Business Up Front Party in the Year 30 AD
Part 9 of Epic Mini-Series: God is Good. Mullets are Bad.
Thousands of years later in Luke 12 and, repeated in Matthew 10 (just to drill my point home further) we’re now in the Promised Land, and the Promised One is teaching something really important to His chosen disciples about what lies deep in the Heart of the Father:
“In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, [Jesus] began to say to his disciples first, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!’”
Luke 12:1-5
Luke lets us know in verse 1 that while there’s thousands of people around Him, Jesus seemingly ignores the masses and starts out talking to His individual disciples, first.
Jesus is warning them about ‘the leaven of the Pharisees’ – an elitest group of self-assigned, self-promoting, culture-keepers at the time – by saying in general: don’t copy the behavior of your current leaders, because at the heart of all they do, is insecurity and insincerity:
“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Luke 12:1
Referring to the Pharisees’ influence as leaven is an INCREDIBLE metaphor that infers one man's iniquity can actually – and insidiously – get mixed deep into the doughy parts of another man. Or, as I like to say:
You are what you eat.
Quick note: Hopefully, you see between the lines, that I’m NOT talking about food.
Because GOD loves to repeat Himself, Jesus repackages it and repeats it for them in verse 2, when He says that if/when private, explicit things are left unchecked, it will ALL be exposed publicly, one way or another:
"Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops."
Luke 12:2-3
Let me repackage GOD’s repeat:
First verse, Jesus warns of the private influence of public influencers.
Then, in the next verse, Jesus warns of private behaviors being made public.
Did you catch that? Jesus is warning us all that what comes inside you will come out of you.
Right here, at the beginning of Luke 12, GOD is saying: Don’t let yourself be defiled internally so downfall isn’t your outwardly appearance.
But I thought back there, in Leviticus 19, GOD said: Don’t imitate their outwardly appearance and thus have yourself defiled, internally…?
Remember, Leviticus 19 was: Outward begets inward. That means, Luke 12 is Leviticus 19 in reverse: Inward begets outward.
Did GOD just lay down contradictory regulatory guidance?
Actually, THIS is the Genius of GOD brought into fulfilling circle within the lines of Superior Policy:
Behavior begets heart which begets behavior.
GOD wants his Inheritance set apart from the Influencers because for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done, GOD needs His Light-bearers to be holy from the inside, so they reflect His Holy Light to the outside, and nooneelse’s.
Quick reminder: Lucifer means, “bearer of light”. Just sayin’.
Which means, laying Leviticus 19 on top of Luke 12, we FINALLY get why your haircut matters to GOD: who you’re copying is just as important as what you’re copying.
And if who you’re copying is an unholy cultivator of your present culture – it could kill you.
Let alone, it would be IMMENSELY ironic for GOD to send His one and only Son to be crucified so you could be set free from sin, shame, and even insecurity, only to have you behaving like someone who’s still bound by the same.
God is Good. Mullets are Bad. “Business Up Front Party in the Year 30 AD” Behold(en), still. Copyright © 2023-25 Behold(en), still.