Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 22, 2007 - Twenty-fourth Saturday in Ordinary Time
[1 Timothy 6:13-16 and Luke 8:4-15]Then his disciples asked him what the meaning of this parable might be. He answered, "Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that 'they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.'
' We don't often get an official explanation of a parable from Jesus! There seems to be some irony in his explaining the parable to the disciples after pointing out that lots of people wil fulfill Isaiah's prophecy about looking and not seeing, hearing but not understanding. Even the disciples had trouble at times. I can understand their position. At the moment I am reading a book on the parables for the purposes of reviewing it for a preaching website. The writer is witty and thorough, but the result is to underscore that there are all kinds of possibilities of understanding a parable, and the audience for this book are definitely not first century Christians! My own reaction is that of a preacher who experiences the uneven results of his labors, possibly because all those circumstances for the seed might be found in my own person from time to time. Nevertheless the parable at least raises the question of our reception of Jesus' message. Which of those categories applies to each of us? How can we move toward "embracing the word with a generous heart and bearing fruit through perseverance? AMEN
config
view
logs
4096.0 KB
66 ms
4
