Parables

Passage: Matthew 13:1-18

Jesus best-known teaching device is the parable. What people often overlook is that Jesus told parables not as a way of making God’s truth easier to understand, but more difficult. Matthew tells us of a conversation that followed Jesus’ presentation of the “Parable of the Sower”:

The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them…This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
" 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.'”

Doesn’t Jesus want people to see and hear? Doesn’t Jesus come specifically to heal people and to save them? The answer to both questions is “Yes”. However, the healing and salvation he offers aren’t easy. Jesus is not interested in healing people for the sake of healing them. And Jesus is not interested in offering a form of salvation that you can get in a few simple steps.

Like many of the smart and religious people of Jesus’ day, we want a quick solution to our problems. If I’m sick, I want to go to the doctor for a prescription or a procedure. If something’s not working the way it’s supposed to, I want to consult an expert and get a fix. Our fundamental problem is that we aren’t right with God. No surgery will correct this problem; no pill will make it go away. There’s no quick fix. Even God’s Word does not offer us a 12-step program. Jesus offers us something that takes time. His teachings can’t be digested in a moment. They can’t be unlocked immediately. They’re like a time-release vitamin, or one of those dog toys that releases a morsel of food only after being played with for hours. The purpose of God’s Word is not to give us answers. It’s to bring us into a relationship with God.

Therefore, says Jesus, the people who want a quick fix are out of luck. The people who think they can figure it out on their own are out of luck. It is only those who come to Jesus in search of a relationship who will get what they’re looking for. It is only those who come to the Bible in search of the God revealed therein who will be rewarded. It’s only those too simple to figure it out on their own who will be given the solution; only those too broken to heal themselves who will receive the cure. This is the great paradox of the Kingdom of God.