Understanding
Sometimes things may sound simple but they are still hard to understand.
Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that “they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.” ’- Mark 4:1-12
The parable Jesus tells about the sower and the seeds is not that difficult to understand, but his explanation of why he speaks in parables is a bit surprising.
It sounds like he chose to speak in parables to keep people from understanding the true meaning of the words.
Jesus seems to be referencing Isaiah chapter 6, verses 9 and 10, where Isaiah says something similar about the people of Israel. It is more about the nature of man than about keeping them from understanding.
No matter how God tries to teach the children, they choose to turn away, to interpret His words in a way that best suits their own desires and actions.
The parable of the seeds is all about the different types of people who hear the message. Only a few accept and let the word grow in them, while all the others fail.
So, I believe Jesus is expressing the truth about the people who hear his words.
They will choose to let the words fall without taking root.
The irony here is that God knows our nature and yet continues to love us and want us to turn to Him. No matter how hard He tries to get us to listen, we are the stubborn ones.
Using parables, Jesus makes understanding a prize for those who try to solve the puzzles, the stories that stay with us and gnaw at us until we say Aha!.
Maybe that is the only way to get the message across, by making it harder to understand.
More to come...