“Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
It’s a good question, followed by a good answer. Jesus spoke in parables because those who wanted to hear, really wanted to hear, would get it. Those who didn’t really want to hear weren’t going to get it anyway.
And that is the way of it. There are those who will see and see but not really see. There are those who will hear and hear but not really hear. Why? Because their hearts are calloused. Hearing and seeing the truth does not good if our hearts are hard. A soft heart needs very little truth to spring to life. A hard heart can be drenched in truth and won’t find life.
Jesus was actually protecting those whose hearts were not yet ready because had He spoken more directly they still would not have believed and would have found themselves in deeper trouble than ever because each time we reject truth our heart becomes harder.
And this may seem to be a strange place to end up in this passage, but the concept here is why I fully believe that “death bed” repentance is valid. If one comes to the end after a lifetime of rejecting with a heart that is willing to repent they will find mercy. But this is a very hard thing to do; not because they may not have a final chance, but because the heart is usually so hard by then that they are caught in a vice grip of guilt and unbelief.
Let us practice a soft heart that we may hear and understand.
1 comment:
Thanks for the logical and well reasoned thoughts. I have always felt if one is even wondering if they have grieved the Holy Spirit, it is clear they haven't. One who has grieved the Spirit wouldn't ask because they wouldn't care. Your thoughts back this up for me, thanks again.
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