04 - Teaching by Parables
TEACHING BY PARABLES.
’’ Why speakest thou to them in parables?” This question of the disciples suggests a line of thought which may be profitable to us as an introduction to the parables of our Lord, especially to the Parable of the Sower. The great Teacher did not use parables for their beauty, nor chiefly for their power as illustrations. They are rather hints of something deeper; surface indications of richer ore beneath, for which we must dig watchfully and thoroughly. And we may be sure that parables meant more to Christ than they do to us. As the botanist walking through the forest sees a variety and wealth of which the woodman never dreams; or as the anthropologist, looking at the common customs of men, sees a far-reaching history with a wealth of meaning that is never more than a surface suggestion to the mass of men; so the Christ, “ by whom all things consist,” sees nature’s secrets in all their infinite depth of meaning. Where we see the conflicts that keep nature’s surface in agitation, He sees the perfect concord reigning deep within.
Behind the infinite variety that puzzles us, and the struggle of forces that bewilders us, He reads the eternal purpose of God blending all into the most perfect harmony. His pure eyes see a wealth to which our eyes are blind, and His mighty hand draws it forth for the world’s instruction. Divine Himself, He is conscious of the divine knowledge and beauty written in with every scroll of nature. So that where all looks dark and deadly to us. He sees a divine truth, the truth of Jehovah’s certain purpose, relieving with its own glory all the seeming defects and contradictions of earth. It adds to the value as well as to the beauty of the gospel message, that the Christ Teacher wove it into such close relations with all the works of God, among which we must delve for our daily life. The Teacher who knew what was in man, knew also what was in nature, and taught us how to take more than a mere glance at the vast gallery of truth and beauty through which we are passing. He taught us to look for Jehovah’s thought in every problem of nature, and to listen for the Father’s voice of love and wisdom in every incident of life. He would have us search every nook of earthly life for the footprints of divine purpose, for the incarnation of divine thought, for the illustration of divine truth. To Him all things in the heavens and the earth, in the fields, the sea and the air, were filled with the thoughts of the eternal Mind, and He interpreted them into current language for circulation through all the years of human life.
These truths He would force into the consciousness of men, and by them arouse us to an earnest effort to reach His own high standard for us. On the head, the arm, the foot, you touch the throbbing pulse, and think of the heart that beats its life-strokes into every part of the body. As the divine Teacher touches the pulses of truth, beating their mysterious harmonies everywhere throughout all life, He points our minds to the great Unity, who, like an eternal heart, sends a mighty intimation of His plan and presence throbbing through all the veins of nature. Thus He would lead us to search beyond the discord for the eternal harmony toward which He is leading us.
You may thus at last learn that
“All nature is but art unknown to thee; All chance, direction which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good.” — Pope,
Without doubt, he is the richest heir of God who has most familiarity with the divine meanings of nature; and that lover of nature is truest and happiest who can discern in her teachings the truths of God’s implanting. As such a student looks on nature’s problems, he is often forced to ask the question of the angel in Milton:—
“What if earth Be but the shadow of Heaven and things therein, Each to other like more than on earth is thought? “
Certainly the Master used the earthly to teach us of things heavenly. For however others may read nature, Christ teaches that this world is a divine thought, God’s world; and that men are the highest part of that thought, a copy of the Divine Thinker; and that many of the mysteries that fall like shadows across the world are but intimations of Jehovah’s presence.
Earth’s treasures of truth are being discovered more and more richly every year by this eager, busy age, and science has given us many keys that unlock her secrets, yet her meaning is continually misinterpreted and her instructions misapplied. As we rejoice over earth’s wealth and beauty, we do not always realize how true it is that “ The earth is crammed with Heaven, And every bush afire with God.”
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Men are constantly saying the world is full of prophecies and man is full of hopes, but where is the promise of their fulfillment? The Word, the supreme Thought incarnate, comes to lighten man’s darkness, to lift the world’s hopes still higher by the divine assurance, to point man’s limited, hindered, heavy-laden life to the rest of perfection, the unhindered growth of eternal life. Though all the world groaneth and travaileth until now, the time of rest comes rapidly, when all the hidden things of the universe will reveal their meaning. When we shall live amid’ great thoughts and holy purposes, amid our highest hopes fulfilled, and higher hopes begotten. When the natural and the spiritual shall build each other into symmetry, and by Christ’s teaching shall reveal each other to the instruction and the comfort of all who listen to His voice. The Master ever interprets nature as speaking the truth of God. The mountain points to the sure refuge in Jehovah’s Strength and protection, the rock illustrates His abiding salvation. The lily in its beauty, and the birds in the free air above, point to God’s providing care. The golden grain drops into the fertile earth and springs up. to a more abundant life, and the seeds of divine truth fall into the ’’good and honest” heart only to spring up into the abundance of eternal life.
