Purpose of Parables
Notes
Transcript
Matt 13:10-17
Jesus interrupts the “Parable of the Sower” to explain to the disciples why he is so mysterious all the time. This is a great mystery, and we trust that God reveals himself to people at just the right time and place, in just the right way. Our job is not to package up the gospel and make it easier to follow, but to faithfully follow and proclaim Jesus. Hallelujah, God has made Himself known to us.
Pulled Over
Pulled Over
Last week, it’s snowing like crazy, I am trying to get here early to open things up and setup… KK was still in the hospital with Drew and she usually does a TON of setup stuff, so thinking through all the things.
Didn’t get out the door quite as early as I’d hoped, but it’s snowy and icy so I am driving safely from home to church.
And I see a police vehicle, it’s turning the opposite way that I’m going. I think nothing of it.
Then, at my next light, turning South on Washington, I look and… it’s behind me!
Same car? Or did he see me and decide to pick on me, turning across the intersection… I don’t know.
But I think I’m fine. I continue South, he continues driving behind me. So, I do the old change lanes thing. Not to escape, but, you know, to give hi the option of not being behind me anymore. And I’ll eventually be turning right anyhow. So I get over.
And he gets over.
And the lights come on. And I pull over.
No Fair! Why me! Come on! I’m late for being early at church! They’re just out to get me!
Turns out my sticker was ever so slightly out of date. Since March of last year. Whoops.
So, nice reminder. Check your registration, y’all!
When the authorities pick on you, that’s bad news. They have all the power in that situation… I don’t. Complaining, fighting, only going to get me in trouble.
What do you do when God picks on you? When God is unfair!
When Jesus is unfair?! What do you do?
Here is Jesus being unfair.
Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower
Jesus, on a boat, telling this story
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.
2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach.
3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.
4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,
6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.
7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
Such a great parable from Jesus, and more about the parable itself next week.
“He who has ears, let him hear.”
Jesus says that a lot… and maybe it means more than we thought it means.
Unexplained Parables
Unexplained Parables
There’s something different about what Jesus has done here, and the disciples notice it.
10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
What’s in a parable?
Simply put, a parable is a story that teaches a lesson.
Something’s different that Jesus is doing and the disciples notice it. Jesus has used parables before, but usually explaining an explicit point.
But here… there is no explanation. There’s just the parable, just the story… and it’s left to crowd to interpret.
Jesus doesn’t explain.
In previous stories, he would teach a lesson, illustrate with a parable, then apply it. But he doesn’t here. Why? What’s different? So they ask Jesus.
11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
Is that fair???
No. It isn’t. It isn’t fair. It isn’t equal.
It’s INCREDIBLY good news for the disciples. “To you it has been given to know!” And you will know even more, more will be given.
But it does seem like a hard deal to the others. Jesus goes on:
14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
He quotes from Isaiah 6… it’s such a great passage where Isaiah sees the throne of God and the Cherubim… and he says “I am unclean” and they cleanse his lips with coal… and then God says “Whom shall I send and who will go for us.”
and Isaiah says the best words: “Here am I, send me!”
So good. Who does he send them to? These people, and with this message that Jesus quotes.” They hear but don’t understand. Do not perceive.” And it is a word of judgment, Assyria is coming and Babylon after them, judgment and exile.
So it sounds like Jesus is saying that he is speaking in parables, open to interpretation, and without further explanation so that these people will not understand and repent.
And that’s… hard. I think it sounds like Jesus is saying that… because Jesus is saying that. He is, in some way, cloaking the truth here, at this moment, for these people.
And it seems unfair. It, honestly, it is unfair.
God Chooses
God Chooses
There is this thread in the Bible. God chooses. We call it election. Sometimes he picks a Dude out of the crowd. Noah. Abram. Judges like Gideon or Samson. Sometimes we see a reason of sorts… sometimes it seems completely random, like with Abram. God just chooses, and then reveals Himself, or blesses, or promises.
And God has that right. Call it the right to be arbitrary. Or the right to be mysterious. The right to choose. The right to elect. The right to reveal Himself to whom He chooses. And, though it may seem unfair to us, to NOT reveal Himself to others. To one extent or another.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
In the same way that you, as a person, actually have that choice. You can reveal your own self, your own secrets, your own thoughts and questions, your own history… you can choose to reveal that to whoever you want. And you can withhold that from whomever you want. That’s a deep and profound aspect of free will, of personhood, and we only have that because we are made in His Image. We are like Him in that way...
