Wed July 2nd :: Lk. 8 :: Parables

Jesus said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the
kingdom of God has been given to you,
but to others I speak in parables, so that,
" 'though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand. (Lk.8.10)


“You wouldn’t want Jesus for your preacher.”

That’s a strange statement I know. But perhaps it’s true. We want clarity from a Sunday sermon. We want it to ‘make sense’. We want the preacher to tell us in plain language what God wants us to do. In the words of my preaching professor: ‘clarity trumps almost everything’.

But apparently not for Jesus.

Here in Lk. 8.10 Jesus says that he deliberately deals in parables (cryptic symbolic stories) so that some people will walk away without the foggiest idea what he’s talking about. How about that!

I don’t think Jesus did this to be mean. I think he did it, in part, to veil the more controversial implications of his words from those who would gladly lynch him on the spot if they understood the true meaning of his stories.

The parables weren’t just ‘sermon illustrations’ to make things easier to understand. They also made things harder to understand for those who didn’t have ‘ears to hear’.

I read recently that: “Interpreting the scriptures is difficult not just because we lack the technical tools of scholarship, but because we lack the character of God.” We don’t have ears to hear. I see this in myself. I often read a passage and hear only what I want to hear. Rather than being convicted of sin in my own life, I think of how ‘so and so’ really needs to hear this.

How about you?

This week, try asking God to reveal to you what he wants YOU to hear in his Word.

What is God telling you?