“Go to the earth,” says Job, ’’and it shall teach thee,” and the Psalmist continues the song, “for the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” (Psalms 24:1.) “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches.” (Psalms 104:24.) God has summoned all the resources of the whole realm of nature to aid in the upbuilding of man; and from the open pages of this visible universe Christ has taught us to read the truths of the unseen and eternal world. He so mingled the visible world about Him with the unseen world of His promise as to make the unseen things more real by association with things we knew. He read such divine truth from the suggestions of nature, and made the present mean so much by its relations with the eternal future; so unveiled that future by showing the real meaning of the present, and so rifted the cloud that separated them, as to make them forever stand forth as to-day and to-morrow of the same immortal life. Thus teaching us that the present is the parable of the unbounded future, and only as we rightly read the days that are, can we understand the years that shall be.
How patiently Christ battled with the world’s darkness, shining like the rising sun against the world’s clouds and fogs of sin and error, striving to make Heaven’s glorious light scatter every human darkness. Earnestly, longingly, did He labor to fill men’s minds with thoughts of God, and put into their souls His own high aim of life. The Parable of the Sower suggests the manner in which the world receives His earnest teaching. The disciples appear to have been surprised by this parable. Not so much that He spake in parables, but that He used parables at this time and to this people.
They are not very sure that they understand His meaning in the parable just uttered; but if they do, why does this Teacher, so earnest and so wise, speak such a parable to such an audience? It is not an illustration of God’s love and mercy. It is not an exhibition of Christ’s divine mission to our fallen race. As one has said, “He preached not to the people, but at them, or over their heads.” No comforting truth of revelation, but a discouraging, heart-searching analysis of the characters of His hearers. It was not a gospel message, but an uncomfortable, depressing statement of how the gospel would be received. That listening assembly was made*- up of a few who believed, and a multitude who were either indifferent, save from mere curiosity, or were prejudiced against Him, some even hating Him with a readiness to kill Him. Why did not Christ use this opportunity for a parable illustrating the grandeur of His mission, or the infinite greatness of His Father’s love?
How appropriate the parable of the “Prodigal Son” or the “Lost Sheep,” or the “Pearl of Great Price.” Instead of any vindication of Himself, or any propitiation of His hearers, He speaks to them a parable that, if understood, will discourage many, and rouse more to wrath that may seek to compass His own destruction.
Why lose this fine opportunity for a sermon on the great truths of God’s heavenly kingdom, or an earnest presentation of the Father’s infinite love and mercy? How little we see of things that are clear to the Master’s vision! The disciples might easily have been deceived, as we often are, into thinking that the multitude would press into the heavenly kingdom if only the gospel were appropriately preached unto them. These eager followers, who yet judge by appearances, dread to hear a word that might drive away the large audiences, or check their enthusiasm. But Christ preached not merely to the senses. That audience was much better understood by Christ than by the disciples, and from His perfect knowledge of the human heart He would take a lesson for the continual use of His disciples, and of all who preach His word. The crowd was very great, ’’There was gathered unto him a great multitude,” coming “ out of every city,” along that thickly populated lake-shore, and filled with eagerness to hear the wonderful words of the new prophet. The enthusiasm would have gladdened the heart of any human teacher, yet Christ speaks to the crowd a parable that carries a sad strain in almost every sentence. The disciples were disappointed, yet they were curious to know their Master’s purpose.
’’Why speakest thou to them in parables?“ What might this parable mean?
They had yet but little experience of their Teacher’s ways, and were only beginning fo understand His mission among them. They had not learned, and how few of us have learned, to wait patiently with a sure confidence that He who spake as never man speaks, has spoken with unerring wisdom.
He knows that in a few days, when He forces the real nature of His mission on their dull hearts, that crowd will scatter to all distances from Him, some even to do their part in hastening His condemnation.