God chooses. He chooses who to reveal Himself to… and exactly when He does, and to what extent He does.
And Jesus says, on this day, in this boat, to those people… I’m not going to explain. They are, in some way, like the rebellious people of Israel before the Exile, and I will leave them to ponder my parable without explaining.
God chooses. He has that absolute right.
The people have participated in their hard heartedness
The people have participated in their hard heartedness
Now, having established that… I don’t think God is arbitrary. I don’t think Jesus is just being mean. Lean in to what Jesus says REALLY close here, even in the way he quotes Isaiah.
9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
In contrast, Jesus says:
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
Now, it isn’t fair… and it isn’t going to be. But lean in here and pay close attention to what Jesus says.
Their heart has “grown” dull. Become dull. Over time. Perhaps due to action or inaction.
… and they aren’t deaf… they can “barely hear.”
And why can’t they see? They closed their eyes.
The reference is to Isaiah and the Exile and the punishment of God on his people, God’s action, closing the people’s eyes and ears for a time to receive just punishment.
But here also, we have the people dulling their hearts, closing their own eyes… nearly deafening themselves to the Word of God.
Which is another thread of Scripture. Does God harden hearts or do men harden their own hearts? Both. My favorite example is Pharaoh:
Why is Pharaoh’s Heart Hard?
Why is Pharaoh’s Heart Hard?
15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
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19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
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32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.
Who did it? Pharaoh.
34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Who did it there? Pharaoh.
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them,
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27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.
Who did it? God did it!
So… who hardened Pharaoh’s heart? If we take the order in Scripture seriously, Pharaoh did, then God did… but at the very least, it is both! There is responsibility, there is culpability, there is Pharaoh choosing, there is God choosing… all of it.
The attempt to make the Sovereignty of God conflict with the free will of man is a made up philosophical problem.… God has no trouble, and the testimony of Scripture sees no conflict.
Jesus cloaks his words in unexplained parables, for the people had hardened their hearts.
The Power of a Parable
The Power of a Parable
One last note from the way this parable ends:
34 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.
35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”
This I just suspect… given their blind eyes and almost deaf ears… could it be that an unexplained parable was the only way that maybe someone would listen?
In the same way that some truths you have to work for, wrestle with. Like great art or poetry, it is IN the struggle to understand that someone maybe grasps for the truth.
Because even though Jesus doesn’t give them these precious explanations the disciples get, what He does give them is incredibly precious. The Truth, powerful and profound. He “utters what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” Secret mysteries.
It isn’t plain.
It isn’t easy.
But here, and many other times in life, plain and easy isn’t going to work.
Fundamentally, I trust that Jesus RADICALLY loves these people, and if explanations would draw them to him he would give them that. As he so often, more often, does.
I trust that Jesus gives them Truth in the right way at the right time.
Again: God chooses. He elects. He reveals Himself at just the right time to just the right people.
There is a lesson in that for us, as we are “Sowers of the Word.” More about this next week. But our role is not to make the gospel SO easy to understand and receive that everyone automatically comes to Jesus. It doesn’t work that way, it won’t work that way, that isn’t how God does it, and that isn’t how people work.
We are to preach the gospel. To confess the name of Jesus. To be faithful and frequent in doing so. This is a HUGE call to us in 2025, we want to get intentional and creative in how we do that.
And the answer isn’t always “shove it in people’s face.” SCREAM it at them. Jesus tells a mysterious story. That was the right thing in that moment.
Blessed are your eyes
Blessed are your eyes
But Jesus gives a specific blessing to the disciples, here… it’s a blessing to all you who hear and believe.
11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Rejoice.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
Are your hearts dull… or are they open to what God is doing now?
Are your ears almost deaf… or are they open to hear the Word of God?
Are your eyes closed… or do you see?
God chooses, yes, and I ask you, Lord, to choose me! I echo the prophet Isaiah: “Here am I, send me!”
I choose, I choose that my heart would not be hardened, but ready and open and willing. Fertile ground for the Word of God.
I choose that my eyes would be wide open to see all that I am shown.
I pray that my ears would be keen, listening, understanding, perceiving.
I ask for that blessing… knowing that I am, in fact, blessed by God because of what I have already seen and heard and understood.
To Communion
To Communion
God is radically unfair. Jesus is radically unfair.
Unfair in our favor.
He is picking on us… He chose us. Revealed Himself to us… and gave us His Body, His Blood, His life.
And so we remember together...
May your eyes be blessed
May your ears be open
To see and hear our Lord.
