{"id":10331,"date":"2023-04-01T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T14:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=10331"},"modified":"2023-04-02T10:11:39","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T00:11:39","slug":"seeing-and-hearing-the-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2023\/04\/01\/seeing-and-hearing-the-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing and Hearing the Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark 4:10-12\u00a010<\/sup>And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11<\/sup>And he was saying to them, \u201cTo you the mystery of the kingdom of God has been given; but for those outside everything is in parables, 12<\/sup>so that \u201c\u2018Seeing they see and do not perceive, and hearing they hear and do not\u00a0understand, lest they should turn and it might be forgiven them.\u2019\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus had escaped the crowds somehow and was with his small band of disciples, include the twelve apostles. The disciples did not understand the meaning of Jesus’ parables. They were missing the key to unlock their application. These verses come directly after the parable of the soils, so the context implies that they did not understand this specific story. The parable of the four soils serves as a\u00a0paradigm for all parables. Something in this particular story applies to all other parables. Since it comes first among many in this chapter, by understanding it, we can understand the others. Another significant aspect of the context is the growing opposition to Jesus. Although the cross is far in the future, its shadow begins to grow in these early chapters of Mark. The cost of doing the will of God is increasing. In the parables of this chapter, Jesus invites his disciples to join him in this journey.<\/p>\n

Jesus responds to the unstated question about the meaning of the parables with a short statement and then a quote from Isaiah 6:9-10. Each part of the short statement in verse 11 is significant.\u00a0To you<\/em> refers to those on the “inside”; the location referred to here is the kingdom of God. The question of Mark’s Gospel is, Who is part of the kingdom of God? The message that builds throughout the Gospel is that those who believe in Jesus are citizens in this new kingdom. Next, the meaning of\u00a0the mystery of the kingdom of God<\/em>\u00a0is another theme that builds throughout Mark’s Gospel. The predominant meaning of the word\u00a0mystery\u00a0<\/i>(myst<\/em>\u0113rion<\/em>) in the New Testament is God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 1:9; 3:1-9; Colossians 1:26-27; 1 Timothy 3:16). Those with faith in Jesus can understand what the kingdom is all about because they have accepted the good news that Jesus brought.<\/p>\n

The rest of verse 11 and on into verse 12 describes those on the outside<\/em> who have not accepted this message. To them, what Jesus said remains a mystery. The key to unlocking the meaning of the parables is to have the eyes of faith. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6:9-10, which in its original context refers to the obstinate people of Israel who would not listen to the message of the prophet Isaiah. God sent Isaiah to the people with the call to repent and return to covenantal faithfulness, but they refused. The Jews of Jesus’ day were the same. They saw what Jesus was doing and they heard his teachings, but they could not understand because they lacked the eyes and ears of faith.<\/p>\n

This quotation in the context of Jesus’ teaching should not be taken to mean that Jesus intentionally kept people from listening, no more so than God kept Israel in Isaiah’s day from repenting. The meaning of this quotation is similar to the earlier statement in 3:28-29 about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The fundamental choice people make about God and God’s revelation in Jesus with send them down a certain path. Refusing to believe will only lead to spiritual blindness and a hardened heart. To those who follow this path, the parables of Jesus remain a mystery.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark 4:10-12\u00a010And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he was saying to them, \u201cTo you the mystery of the kingdom of God has been given; but for those outside everything is in parables, 12so that \u201c\u2018Seeing they see and do not perceive, and hearing they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10351,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331\/revisions\/10351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}