He sees the whole field of living souls before Him divided into the four classes He describes in the parable, and in deep sadness utters what He so certainly knows and so keenly feels. How few are the real members of His divine kingdom, and what a crowd of eager seekers after sensations! The Saviour’s reply tells how He understood the question of His little school of disciples. “Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” Over that soil He has sown the pure seed of divine truth, yet all their thoughts are carnal. ’’In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith. By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.’’ They see and hear, but their hearts are become so gross and foul that they cannot understand, or they would be converted. What a fearful sentence to pronounce upon any class of human beings, and yet how true!
He sees in that crowd the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, and He prophesies a result soon to be apparent to all. The enthusiasm is at its height, and a vast multitude is eager to make Him king; but in a few days He will enter Capernaum, and to the same multitude, with increase. He will preach that wonderful sermon on the Bread of Life, after which the whole Galilean revival seemed to collapse in almost total failure. In this parable of the Sower, Christ says to all in that crowd who understand him, ’’Examine yourselves, and make sure of your own position, for in a few days I will pour a flood of light upon the real truth I came to teach, that will blind those who are still filled with the gross darkness of ignorance and unbelief; and at the same time I will also make clearer the boundaries of My heavenly kingdom — one class of you will be within the kingdom, many classes without. To which class do you belong? “ To His disciples He would say — “judge not by appearance, but learn well the lesson of this parable, for it is the judgment of omniscience upon every audience you will have to teach.” Their own high, and not very clear, expectations might easily lead them to put too great a value upon the eagerness and enthusiasm of the increasing crowd. He bids them look deeper. For their instruction, He analyzes the very hearts of that listening congregation, and shows how few of them are "good and honest” soil in which truth can grow. It is an infinitely sad thought. Not only that many of them will not receive the truth, but cannot. Their hearts are too barren, or too thorny. They have lost their capacity to receive the truth with understanding. Was this more true then than now? Are there not multitudes now whose hearts are so gross as to make it impossible for spiritual truth to enter and abide? No longer can those who catch the meaning of the parable be entirely unmindful of the high and unselfish purpose of their teacher; nor can they be altogether blind to the grossness and insincerity of the great congregations that listened to Him. His interpretation of the parable is an evident revelation of His own omniscience, and a clear exhibition of His position as a teacher from God. At the same time it is an impressive lesson to His disciples upon the great necessity for the possession of a ricrht spirit in order to understand all parables, and rightly judge all congregations. The Parable of the Sower has been to all Christ’s followers an important, though sometimes very discouraging, lesson. The hard experiences of centuries have vividly illustrated and proven true these words of Him who “ knew what was In man,” and no longer can a teacher of truth speak to any audience without the thought that here, too, are the four classes of hearers. It is the handwriting of God upon every assembly listening to the gospel message. A few will hear the truth and treasure it in good and honest hearts, but the other classes are the more numerous. “Having ears they hear not.” All who hear are modified by the truth, but how few are sanctified by it! Is It not strange and sorrowful that so few receive the truth into hearts all ready for Its fullest growth, when the reward of knowing God Is eternal life?
Many loudly-applauded philanthropic schemes to reform the world have had a sudden success that deceived men into a temporary beHef that they were divinely true, but their false interpretation of God, and their blindness to the narrowness, the hardness, and the thorny condition of our sinful hearts, have caused them to pass away as visions in the night, leaving the world still unreformed. But no follower of Christ, however enthusiastic for the world’s redemption, can for a moment leave out of account the sin-disturbed vision, and sin deadened ears of our degenerate souls. He ever remembers that “the servant is not greater than his Lord” even in this, and if they would not hear the Master they are not likely to hear the disciple. If from the hand of the divine Sower the seed fell into but few hearts that were ’’honest and good,” the disciple may expect, without discouragement, that while he must “sow beside all waters,” “only here and there will there be a harvest.
