“You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.” ~ Jonathan Swift
On November 2, 2004, an Islamic assassin in Amsterdam, Holland shot, stabbed and butchered the great-grandnephew of the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh. And what was Van Gogh’s crime?
He made a ten-minute film entitled Submission in which he chronicled the abuses that Muslims have perpetrated upon their own women. The assassin, after shooting his victim began to stab him mercilessly. Apparently, it was reported that in a last-ditch effort to save his life Van Gogh pleaded with his attacker: ‘We can…still, talk about it.’ Talk. Dialog. Reason. In response, savagery. What a chilling, final, and desperate appeal from a dying man crying out to the conscience of his murderer to think about what he was doing.
At that point, reason had no power over one man’s intent on a murderous rampage. As sad and tragic as it is that brutality of this nature exists in our world, it does highlight a question that’s worth considering.
What good is reason when it is confronted with a wicked unregenerate human heart bent on doing what is evil?
How do you convince someone of the truth, whose mind is already made up? It’s almost impossible! Well, perhaps not impossible, per se, but from a practical standpoint, it’s so close to impossible, you might as well say that it is. We use the word, “impossible”, here in its euphemistic sense. Which is probably why we use figures of speech to describe frustratingly difficult, unmovable, unteachable people. We might describe them as “set in their ways” or “stubborn as a mule”; or this one, which was a personal favorite of my dad; “He’s sharp as a tack and twice as flat headed.”
As frustrating as it can be to deal with such an odious individual as this, we are in a way comforted by knowing that even Jesus had to endure the company of such people.
This knowledge is illustrated clearly for us in Matthew 13, as Jesus is sitting in a boat, turned pulpit, by the Sea of Galilee teaching the people about the coming kingdom. And because no single parable can explain all the aspects of the coming kingdom, he uses a series of 8 parables, one right after another, to explain the deeper things of God. Yet in the midst of this extraordinary sermon, Jesus’ disciples interrupt him in mid-stream with this question, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” (v.10)
Why not just tell them plainly what you want them to know (why hide the truth in the midst of a story?) At this point, Jesus makes a curious statement, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” (v.11)
What? What does he mean by that? What is Jesus hiding? And why is he hiding it?
Well, understand, parables are beautiful things. They are fictional stories; true-to-life stories which are intended to convey the deep things of God which must be mined from the given story through the supernatural illuminating work of the Holy Spirit impressing his wisdom upon your soul.
Without an open heart and a genuinely truth-seeking mind, parables are unintelligible to the average person.
You might hear the story, connect with the characters, the situations, the plot, the climax and falling action, but if your heart and mind are not right with God, you’ll miss their meaning even though the meaning itself stands like a proverbial elephant right in front of your face. But see, that’s the beauty of parables, and that’s why Jesus used them.
There are two main purposes for parables:
Parables seek…
- To explain divine truth to those who are open to hear it. Parables are tools to compare something physical to something spiritual. Jesus begins several parables by saying “The Kingdom of God is like…” so he could tie an abstract concept (the Kingdom of God) to something more concrete and visible (like a mustard seed in Matthew 13:31-32). Jesus chose to teach in story form because stories engage the mind and emotions of listeners like no other form of teaching. One great example of this is when Jesus painted a beautiful picture of what “loving your neighbor as yourself” meant when he told the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). — (Kevin Halloran a Christian blogger)
The unique thing about parables is that they are given to make you think and to make you feel so that you might respond correctly to the truth contained within them. But this is not the only reason why Jesus taught in parables.
They were also given…
- To hide the meaning of divine truth from those who have already made up their minds that they’re not going to believe.
“When speaking in parables, Jesus was not hiding truth from sincere seekers, because those who were receptive to spiritual truth understood the illustrations. To others, they were only stories without meaning. Jesus purposely spoke in parables to weed out the halfhearted and curiosity seekers from the true seekers. His words, like the farmer’s seed, fell on various types of hearts. Those who truly heard and understood would become his followers.” – (Life Application Commentary, edited by Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda Taylor, Dave Veerman. Tyndale House Publishing, p.61)
In speaking to the crowds that day from his floating pulpit, Jesus knew that among the many who came to hear him, were people who had already made up their minds not to accept him as Messiah. They had come to hear Jesus with their hearts already set in concrete! Jesus knew that nothing of what he said that day was going to move them from the position they had already reasoned themselves into. And so, instead of teaching them the truth plainly, he couched the truth in story-form.
This was a form of divine judgment for their hard, and impenetrable hearts. This was akin to “not casting your pearls before swine”.
Why should God continue to tell them the truth plainly, since all they were going to do is reject it anyway? And his judgment of them was this: The truth was given, and others understood it, but you were too blind; too wicked; too stubborn and rebellious to see it! That’s quite an indictment! The fault lies not with the speaker, but with the hearer.
So, depending upon one’s heart condition, parables function differently:
- For those who are genuinely seeking the truth, parables are like a window that provides the true seeker with light (spiritual insight) so that they might see truth that is not easily detectable to the natural man.
- For those who have already pre-determined not to believe the truth, no matter what evidence is presented, parables act like shutters which extinguish the light already given. They function as God’s commentary on a darkened impenetrable heart and give a warning of future judgment.
And so, throughout the entire chapter of Matthew 13, we find Jesus appealing to the heart of mankind through heavenly reason. But for many, reason was as effective on them, as it was for Van Gogh’s killer. When confronted with a wicked unregenerate human heart bent on disbelieving no matter the evidence provided, reason made no difference whatsoever. Their hearts were rusted shut; set in concrete, and nothing; not even the most eloquent, remarkable, and reasoned argument from the greatest and most profound speaker in history, could pry them open.
Which is why Jesus gave them this warning…this promise, in verses 12-13:
“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables, ‘though seeing, they do not see, though hearing they do not hear or understand.”
It’s like the old adage: There’s none so blind as those who will not see!
In consideration of all of this, we must ask ourselves an honest, searching question, if you desire to go deeper in your knowledge of God; if you seek to scratch the surface of the infinite with a finite mind, then your heart must become genuinely teachable.
If you’re a believer, and yet you’ve been among the many in church who complain that they’re not being fed by their pastor’s teaching or preaching ministry; then let me ask you: Have you ever considered the fact that your stunted growth as a Christian, may not have anything to do with how eloquent, funny or entertaining you pastor is; but that the problem may lie with the fact that your heart is set in concrete?
But if your heart is open, your mind, hungry; your spirit, ready to receive what God has for you to digest, the messenger won’t matter. The messenger is simply, as Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 4, a simple, unattractive clay pot into which God has stored the secret of his treasures. But to get at the treasure, the clay pot has to be broken open. The hardened cement of unbelief and pride must crumble. Your fallow ground must be tilled to the surface.
And if we allow him to do it; as painful as it might be, what wonders; what secrets of the deeps things of God, might we uncover?