“I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” -Psalm 78:2 and Matthew 13:35
As I continue my Bible reading plan of reading through the New Testament and the Psalms multiple times this year, I have found myself fascinated yet again with the parables of Jesus. He was an incredible storyteller, and it reinforces for me the idea that God created human minds to love stories and to grasp concepts best in story form.
Much of what Jesus revealed to his hearers, and to us, about life in the kingdom of God was new, revolutionary information that had not been considered or understood by anyone prior to his advent (Matt. 13:16, 35). Christ invited us into his hidden counsel when he shared what the kingdom of God is like in a way that had never been revealed before. So, when we read the parables of Jesus, we are not reading about light matters. Jesus’ parables teach us, they encourage us, they challenge us, and they at times rebuke us, at least those of us who are listening and being led by the Spirit. Hence, Jesus challenged his listening audience more than once: “those who have ears to hear, let them hear.”
Those of us who are followers of Christ are kingdom people (we live in a present kingdom that has not yet been fully revealed for what it will be, somewhere between the now and the not yet). That kingdom has a king, and that king, although immensely benevolent, has expectations for his subjects. Hence the parables of Jesus teach us not only more about what our king and his kingdom is like, but how we are to live as loyal subjects in that kingdom. Some of the parables recorded for us in the gospels give us fair warning that our king is coming back into the present kingdom and demand that we be ready for that return. Some teach us how to distinguish ourselves as kingdom people in a world that includes both subjects of the king and subjects of the king’s enemy. Others remind us just how valuable the king and his kingdom are, how nothing in this present world can compare, and how it is wise to rid ourselves of anything and everything that would get in the way of our participation as kingdom people. Some show us the loving and forgiving nature of our king and how he desires to care for us. Some of Jesus’ parables make us tear up with emotion and some make us cringe and look the other way. So it was and always has been with Jesus, the God/Man that always divides hearts and presses for a decision (Matt. 10:34-35).
We learn about God in the parables of Jesus. Virtually all of God’s attributes (those things that make God – God), whether sovereignty, holiness, omniscience, immutability – even his divine love – are offensive to us as natural men and women. When Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God, he came preaching God’s right to rule over the hearts and minds of all people – not just Christian people. It is his world, and as Francis Schaeffer, the great American author/theologian of the 20th century reminded us, no matter what you think or feel or believe about God, we all have to live in his world. There are no other worlds from which to choose.
Let us continue on together as kingdom people – loyal subjects who take to heart what our king has said to us and expects from us, and pressing on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14).
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym