never perceiving

I don’t completely understand why Jesus did some of the things he did. This morning I’m curious about the purpose of parables. 

According to Mark 4:33-34: “With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.”

Jesus’ own explanation given in verses 10-12 don’t help much: 

“He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

‘“they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,

and ever hearing but never understanding;

otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”’”

Doesn’t Jesus want people to turn and be forgiven? Why would he intentionally make his teachings incomprehensible?

I think I’m walking pretty close to the doctrinal concept of election, another thing I don’t completely understand. The idea that Jesus saves some but not all is kind of unsettling; it’s hard to reconcile with God as the very definition of love.

But God is also just, and that’s what election is all about: balancing God’s mercy and grace with his perfect justice. In some strange way, in order for mercy to really be merciful, we need to see and understand God’s justice as well. God’s justice demands death as the atonement for sin; God’s mercy moves him to spare Jesus’ followers from that justice.

My head gets that part, but my heart still doesn’t understand why Jesus intentionally blocked some people from understanding. I’m sure there are theologians and seminary graduates who get this quite well, but so far I haven’t met one that can explain it to me in terms I completely understand. 

This morning I’m remembering that part of faith is trusting that God is good even when I don’t understand what he’s doing, or what I read in the Bible. The same faith that keeps me confident in the face of tragedy and death equips me to believe that Jesus was good and right in his use of parables. I guess in some ways I may never perceive how God works, but that won’t shake my faith. I’m just grateful that I’m one to whom, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, the secrets of the kingdom of God have been given.