Listen!

PW and I have started weekly bible study together and we had our first session this week. We are studying together because we both want to grow in the Word of God, but we don't have enough self discipline to keep ourselves on track. So we decided to study together at the same pace and meet up weekly so we can hold each other accountable. Right now, we are studying the book of Mark together.

When I was reading Chapter 4 of Mark, I had a big question mark. I kept thinking and wondering why Jesus taught in parables. Parables are nice because they demonstrate with such fitting and powerful pictures, but they are also harder to understand. Wouldn't it be much easier for people to understand His teaching if His messages were more direct? Wouldn't more people understand and trust Him if His messages were easier to understand? Also, in Chapter 4 it is said:

"And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven." Mark 4:10-12.

I kept meditating on this because I could not understand why Jesus would not want people to understand, or worse, He would not want them to turn and be forgiven. Then when I re-read chapter 4, God reminded me the importance of seeking and listening. When Jesus used parables to teach, He taught the apostles and the rest of the crowd the same thing. However, the difference is that the Twelve and the people who had the heart to seek approached Him to ask Him to explain it to them. You see, it's not that Jesus didn't want to explain it, it's that He only explained it to people who wanted to know and sought to know. Throughout chapter 4, Jesus repeatedly used the word "listen". He also said repeatedly

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear".  Mark 4:9

It finally occurred to me that Jesus wants to tell us and teach us so much, but it is up to us to listen. If we don't have the heart to listen, then no matter what He says, it is just going to fall onto deaf ears. How many of us had the experience of telling someone something, and it's like it's in through one ear and out through the other? That's how God's word is to us sometimes, He wants to share so much with us, we just have to seek with our heart and listen. Jesus said "the secret of kingdom of God has been given to you", now who are you going to be? The apostles that sought to listen or the crowd that pretended to listen?