Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today’s Gospel lesson contains Jesus’ puzzling words about parables, Mark 4:1-20.

After telling the parable of the sower, Jesus tells ‘those who were about him and with the twelve’ that the kingdom of God has been revealed to them, but he also seems to imply that everyone else only hears things ‘in parables’, and that they won’t understand Jesus or believe in him.

This seems in a similar vein to what John says about Jesus’ miracles, referring to Isaiah’s prophecy that God had ‘blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts’, ‘lest they should understand with their hearts’ (John 12:40).

Does God actively cause some to reject Jesus, his Son?

Early Church Fathers, such as St. John Chrysostom would answer this question firmly: No! God does not harden anyone’s hearts when they might otherwise respond with faith. Rather, this language refers to the reality that some people are blind by their own choosing. Similarly, parables require faith in the hearer to apprehend the spiritual meaning contained in these stories with their earthy metaphors.

Is this really so surprising to us? Do we not need God’s grace and faith in our hearts to accept Jesus’ own self-revelation? Can we not impose blindness and heard-heartedness on ourselves through our own actions and thoughts?

So, the message here for me and you is that we need to seek God out, desire his grace and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, so that we can continually understand, accept and live out God’s words.

The dynamic of our response to Christ’s teachings might well resemble that of the father of the possessed boy in Mark 9, who said to Jesus ‘I believe, help my unbelief!’

Yours in Christ,
Justin