Sunday July 15, 2018 | Osheta Moore
When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you." But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”
Osheta continues our look at 'loose ends' of scripture that often get overlooked or dismissed because of their seeming exclusiveness and contradiction. This week’s installment examines Jesus’ comments about parables and why they were one of his key methods of teaching. At the heart of it all is the question of who the Kingdom of God is for, and what is being asked of us to enter in to it.
As an analogy introduction, Osheta explained the idea of an artistic interlude found in many musical albums. As an artist matures and wishes to express some of the behind the scenes reasons for this transformation, this often takes the form of an interlude. From the outside listener point of view these sections may seems like a distraction, but from the artist it’s a critical part of his or her development. Viewing the bible as a whole and not skipping sections because they’re not convenient or easy to understand is kind of like embracing these interludes. To understand them, they need further intentional examination.
It is helpful to constantly be looking for where Jesus is in the scripture, whether the passage is specifically about him or not. He is the word within the words. In Mark 4, Jesus is explaining part of the purpose of parables and then references a section of Isaiah in relation to what he’s experiencing. At first read Jesus’ words come across very harsh and almost seem to be intentionally exclusionary of certain peoples in entering the Kingdom of God and finding forgiveness. It takes a closer read to understand the heart behind Jesus’ teaching. We know that God desires all to be part of his family and has went to incredible lengths to provide that opportunity, so if we come across a section of scripture that seems to contradict that we should dig deeper.
There were several contextual reasons why Jesus says what he did and they are helpful to examine:
Jesus’ parables invite us to ask questions of ourselves and of God. What type of Kingdom is this and what type of person am I becoming. Scripture like this displays what it means to engage and love God with all our mind. He invites and encourages us to ask questions and wrestle with him to gain understanding. In this wrestling and softening of our hearts comes our transformation.