January 8, 2006 Matthew 13:10-17
The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 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. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ”‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Some of you may remember a classic old television show called “Leave it to Beaver.” Beaver was a little boy who always seemed to get into some sort of trouble. One time the Beaver disobeyed his parents and picked up a pet bunny. As a result the momma bunny didn’t want anything to do with the bunny because it smelled different due to the Beaver’s scent. Beaver didn’t know what to do, so he went to the wisest man he knew - Gus the fireman. From what I remember, Gus was a skinny elderly gentleman in his 80’s - who sat in a rocking chair and spoke real slow and deliberately. Gus knew enough to put a little bit of vanilla on the momma’s nose so that all the bunnies would smell the same. What made Gus so wise? He was a practical guy who used knew to apply his old life’s experience to every day life. The thing that differentiates smart people from wise people - is that wise people are able to APPLY their smarts to life. I used to know a 4.0 guy who couldn’t do his wash. He could tell you the deepest theological truths but he would constantly get lost as to where he should be in the liturgy. Somewhere there was a disconnect between his knowledge and the application of the knowledge.
Epiphany is an annual celebration of the Wise Men - otherwise known as Magi - coming to visit Jesus. If you had a good knowledge of natural things - whether it be the land, animals, the weather, or the stars, back then you were known as a Magi. It was a respectable term, like being called a professor. These were no idiots that came to see Jesus. They were Wise Men. They were able to apply their knowledge of nature to life.
The Wise Men - while studying the stars - noticed a very peculiar one on their western horizon - something that they had never seen before. Their knowledge of the stars helped them to notice this anomaly - something that your average adult watching his nightly rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond would never notice. Yet even with their knowledge of the stars, how would they equate this star with the birth of the Messiah and be wise enough to go and look for Him? There is only one seemingly vague reference to a star in the Old Testament in Numbers 24:17. It says, “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.” Daniel may have been told by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that a star would appear in the East when the Christ child was to be born, and relayed this to the other Magi in the area of Babylon. This interpretation may have been carried on for 500 plus years. Either way, there is no way that they would have been able to tell the significance of this star WITHOUT a special revelation from God - no matter how wise they were. Epiphany is a Greek word that means “to make known.” God gave the Wise Men - some Gentiles from as far away as Babylon or Sheba - an Epiphany - showing them the meaning of the star and drawing them to Bethlehem from far away.
We come here today to celebrate Epiphany as God’s Christmas to us Gentiles - His revelation of the Christ to people far away from the Jews. We celebrate the fact that out of all of the people in the world, God has revealed to US that Jesus is the Christ as well. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Jesus is not just a great teacher. He is God almighty - come in the flesh to save us from our sins. We have the wisdom to know not only that Christ died - but that He died for us and our salvation is complete in Him.
Yet as we celebrate God’s revelation to us - people living hundreds of miles and years away from the place and time of Christ - a part of us wonders, “why me? Why not others?” This was the question that was gnawing at the disciples. In today’s text, Jesus was continually teaching the people in parables. Whereas he explained the parables to the disciples, many other people were walking away confused and not getting it. Why didn’t Jesus just get more direct? Why didn’t He reveal it to them? Jesus sheds some light on the subject and the question - gives us an Epiphany of sorts. He reveals to us -
The Purpose of the Parables
I. For the people
When we read through the parables some two thousand years after Jesus spoke them, are they really that hard to understand? I don’t believe so. Usually the point is pretty straight forward - at least to those with a basic faith in Christ. The parable of the sower is one example. It has a sower sowing some seed, some which falls on a rocky path, on good soil, another among weeds. Most kids in seventh grade could easily get the point. Jesus was talking about how the Word - like seed - can either grow or die - depending on whether it is fed or not. Jesus’ parables seem rather straight forward to us who have been given the Holy Spirit. In one instance Jesus spoke a parable of a vineyard being lent out to some tenants and the tenants killing the son. Mark 12:12 says, “Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them.” Jesus enemies understood that one as plain as day. They also knew that Jesus predicted He was going to raise from the dead when he talked of “raising the temple.”
So why couldn’t many of the people “get it”? Jesus connected the reason back to some words Isaiah wrote 700 years before. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ”‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ It wasn’t that Isaiah or Jesus was speaking unclearly. It was that the people didn’t want to hear it. They were probably coming out to be healed or to see what all the people were talking about - but they weren’t really there to listen. You can see the same thing happen in the story of the Wise Men. They said flat out they were going to look for the Messiah. The teachers of the Word told them where to go - and Herod also knew. They could have followed, but they probably thought the Wise Men weren’t credible enough. They just didn’t get it.
You might compare it to a man who knows that his wife is unhappy. She lays about fifty hints to him that she wants to go out to eat or have some special treatment. She says, “boy, that looks like it might be a neat movie.” He says, “yeah, it sure does” - but then never gets to asking her to go. She again says, “what are you doing tomorrow night? “ He says nothing, and then says, “oh, I don’t know, did you want to go shopping or something?” No matter what she does, he looks at her like a caveman and doesn’t get what she is saying. Any other person can see clearly what she is doing and what she is saying, but he just doesn’t get it. Why? Because he’s not really listening to her or is too hard headed to listen - he’s so focused on what he wants that he doesn’t want to make any effort to listen because he knows it will take effort or money. He likes being lazy and ignorant. He won’t get it until she looks him in the eye and says, “I WANT TO GO TO A MOVIE TONIGHT.” That’s how it was with the people that Jesus was talking to. It wasn’t that he was being unclear. It was that they had their own agenda - and they didn’t want to hear what Jesus was saying.
