Often in the book of Revelation, there is the statement: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Church."
But for many, it is difficult to hear or understand what God is saying either through the Bible or in the Church's message to the world. In Mark 4:33, it is recalled that Jesus said: "With many parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything."
It was as confusing to the disciples who walked the Galilean seashore, as it is to those of us when we read the teachings in the Bible. The disciples even once asked him: "Why do you teach in this way? Why do you not make it simpler for the crowds to understand?”
And in Matt. 13:10-17 Jesus explained, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 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.” And then he quoted from the prophet Isaiah a statement, which certainly didn't help: "The people's heart has grown dull and their ears are heavy of hearing and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them." (Well this doesn't help. We thought Jesus came to help the lost, a physician for the sick.) So with this rather opaque if not confusing introduction, let us read some of Jesus' parables, or in this case metaphorical descriptions of the Kingdom of God. Matthew 13:31-34, 44, 51.
Gene Lowery has suggested that there are two ways of knowing: "I've got it" and the "It's got me".
In the first, you work real hard to figure something out and you finally get it. Like l plus 1 is two, or 2 plus 2 is four.
Or when you are watching an Angela Lansberry Murder She Wrote in her "who done it" mysteries and all of a sudden, you realize you’ve got it.
Jane and I went to a play in Stratford-on-Avon a couple of years ago, and got tickets like we always do by walking up to the box office at the last minute and taking what you can get. Well we were separated with her in the "box" seat and I in the upper balcony, I WISH I had brought binoculars. Well I didn't understand the play until the intermission when having a coke with Jane, and she said, "Isn't this a great play" and I showed my ignorance and asked some questions and she explained to me what I had been watching I got it! The rest of the play was wonderful, because I had gotten it. I understood.
At times the disciples didn't understand some of Jesus' teachings and they would ask for an explanation. When Jesus told them why he taught in such a manner, at least at first pass it doesn't make sense. Now when Mark recalls Jesus' response, and Mark often has this element of secrecy, it is obvious that Jesus doesn't want the crowds to come to him because he is the Messiah and can do great signs. He doesn't want them to come to him for what they can get out of him but because he is who he is. So Mark has this Messianic Secret. “Shh,” he tells the man he heals from blindness, don't tell anyone. “Shh,” he says to the leper, now clean, don't tell anyone. Jesus didn't want people coming to him for what they could get out of him.
But for Matthew, it becomes even more confusing when he says, quoting from Isaiah, "I don't want them to understand because they might turn to me and I would have to heal them." (I mean, why did you come?) I don't get this line of reasoning.
The second way of knowing is "It's got me."
Matthew recalls Jesus saying: "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven." And the disciples are stunned, amazed, and glassy eyed. They realize how blessed they are!
It was like the first day you realized you were in love. It was like the day you committed yourself to Jesus Christ. It was like the first day you took your first step when you were but a few months old and your mother cheered and cried and your dad nodded his approval. I can walk, you thought! Although I cannot remember that day, I can remember a similar occasion about eight years ago when after more than a year, I took my first step alone, by myself without a walker. It wasn't "I've got it" but it was "It's got me." -gratitude with tears, love experienced, sometimes you realize that God is good all the time, that all the time, God is good.
There was this kind of response of the theater crowd at the Rave Movie Theater recently who watched the futuristic thriller of Steven Spielberg's “Minority Report.” Tom Cruise plays a lead cop of a "pre-crime" unit in the year 2054. Technology had enabled society to detect a murder before it occurred and in advance of a crime people would be arrested and conveniently cyber frozen. So people without regard to their rights are taken out of society and stored in a low maintenance storage facility in order to protect society. Now this is okay until it happens to Tom Cruise, this supper police detective who is in charge of this pre-crime unit. Cruise then realizes, almost to late, the violation of one's civil rights is the danger when a society forsakes personal freedoms for the sake of corporate security. I won’t tell you the story line but only caution you that when it is over, you will find yourself very quiet knowing that some of this futuristic world is occurring in the light of national policy since Sept. ll. Our human rights are a freedom not to be tampered with and when they are, this truth gets us and we are still and quiet and stunned.
