Our last time together we talked about the Parable of the Sower and Jesus’ purpose for speaking in parables; just by way of review, the crowd had grown to the point that Jesus finally used the boat that He had asked the apostles to have in the water for Him, He got in, sat down and began to teach, in Mark’s words: “many things by parables”. The first parable that Mark shares is the Parable of the Sower which we have already discussed at length. After this parable Mark shares that, “when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.” I want us to notice something about what Mark writes, He didn’t write that they asked Him about why He spoke in parables, but rather that they asked about this specific parable. They were not asking Him why He spoke this way; they were asking Him what this specific parable meant.
Jesus used their question as an opportunity to reveal the purpose of this and all other parables He had and would speak. Jesus shares first that those that were following Him, those that He had commanded to “follow” and that had obeyed that command had been “given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God”. It reminds me of I Corinthians 1:18 “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” I don’t believe that Jesus was saying that the believers believed because they had been given some special power to understand, I believe that there is power in obedience that creates faith and produces understanding. God makes Himself known, He reveals Himself in many, many ways, those that are willing to see Him in that revelation follow Him and are given ears to hear, those that are unwilling, that reject His revelation or even demand that He reveal Himself in a way that they desire harden both their hearts and minds and are often unable to hear what it is that God speaks. The scribes and the Pharisees are a great example of this, why did they reject Jesus while other, less educated, seemingly less prepared people accepted Him? I believe it is because they hardened their hearts to the revelation of Himself that He provided. They didn’t like His message or His identity and so they rejected Him, they hardened their hearts and so when others heard the gospel and received they could not hear and rejected. We see it even more clearly in the interaction of Jesus and the rich young ruler. This young man was fully aware that Jesus was the person He had to see to be granted eternal life. He had done everything that had ever been required of Him, Jesus finally told Him to sell His possessions, give to the poor and then gave Him the command that all followers hear: “Follow Me”. The young man went away sad because his riches were great, meaning they had a great hold on his heart, He saw the revelation of Jesus, was in agreement with who He was and then rejected what he spoke. I believe that rejection is not caused by a lack of revelation, but that rejection of what God reveals can lead to a lack of understanding. It is the hardness of our hearts and closes our ears, not God’s unwillingness to be understood.
Jesus goes on to say that His speaking in parables is the fulfillment of Scripture found in Isaiah 6:9 and 10. If we look at the context of Isaiah 6 we see that this Scripture was written about a generation of Israel that had become stubborn, disobedient and hard-hearted. The condition of our hearts determines our ability to receive and understand the Word of God, that is what we will see the entire parable is about but that is even the purpose of parables. As we discussed last time, parables reveal God’s desire to be desired. Parables require interaction; they require thought and interest, to understand the meaning of a parable you have to engage with your heart and your mind. John Stott wrote “Parables are an invitation to faith . . . the aim of parables was to encourage serious, persistent and perceptive listeners.” Jesus spoke in parables because He didn’t want to simply be heard, He wanted to be listened to.
If we recall, Jesus began the parable of the sower with the command “Listen!” and then ended the parable with the similar statement, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Don’t simply believe that it has been given to some to hear and to others it has not been given, hearing is dependent upon listening, listening is dependent upon the condition of our hearts.
One quick, but I believe interesting Greek lesson and we will move on to our text for tonight. The Greek word translated “to hear” is “akouein”. The Greek word translated “to obey” is “hupakouein”. The prefix “hup” simply means “hyper” so “to obey” means “hyper hearing”. Our obedience is completely dependent upon our willingness to listen, to hear, to engage and to interact. Contrary to some of our word-pictures, God did not send Jesus to enlist soldiers in an army, men and women that served by obligation, He sent Jesus to provide a way for Him to adopt children into His family, to create relationships in which He would speak and we, as children would hang on His every word, loving His voice and obeying Him out of great love and deep friendship. Jesus used parables because parables create interaction and interaction creates relationships. God chose parables because God wants depth in us, from us and for us.