The gospels are full of examples of Jesus using parables. He spoke the parable of the Prodigal Son, the Weeds, the Mustard Seed, the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl, the Net, the Sower and many others. Verse 34 says that Jesus didn’t say anything to the people without using a parable. A parable was basically a story from every day life that had a heavenly meaning. So you could say that Jesus was a good story teller. If people came out to hear a good story, they heard a good story - but that’s all they heard. They didn’t get the point that Jesus was illustrating through them. They were illustrations of the need to repent, fight the devil and the world, the necessity of faith, heaven and hell, and the eternal judgment. Yet many people seem to have listened to Jesus and said, “that was a nice story.” It reminds me of when people go to Handel’s Messiah and they listen to the music and the words, and leave being impressed with the music but no more. When you come to a children’s Christmas service and all you remember is whether your child said his part right, it’s the same thing. How can’t you hear the message that they’re saying and think about how important it is? When you go home from worship and all you think about is the conversation you had with your neighbor or the style of music - you missed the message! You can see it in people who read the Bible and all they get out of it is that Jesus was a nice guy who was made into a miracle man as a symbol for what we could do as humans. Everything is turned into a parable. People go to church for the social aspect or because they like the music, but the message never really comes through. Everything becomes a nice story or feeling - like a parable - but no more. Instead of looking at God’s Word as a call to repentance and faith, it is just a story about how to live a good life. As a judgment on their unbelief, Jesus gave them parables - which they could walk away from in ignorance. He allowed them to stay ignorant while listening to the Word - which only managed to harden them further.
II. For the disciples
The ironic thing is that while the people weren’t getting what Jesus was saying, the disciples were getting it and growing in faith through every parable that was spoken. He was revealing to them what He called the “knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom..” Through these parables, God strengthened the faith of the disciples. If you think about it, isn’t that an interesting concept? It’s almost like a secret code of sorts. In World War II the Americans employed Native Americans to converse with one another in their native language which they called “wind talking.” Even though the enemy could hear their conversation, they couldn’t understand it and they couldn’t break the code. It just sounded like wind. That’s what these parables are like. The disciples get it - the unbelievers don’t. Why do we get it? Not because we’re smarter than the unbelievers. Instead, Jesus told the disciples - “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you.” It was revealed to them by God - just like the Wise Men had the meaning of the star revealed to them. We also only understand the true meaning of who Jesus is and what He has done because it has been REVEALED to us. We can understand the parables.
This is the way God has continually worked throughout the ages - in hidden things that need to be revealed. He has to. When He Himself revealed the Ten Commandments from the top of Mt. Sinai - it was too powerful - the people asked Moses to go up as their representative. Since we are so sinful God has to work in hidden ways - in the Word, parables, stars, and sacraments. We would be blind to these hidden messages from God also, but God in His mercy has revealed them to us. We wouldn’t know that a baby being born in a manger two thousand years ago was God Almighty - our Savior - unless God had revealed it to us. We wouldn’t know that the man who cries, sleeps and bleeds like everyone else was perfect unless the Holy Spirit let that light shine in our hearts. We wouldn’t see God punishing His Son for our sins on the cross unless the spotlight of the Scriptures had revealed it to us. We wouldn’t live with hope in the resurrection from the dead unless God had opened our eyes of faith to see it and believe it. We wouldn’t baptize babies - but God has promised us forgiveness and salvation in that water. We wouldn’t eat bread and drink wine in the Lord’s Supper, but God has revealed the body and blood of Christ in it. God has revealed to us some incredible miracles - that to the world - look like weakness and failure. The birth in a manger looks poor and unimpressive. The death on the cross looks like a sinner’s way to go. But God has shown us the light - just like He did to the Wise Men. We’ve had an Epiphany. What a privilege this is! What a comfort we have! Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” We have been revealed much more detail than the prophets and righteous men longed to see.
When someone tells you a secret, it’s usually for a reason. Imagine if your best friend came to you and said in secret, “I’m going to leave my wife.” What would be your immediate reaction? “Why are you telling me? What do you want me to do?” That knowledge would force a reaction out of you - either to try to talk him out of it or to tell his wife. You couldn’t keep it a secret. You would want her to know.
When the Wise Men were revealed that the Christ was born, they knew what to do. Even though it probably involved over a five hundred mile journey, they went to see the Christ - and they told Herod and others that Jesus was born. This was an incredible revelation - they had to travel hundreds of miles to see it. They felt compelled to tell others.
When the disciples were given a revelation of the meaning of the parables, they also left all to follow Jesus. They dedicated their lives to spreading the Gospel as Jesus called them to do. Many of them suffered and died at the hands of their fellow Jews while trying to reveal to them who Jesus was and why He came. Instead of complaining about it, they looked at it as a privilege to suffer for Christ.
You also have been given an incredible Epiphany - you know WHO Jesus is. He is God in the flesh. You know WHAT Jesus did - He lived and died for you. God has spoken parables to you, and you understand them. God has spoken truth to you, and you believe it. You have seen the Light. Ask yourself, “why did God reveal this secret to me? What is the purpose of revealing the parables to me? Is this so I can win a trivial pursuit game? Is it so I, like Herod and the prophets - can send other people to find out about it while I stay at home in my comfortable lifestyle? Is it so I can now feel comfortable about life and just do what I want when I want? Is it so I will remain full of guilt and keep on worrying about how much money I have or how much weight I’ve gained? Or is it so I can leave my comfort zone - stop living for this life - come and worship the Christ - and tell others about Him? Is it so I can see that there are more important things in life than sports and entertainment? Is it so I can look at my family and my job as a gift of God that I can serve to HIS glory? Is it so I can live my life in hope of the resurrection?” Good old Gus from Leave it to Beaver doesn’t need to explain it to you. The answer isn’t hidden. The purpose of the parables is plain. The Holy Spirit has given you an Epiphany. Believe it and live. Amen.