Yet all true disciples of Christ work for His kingdom under the dominance of the ever present hope of its full success. “Thy kingdom come,” is their earnest prayer, but it is also a loyal acceptance of their Master’s prophecy that “ the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world.” It is not their dream, it is not any mere scheme of reformation, but a steady, determined sowing of the ’-word of the kingdom,” the fruit of which is ever good, and which would make this world all fruitful of heavenly graces if all hearts were but “Good and honest.” It is the seed of love, the foundation of all true and abiding philanthropy. Yet, if there were no promise of success, but only the command to sow, every true disciple would work with all diligence because it is the will of his Lord. The disciples very evidently feel that Christ has thoughts deeper than the mere literal meaning of the parable, and they ask for the interpretation. He answers with a very suggestive question, “ Know ye not this parable, how then will ye know all parables?” What, not understand so simple a parable as this? How then will ye understand the deeper parables which teach of Jehovah’s nature and man’s eternal future? This may be the meaning of His question, but does it not go deeper? Does it not reach down to the innermost spirit of every listener? The Christ might stand before this congregation and say, "I show you the Father?” and we answer, “only show us the Father and it sufficeth us.” “What,” he says, “have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” The fault is not in Him, it is not in God; it is in our hearts. The “pure in heart shall see God.” Likeness is essential to perfect understanding. No man can have any clear insight into that with which he has no sympathy. As Hartley Coleridge says: “ Sympathy is the ground of mutual understanding.” Or as Wordsworth so beautifully expresses it: “ You must love Him ere to you He seem worthy of your love.”
“Whate’er we look on, at our side Be charity — to bid us think. And feel, if we would know.”
Irving, in his Columbus, Bk. 7, ch. i, first paragraph, gives a perfect illustration of this necessity of sympathy in order to understanding. It is a necessity always, but especially in spiritual matters. The doubting Thomas cannot see the glorious meaning of the Christ life; but the new-born Thomas bows humbly, and with the very heart says, “ My Lord and my God.”
Apply this to that audience listening to the parable as Christ first utters it. Gross of heart, stubborn and blind, how could they understand a spiritual parable? ’’Their mood is for revolution, but not of their own lives.” They would make Jesus a king, but not in their souls, nor according to the idea of H is spiritual kingdom. They are full of enthusiasm for a miracle worker who can feed them with loaves and fishes, but where is their zeal for truth, or loving, patient endurance for righteousness sake?
About one-half of Christ’s earthly ministry is gone. He has scattered the seeds of truth broadcast over many great audiences. In spring-time, when hearts were opened with need and expectation, with divine skill He had sown the good seed “beside all waters.” Not in parables, but in plain speech. Not in similitudes, but in the concise, startling, enduring beatitudes. His hearers saw His mighty deeds, but saw not their meaning or purpose.
They heard His wonderful teachings, but caught not their life-giving value. "Seeing, they see not; hearing, they hear not.”
Now, as he wraps His thoughts in parable, those who understand may see the truth more clearly by the dress in which it is clothed, and in which those who have hardened themselves into grossness of heart may find their own judgment. Some went up into clearer light; the many went down into deeper darkness. Yet even as these ** despisers of the word “ went lower and lower, the familiar parable would cling to their memories, and might even vet challenge their attention to its hidden truths. As Von Gerlach says: *’A parable is like the pillar of cloud and fire, which turned the dark side to the Egyptians, the bright side to the people of the covenant; it is like a shell which keeps the precious kernel as well for the diligent as from the indolent.” When they would not hear the plain warnings and commands, when through grossness of heart they could not take hold of His spiritual promises, Christ gave the divine message in parables in order that, if possible, some of them might even yet perceive the deeper meaning within and be saved. Christ does not abandon them when they reject His message, but continues always to preach to them the word of life ’’And with many such parables spake He the word unto them, as they were able to hear it: and without a parable spake He not unto them; but privately to His own disciples He expounded all things.” But may we not catch a glimpse of the feeling in the heart of the Teacher as He uttered this parable, and thus see still more clearly its deeper meaning? Complained of, upbraided, misunderstood; selfish motives ascribed to His pure deeds, isolated, without sympathy, without the confidence of those He came to save; charged with crime by those for whom He would die; sorrowing unto death with the knowledge of human sinfulness; thus out of a heart so familiar with grief. He utters this parable. It was His omniscient view of the gigantic struggle now begun between truth from God and human sinfulness. Is it any wonder that He spake this parable in sadness? This was His prophecy concerning the reception of the truth, and all the history of Christianity is the fulfillment of His word. His infinite longing to save His people from the tyranny of sin, and from its final awful fruits; His immeasurable love for human souls; His divine enthusiasm for the truth, could not dim His vision to the reality of the wilful rejection by men of His sublimest efforts.
Infinitely sad, yet certainly true, is this parable; and as true to-day as when Christ stood in the boat on Galilee’s lake so long ago. And thus the record of Christ’s own experience as a teacher became a prophecy of the experience of every teacher of truth so long as men remain the willing slaves of sin. With what meaning and power this parable must have come to His disciples when, in later days, they tried to put spiritual truths into sensual and selfish hearts!
