Clueless apart from . . .

 

READ Matthew 13–16

When writing a newspaper column called Parables, the Lord showed me hundreds of life’s realities that illustrate spiritual truth. Jesus used many much more skillfully than mine to describe God’s kingdom. This illustrates another reality — without His enlightenment, I could not see or understand anything about His realm. When the disciples asked, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” (Matthew 13:10–11)

Isaiah prophesied this: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” Jesus repeated it and Paul wrote:

No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God . . . . The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned . . . . (1 Corinthians 2:11–16)

For that reason, the crowds didn’t understand Jesus’ parables as illustrations of spiritual truth and even the disciples often asked what they meant. Matthew wrote, “All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. 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.’ ” Matthew tells how Jesus revealed parable meanings to the disciples. They began to understand, but had lapses and were often clueless.

For example, they didn’t get it after Jesus fed thousands not once but twice. After that, He warned them about “the leaven of the Pharisees” and they thought He was rebuking them about forgetting to buy bread, as if He couldn’t handle that problem. However, Jesus meant the religious leaders’ teaching about winning the favor of God by keeping all their rules. He called them hypocrites because they “honored him with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Jesus explained their concerns about eating the right foods yet clarified, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Yet the disciples didn’t get it until He explained it. He said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander . . . .”  

The Pharisees and Sadducees tested Him by asking for a sign from heaven and He told them they could interpret coming weather by looking at the sky, but were totally oblivious to what was happening in their world. Instead of external signs, these religious leaders needed internal enlightenment from God. Jesus refused to give them either one!

Later, Jesus asked His disciples about His identity. They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Jesus already knew that others didn’t know His identity, but He said to these men, “Who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 16:16–17)

This truth is not grasped by human understanding; it is revealed. How interesting that Jesus then told them to “tell no one that he was the Christ.” Was that because this was not their role but the role of the Holy Spirit? Or was it because, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised?”

When He said this, Peter rebuked Him with, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Again, this shows that God’s plan is so opposite to human ideas that without Him revealing it, we would simply not get it.

Jesus, I understand my faith in You began when You revealed to me who You are and what You do. I still ‘go blind’ whenever I revert to or cling to my human ideas. This is not about IQ but about “denying myself and losing my life for Your sake.” Otherwise, even if I gained the whole world, I would forfeit my soul. Praise God that You reveal truth: in parables, by Your Word and through Your Holy Spirit.