Jarred to Life

Scripture passage that caught my attention today: Mark 4:10-12 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12 in order that
‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”

Observation: The Bible has its fair share of bewildering passages, but for me this one is near the top of the list.

Application: Every so often I think it’s healthy to consider whether what we’re doing really makes any sense.

I’m really not trying to get into the current political debate on House Bill 5 partly because, while it’s interesting on some levels, I’m not sure I really know enough about either side of the argument to make particularly helpful comments. Still, I had to laugh last night when I was told that the governor said that he would only negotiate with unions that “make a product” and that therefore teacher unions would not be included in such discussions. I laughed because I thought to myself, “what better ‘product’ is there than educated children?”

Okay, I’m sure there’s another side to the story but, oddly enough, the passage above attributed to Jesus is even more bewildering. I mean, isn’t forgiveness of sins one of the very reasons that Jesus came to this earth? So why does he speak in ‘parables’ so that some people “may not turn again and be forgiven?” Even the most fundamental Christian has to admit that that’s very odd.

I sometimes wonder if Jesus said such things simply to jar people into thinking for themselves instead of just passively accepting everything that they’ve ever heard. Scripture doesn’t record it, but one can almost imagine the disciples nodding in agreement and then, all of a sudden, upon realizing what he really said, looking at Jesus and gingerly saying, “but didn’t you come to forgive people of their sins?” And then I can picture Jesus looking back at them with a little grin and eyebrow raise that says, “gotcha!” After all, the first thing Jesus did for the paralytic in chapter 2 was forgive him of his sins.

Prayer: Lord, help us to take a step back every now and then and consider how we might really best fit into your plan. Jar us to life…and to thought…and to service in Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included Numbers 17-18, Psalm 29, and Mark 4)