Said Jesus, “you are loved by God in a special way, and to you has been given the secrets of the Kingdom. All that I know, I have made known to you.” But for the vast crowd, Jesus’ teachings sound like riddles.
He didn't make it easy for people to understand. A miracle here or there, or a legion of angels with long swords could have convinced the crowds, because that was the kind of Messiah which the Jews had expected and desired, but Jesus was not a military commander, but a servant of the things of God, and only those who looked very carefully could see and understand.
So Jesus uses parables to illustrate or explain the Kingdom. Other great teachers over the years have used parables or metaphoric language to teach great truth. For example Plato wished to keep his teaching obscure to outsiders for after all his mentor, Socrates, was martyred. And of course you will remember when Jesus was teaching, John the Baptist had been beheaded. So Jesus uses stories to illustrate truths, which only the insiders would understand. Only when you are committed, then you will understand. Here He is saying: This is not easy. This is not the cliff notes of spirituality. This is not 5 simple steps to eternal bliss. If you are really interested you will have to give up everything, family, possessions, maybe even your life.
My way, he taught the disciples, is the way of love and it is present in a hidden way today, but is reflective of the glorious anticipated coming Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus had initiated the Kingdom of God not as a fiery destruction of the wicked nor as an overthrow of the nations of the world, but:
Like a tiny mustard seed, quietly growing in its place.
Like a little yeast in the whole mixture of dough which causes bread to rise
Like a treasure hidden in a field.
Nothing showy here, a simple servant who does God's will, love's his neighbor, and goes to heaven forever more. Only those who get close to Jesus, who press into his inner circle, who pay the price of sacrificial service will know his identity and truly understand his teachings, and enjoy one's salvation.
If you want a magic show, you will have to go somewhere else. And most of the people in the world today, want a magic show. Recently I was attending Minister's Week at Lake Junaluska and it has become quiet a lovely resort for the family. I wanted to attend the evening worship service and asked Walker, our nine year old grandson, if he wanted to go with me and he said, "No Granddaddy, I want to go the night they have the magic show." Most of the world wants a magic show, and Jesus understood that and that's why he spoke in parables, not to intentionally disguise the truth, but to not make it easy for those who were looking for something cheap and easy. It is neither cheap nor easy and it cost Jesus his life. It will cost you!
I noticed a shift in values in the changing generations when in this past century there was a time when the young envisioned changed the world, but then there was the shift from wanting to change the world to wanting to own the world, or a huge chuck of it.
Then over the last few years something began to happen to our priorities. Will Willimon suggests that we Americans stop naming our children "Charity" or "Grace" and began naming them "Tiffany" or "Muffin" and we forgot why.
It doesn't take long before a culture of convoluted values elevates ones desires to the level of need and need becomes elevated to the level of rights. Our culture thus has become a vast supermarket of desire. And such a phenomena doesn’t fit well with a message of sacrifice.
I know a lot of people who want the "peace of God,” the "security of knowing that you are saved", and the confidence that you are going to heaven, but are not willing to pay the price of discipleship. Jesus talked in parables, because he was not going to fall into the trap of making it easy for a culture in the first or the 21st century to receive the benefits of faith without the sacrifice of discipleship.
When this truth "gets you," then you will be stunned. Quiet. Awed. Amazed and willing to give up anything and everything to possess it.
There are reasons you don't get it, there are forces, and brutal forces out there that don't want you to get it. And this is not easy stuff. Listen, this is God's message. For those who have ears to hear, and eyes willing to see, God will be with you. His Kingdom will grow like the steady growth of a young tree, the joy of his people will be that of the discovery of a hidden treasure. If you want it easy, then go somewhere else. You have to spend some time here, but blessed are you who have eyes that see and ears that hear.