Luke 8:10: He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.”
Jesus made puzzling statements regarding the purpose of parables. We often talk about how these earthy, everyday stories made the truth readily apparent to people, making it easier for them to pay attention, hear the main point, understand it, and retain it. Yet Jesus seems so say that he used parables so that people would not understand! What is happening?
It is interesting to note that Luke says that the disciples didn’t understand this parable of the four soils as Jesus told it. They had to ask Jesus what it meant. They asked, and Jesus readily told them. There is no indication that Jesus decided who would hear and who wouldn’t. That is, as in the parable, the seed seems to be spread broadly on 'good' and 'bad' soil alike. Rather, those who heard the additional explanation were those who stayed around to learn more, those who asked the question.
Luke 8:15: It seems that they are typified by Jesus’ description of the good soil.
As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
It seems that Jesus chose to give more explanation to those who held on to what they were given and wanted to understand it more, and they sought that understanding at least in part by talking with Him. What little they got, they held on to it and tried to get more.
In contrast, those who didn’t understand initially (presumably most everyone) and yet didn’t seek to learn more (that is, they didn’t act like the disciples) went away without understanding more. Perhaps they had hardness like the path such that they didn’t care about what they heard or didn’t care about learning more. Or perhaps they didn’t want any trouble (like the rocky soil) and so wanted to be cautious about getting close to a radical teacher. Or perhaps they had other cares in life (like the thorny soil) and so wanted to get back to other things instead of contemplating the message.
Elsewhere Jesus said:
Matthew 7:6: Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
If people didn’t value what little they had, what good would it do to give them more? If you throw a small coin to a pig, it will try to eat it rather than consider its monetary value. So throwing something with greater monetary value (like pearls) would only increase the problem. If you give a dog valued food, it will just eat it, ignoring its value. So giving it the holy 'showbread' would only make the matters worse.
The best predictor of how people will respond to more truth is how they have responded to the truth they have received. Jesus taught in such a way that people got a ‘teaser,’ a part of the truth. This was, in a very positive way, the bait or the lost leader. If they wanted to know more, Jesus readily provided it. If they did not want to learn more, they were free to walk away from this small portion that was given.
In terms of application, this raises at least two different issues. The first is how I relate to the truth that I have, and the second is how I interact with other people (e.g., in evangelism and discipleship) and how they respond to what truth they have received.
So how do I relate to the truth I have received? It is ever so easy to hear truth and then walk away, to read the Bible yet not wrestle with it, to be convicted about sin and then to justify my action. Those people who are like the good soil, upon encountering truth, hold it fast in their hearts, and don’t let it go, until it bears fruit. They try to understand it, asking questions, processing it. They try to figure out what to do with it. They overlook problems with the messenger and take seriously the message. So how do I respond to hearing the truth?
The second application is how I interact with others as I endeavor to share truth with them. Jesus did not force people to respond or even to listen. He gave them some truth, and he gave them an opportunity to respond to that truth in faith, or not. If they responded to that truth well, he provided additional opportunity, albeit sometimes with hurdles that helped demonstrate how determined they were (e.g., his rebuff of the Syro-Phoenician woman in Mark 7:24-30). Consequently, in both evangelism and discipleship, it seems that a good strategy is one in which truth is provided to people along with the opportunity to seek more truth. If they seek more, more can gladly be provided. Of course one can enact this strategy in a hard-hearted and arrogant way, which obviously would be wrong. It seems that Jesus did it in a compassionate way, even weeping over Jerusalem when that city rejected the truth that was provided to it.
So how do you listen to truth? And how do you endeavor to make it known to others?
No comments:
Post a Comment