Why Don't You Understand?

God Loves Us
God's Caring, Saving, and Upholding Love

God's Preserving Love

Matthew 13:10-17  The Message

Why Tell Stories?

10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”
11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
    Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
    so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
    so they won’t have to look,
    so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
    and let me heal them.
16-17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.

For Reflection

As a teacher, Jesus understood that not everyone is ready to understand.  He understood the power of truth told in a story with which others could identify.  He understood that leading one to understand stories preserved an individual's right to choose a righteous life.  Christ led people to see themselves in the light of God's love.  He helped them understand the perilous consequences of self-direction and the blessings in acting from God-centered love. Christ helped people understand how they could escape from the tyranny of their time.  Christ can show us how we can escape the tyranny of our time.  To this day, Christ's wisdom is controversial.  We must close our eyes to doctrinal allegiance and open them to the truth in Christ's stories.  In His truth, we will find righteousness.

Pray

Pray that you will open your hearts to the authentic story of God's love for humankind as found in the story of Christ.  Pray that you will be transformed by the word and Spirit of God.