaw. To the question, ‘Which dog wins?’, there is always the same response, ‘The one we feed.’ One dog symbolizes negative and ungodly qualities, including envy, greed, anger, selfishness, and arrogance. The other dog’s qualities are positive and godly, including love, joy, kindness, humility, and self-control. We choose the attitudes we nourish within us, and they determine what we become.

The disciples did not catch on. Their apparent dullness is a significant, even perhaps purposeful, theme in the Gospels, as if there were a pact between the writers and the apostles never to glamorize themselves. They had indeed failed, constantly, to understand Jesus and his mission. They had argued about power and status. Peter would deny Jesus. Judas would betray him. Later, however, as the gospel writers were recording their stories, they had at last understood it all. They had experienced the resurrection. Everything had come together in their hearts and minds, but they were the leaders of a church struggling in a hostile world. They did not want to be seen as heroes or celebrities. They were ordinary people whom Jesus called out of their ordinariness. When they met their risen Lord, they understood why. That was the yeast that now shaped them, the yeast that would rise to eternal life.

We can look to the Lord of the path of eternity to nourish us when we are faint, lift us when we fall, and show himself when we lose the way.