Saturday 20 September 2008
- Bible Book:
- Luke
"Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, 'To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that "looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand"'." (v.9-10)
Background
Here, Jesus tells the well-known parable of the sower and theseed. Yet in the middle of this passage Jesus explains why he usesparables, and says something very puzzling. He seems to be sayingthat he speaks in parables to stop some people from understandingthe secrets of the kingdom of God.
But is that really what Jesus means? How are we to take hiswords?
Perhaps it is about how we actually 'understand' things. Whenconfronted with something new we tend to categorise it and thusbring it into our ownership - file it away for future reference. Wefeel comfortable when we understand things in this way. Were-affirm ourselves as knowing beings.
But the 'secrets' of the kingdom of God are not to be understood inthese terms.
Parables are supposed to confuse. Rather than elicit the responseof "Ah yes, I see how that fits in with my understanding", they aredesigned to elicit a stirring in the depths, a 'wanting tounderstand but not understanding'.
Through faith, prayer and contemplation there can come to be a deepknowing in the heart that bypasses our efforts to categorise andexplain, and changes us forever.
To Ponder
Are there parts of the Bible you feel you don'tyet understand? What are they? In what ways, practical orspiritual, might your understanding of them be made clearer?
How can we be open to being changed by the new,rather than just affirmed in what we think we know?