Matthew 13:11-13
He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”
My first completed post vanished in the mist this morning, so I am starting over. This passage is a tough one for me because it feels exclusionary; as if those who do not know Christ don’t have the capacity to understand. But reading more, I found the explanation that made sense to me- belief needs to come first. We can’t learn our way to an understanding of God. We need to accept and believe first, and then God’s mysteries will become clearer to us. One commentary author said that as the Bible is sometimes referred to as a love letter from God to his family, one needs to be a member of the family to understand much of His meaning. This does make sense to me.
Holy Lord, strengthen my belief and my faith through your grace. Help those who seek you to take that leap of faith and to know that more knowledge will follow. Amen
Becky, transforming
Matthew 13:11-13
Oh, those parables. Some are easily understandable, others are not. Why is he making it so difficult for us to understand? Then I thought of the ancient Rabbi's and their Midrash. Maybe He wants us to work hard to understand these mysterious stories that are supposed to be telling us something important. Maybe he wants us to share our questions about a story and see what others think. Maybe in this sharing comes understanding and readiness to believe.
Prayer: Gracious God, I hope our questions, even today, show you how much we want to understand your words and believe. AMEN
Matthew 13:11-13
According to Jesus, a whole new world and way of understanding it will reveal itself if we but yield to the prompting (prevenient grace) of the Holy Spirit and believe the Good News embodied in His coming. Once we take that step we gain eternity with God. Those who use the free will granted by God to refuse this gift of grace will, Jesus says, lose everything. His parables are a mystical portal to help open the eyes, minds and hearts of those who do not yet know Him. Perhaps they should be a bigger part of our evangelistic efforts as they put heavenly principles in earthly terms that are easier to understand.
Prayer - Gracious Lord, this…