Up to this point, I’ve made a pretty big deal about Jesus. That is as it should be. He’s the main character of the whole Story. He’s the hero, we’re the damsel in distress.
I’ve made bold assertions in previous weeks that Jesus was the greatest teacher of all time, the smartest man who ever lived. I stand by those statements. And yet, His teaching can’t really be considered data-rich, and He didn’t convince many people. Jesus’ teaching has had deep impact over the past 2,000 years, yet He was probably considered a fairly ineffective teacher during His own lifetime. He was more likely to ask you a question than give you an answer. He never revealed the theory of relativity to anyone, never spouted off about the sun being the centre of the solar system.
Wise? Absolutely. Knowledgeable? Er, as for all the stories He told, well, let’s talk about those for a minute.
Most folks think Jesus used stories in order to communicate difficult things to simple people. And there’s probably something to that.
But there’s something more going on with these parables of His. In fact, Mark’s Gospel sets up a distinction between the parables and plain teaching, saying He used parables with big groups of people but spoke plainly when He was with His disciples (Mk 4.34). It appears, on closer inspection, that Jesus may have used these stories to obscure rather than illuminate what He was really saying (Mk 4.10-12). At least that’s what it sounds like from Mark.
Consider this, Jesus wasn’t letting His friends in on a little secret that had to be kept from others as much as He was helping them solve a mystery. The clues were everywhere around them, but they lacked the perspective to piece them all together properly. They were Watson to Jesus’ Sherlock Holmes. He wasn’t providing them with missing pieces of information, He was helping them connect the dots of information they already had into a meaningful pattern.
Once they got all the dots connected and were able to step back and discern the pattern, that’s when they really got frustrated. Jesus hadn’t been giving them information or enlightening them at all! Instead, He was telling these thorny stories that got inside their heads and went off like little time bombs to force them into making a choice about Him. You’re either inclined toward God or away from Him. You either have ears to hear and eyes to see, or you do not.
The stories that He told came together to form a wedge, a wedge that could find a crack in your heart and, little by little, force you off the fence.
Prayer
All wise God, You have made us for Yourself, and You know our natures and ways far better than we do. In ways that are mysterious to us, we are an integrated unity out of the diversity of spirit, heart, soul, mind, will, emotions and conscience. We are fearfully and wonderfully made in our material and immaterial existence, and Your Word speaks to every component of our being. I am thankful that You have revealed both propositional and personal truth and have called us to integrate our minds and our hearts. May the principles and precepts of Your Word not only illuminate our minds but also enflame our hearts as we realise that the way, the truth and the life is a Person whom we can know and love. I pray that the truth of Your Word will inspire our minds to seek true greatness and our hearts to seek Your goodness.
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