They are to preach the gospel of love and peace to just such audiences as this now before the Saviour, and it is all important that they should know, not only the truth as it is represented in Jesus, but also the characters of their hearers, and the reception the word of truth will meet. They are eager, believing followers, but as yet only half understanding the great mission for which their Teacher is preparing them.
Even long after this they were sorely vexed and surprised at their own lack of success.
How soon and how thoroughly they learned what needs no illustration now, that the hearts of men are not inclined towards the truth as it is revealed in Jesus! The answer to the question of the disciples may be further gathered from Christ’s words in Mark 4:11. “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to them that are without, all things are done in parables.” This suggests a definite design for parables in relation to the “Kingdom of God.” To those within the kingdom, suggesting truth and illustrating it for their upbuilding; to those without the kingdom, leaving a possibility that in the imagery some soul may catch a view of the truth, and be led to fuller knowledge.
Christ’s great mission on earth was to establish this kingdom in all the hearts of men. They had revolted, and become subjects of another king, the “Prince of this world.” They must be won back to their rightful Lord, reinstated in the kingdom of life. For this Christ lived and died. As a kinof He came into the world to destroy the works of the devil, and win back man’s allegiance to Himself. The whole ministry of Christ was built about this one central idea of a kingdom. “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” ’’Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” ’’I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore am I sent.” That wonderful Sermon on the Mount was a partial exposition of the law of this kingdom. He commissioned His disciples to “go preach, saying, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” To the “seventy,” He said, “Say unto them, the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” And in all His earthly ministry He never let go His kingly prerogative Even in lowliest service. He was kingly. He was king in the presence of Pilate, in the midst of the mob, in His suffering on the cross, in His promise to the dying thief, in His triumphant resurrection, and in His regal ascension. He was a king in the splendor of His claims, in the grandeur of His promises, in the sublimity of His prophecies, in the righteousness of His judgments, in the equity of His laws, in the vastness of His realm, in the countless multitude of His subjects. For what other king were ever such weapons forged as truth and love? For what other sovereign have men displayed such exalted moral courage? For what other “leader and commander” have so many thousands died with quiet heart and forgiving word?„ What other king ever conquered by patient love and won victories by dying? What other king was ever anointed of God a “leader and commander” to all people? He was the very “King of kings.” And the doctrine of a spiritual kingdom was the one theme of His teaching. At this time when He is about to utter His first parable, when the enthusiasm is at the highest, and crowds were proclaiming Him king, we see a division work becoming apparent. While this work began at the very beginning of His ministry, yet so marked was it at the time of this parable that many immediately went back and walked no more with Him. The truth had at last entered their minds that His kingdom Vas spiritual, a kingdom of regenerate character.
He was gathering around Him a little band of true members of His kingdom, into whose minds He poured the wealth of His kingly teaching, which through them was to be scattered broadcast over the world. To this little inner circle, the first of the many that shall fill the earth.
He spake directly, without any other veil to His deep meanings than the human words which conveyed them. These were loyal subjects, with hearts ready for the seed, with minds already subject to the laws of His spiritual kingdom, for Christ was a king in every life of this little army now being marshalled for the conquest of the world. Others might sit with His loyal disciples, but to them alone was He giving the invulnerable armor of His own graces, and the keen-edged sword of divine truth.
’’But to those without He spake in parables. The disciples saw that He made a distinction between themselves and the multitude that crowded to hear His teachings, and they inquired of him the reason.
Before giving them a direct reply, He lays down the principle on which His action is based. “ Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”
Whoever possesses any truth, shows the ability to receive truth. Whoever does not possess, shows want of ability to receive. Whoever, by possession of the first truths of the kingdom, shows his fitness and ability to receive higher teachings, will receive abundance; but he who has not received the beginning, cannot receive the completion. The man who rejects the spirit of the kingdom, is unprepared to understand its laws.
Spirituaul meanings are ever hidden from the hard-hearted and selfish, and revealed to those who are willing and able to receive them; while the highest truths are revealed to the true heart of faith, and always concealed from the careless and gross-hearted. That man whose heart possesses truth has a magnet within himself to which all truth is in some degree attracted. He has that in him which makes all that is true attractive to him, and with every new acquisition of truth there comes an increase of pleasure in its pursuit. When a man has a little information on any subject, every item concerning it is read with pleasure, and is naturally assimilated with the knowledge previously acquired. When the heart is not open to the dawning of the light, its later, noonday beams will only dazzle and blind. But our Saviour had a further meaning. The soul that rejects His truth shall see going from him the very opportunity of hearing the plain, direct commands of Christ, and will hear them only in parables which he may interpret to his own condemnation.
