Understanding Something True
Understanding something true is really difficult if you aren’t hearing what is really said. Jesus quoted from the prophet Isaiah when He explained why He spoke in parables. “The secrets 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!’”
Let me start with a hypothetical situation; have you
ever been in an argument with someone and there
seemed to be no way the other person was going to see
it your way? I’m sure that you had tried to
explain your side of the argument from every angle.
You tried speaking nicely
and you had even raised your voice at times. But to
no avail; nothing worked and the other person walked
away from the argument never understanding why you
did what you did, or said what you said.
Well, this is kind of
like what Jesus was talking about when He was saying
that those on the ‘outside’ would never
understand the secrets of the kingdom. It’s not
that they weren’t able, it’s that they
were not capable. The capability of understanding
something true is a heart that is willing to trust
the speaker who is speaking the truth. Have you ever
been told something amazing by someone you trusted?
I remember hearing of a
UFO sighting years ago from a family member and in my
mind, I believed that it could have been true. It
wasn’t so incredulous because of the character
of the person who told it to me. I believed him and I
trusted him and so I was able to believe that this
could have possibly been true. Do you understand?
This is why Jesus was
asking His disciples how they expected to understand
any parable if they couldn’t even understand
this one. Jesus knew that even a child would be
insightful enough to understand what He was saying; a
child that trusted, that is. Isn’t this why
Jesus said,
“Unless you become as children…”
He was not advocating
that we all become immature as children are at times,
but He wanted us to foster a heart’s attitude
that would trust anything He would say. Think about
that last statement that I made; do you have trouble
with that? Can you trust anything Jesus would say?
Could you abandon the presuppositions of your own
philosophies? Can you be untaught by trust? In other
words, can you believe something that is opposite to
the way you thought things were, simply on the merits
of the One telling you?
If you can, then you are
capable of understanding anything He would tell you.
But remember we are only children once. There is a
time to put childish things behind us. When we were
children, we thought like children, and there comes a
time that our trusting in God develops into something
deeper so that we can understand even deeper truths.
This is the mark of a mature Christian.
Have a great week! Pastor Jim