Living Parables

Most of our read­ers could repeat the essence, if not the full word-for-word pas­sage, of the Parable of the Sower and the Seed (Mat 13). It is, after all, Jesus’ first recorded para­ble, and has been taught in church ser­vices over and over again. We have been told that if we can­not under­stand this para­ble, very likely we will not under­stand any­thing Jesus taught on earth. It is almost like we have been coerced into under­stand­ing this one teach­ing. And we do well to under­stand it.

It was, how­ever, never God’s plan for us to grasp this one para­ble to the neglect of that which fol­lows. Verse 10 shows us that Jesus’ dis­ci­ples went to Him and asked for the mean­ing and for His rea­son­ing in speak­ing in para­bles. In the same chap­ter, we see that Jesus always spoke to the mul­ti­tudes in para­bles, and with­out a para­ble He did not speak (Mat 13:34).

The key here is that Jesus spoke to the mul­ti­tudes in para­bles. To His dis­ci­ples He dis­closed the mean­ings. We take pride in receiv­ing the rev­e­la­tion of the mes­sage, but the issue is that His dis­ci­ples go to Him and ask. It is Proverbs 3:5–7 déjà vu. We can­not lean on our own under­stand­ing, but rather acknowl­edge Him in all our ways.

Life hap­pens. There is always some­thing going on, good things, bad things, things that upset our plans. We get cut off in traf­fic. The baby gets sick on the very night of the social event of the sea­son. All the grand­chil­dren in one fam­ily seem to go down the same ques­tion­able path. We pray. We ask the Lord to inter­vene. We stand for what we believe is right. Or some­times we just get angry or heart-broken. But do we see life’s hap­pen­ings as His para­bles? If we do, do we go to Him and ask? Are we of the mul­ti­tudes, always see­ing and never per­ceiv­ing? Or are we dis­ci­ples?