Christ had spoken plainly to all alike of His mission as a king. Some received the truth, and thus were prepared for a higher education in divine things. Others had so misused and abused their ability to receive spiritual truth that it is only casting pearls before swine to preach the kingdom of heaven to them. Disuse or misuse of their higher faculties had left them unable to see any meaning beyond the physical. The years of His earthly ministry are few, and the causes of the world’s reformation must all be put in motion. Shall He now continue to scatter seed on all alike? He does not, but takes the few who were fitted by the possession of the first principles of the kingdom for a more rapid growth in this higher knowledge, into a closer relation with Himself, that He might teach them more fully the mysteries of the kingdom of God. To them the Saviour will give more and more abundantly of His rich gifts. To the multitude who had rejected this plain proclamation of His mission, He will veil His meaning in parables.
“They will not hear: therefore in judgment I speak to them hi parables!’
What is helpful truth to one is judgment to another. The Christian rejoices in the thought that there is a God who knoweth all things; while to the ’’wicked” the thought of Jehovah’s omniscience is a terrible judgment. Christ had spoken tenderly and plainly to all concerning the beauties and glories of His kingdom. He had earnestly besought them to receive its sacred privileges and blessings. They had heard and rejected. They despised His truths when they saw that His kingdom was not of this world, and thus proved themselves unfit to be taken into that inner circle of truth-seekers who heard Him gladly. The higher truths and aspirations of the Christian life are always foolishness to one without the kingdom. The “Sermon on the Mount” would have been but pearls cast before swine to the crowd gathered at Sinai. Christ’s truths were the revelation of Himself to the souls of men. Reject His teachings, and you reject His life. If, therefore, in judgment He withdraws Himself and His teachings from you, He is but acting according to your desire
Jesus had truths to state which were of great importance to His disciples in their ministry as his witnesses. To state these to the multitude would only excite them to greater hatred, and endanger the life and ministry of both Himself and His disciples. He, therefore, chose to state the doctrine so that if their hearts were right, if any capability to receive the truth were left in them, they would catch His meaning; but if they were gross of heart, malignant, haters of the truth, they would not understand. From this time forward the Saviour veils his truths from the multitude. He does not abandon them. He does not refuse to teach them. But they hear no more sermons of the mount, no more direct unfoldings of the rich truths of His kingdom.
Those within the kingdom are no longer servants, but nearest friends, to whom He reveals the highest meanings of His life, and inspires them with the promise of eternal life in His likeness. Those without the kingdom are aliens. To them, parables are as judgments. Having eyes, they see not the truth: having ears, they hear not the meaning of the words that come to them.
Yet Christ does not completely withdraw Himself when they reject His teachings. He still speaks to them in parables. There may be some who will hear aright. Some even of those who would have been aroused to dangerous anger by plain statement of the truth, by continual repetition of it in parables might be led up unsuspecting to a state of mind where truth could be received. “It is a blessing to have truth near, though separated by a veil.” Moreover, this was the only chance left them to hear the word of life. They had rejected the plain statement of the truth, and this is the only method left by which it can possibly reach them. And these pictures from nature have a power of clinging to the mind in a way that sometimes effects what the most earnest direct teachings fail to accomplish.
Thus judgment and mercy, side by side, were sifting the multitude, and separating those within the kingdom from those without. By parables they may yet receive the truth; and if they still reject it, there is the palliation that the truth is veiled.
Mercy and judgment may not be separated, but the latter will be held in abeyance until all the facts of the Saviour’s life are acted out; until the cross, and the grave, and the empty tomb have fully established His kingdom and made its mysteries clear. Then after the Spirit has come. His trained disciples with clear vision, renewed hearts, and divine guidance, will preach this kingdom with marvelous power. The seed sown by the Saviour in these parables which still cling to the minds of the multitude, watered by the Spirit, now, under the earnest teaching of the disciples, may yet bring forth some harvest of ripened convictions. Who can tell how much of the harvest gathered at Pentecost grew from the earlier sowing of the Son of God?