Hiding Truth or Revealing It?

Leviticus 7:28-9:6 Mark 3:31-4:25 Psalm 37:12-29 Proverbs 10:5

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!’” – Mark 4:11-12

Why does Jesus not want these people to understand and be forgiven? Doesn’t He care? If not, why did He go to all the bother of healing all their sicknesses and wounds? After praying and thinking about these verses, I have come to the conclusion that Jesus does care. The problem is, we are so sure about what we know, we have a hard time listening to anyone else. But, most of us enjoy stories and Jesus uses the story to try to help them understand.

The problem is Jesus will not force people to hear and understand. Throughout the Bible we find people wanting God’s blessings and favor, but not wanting to go deep and really listen to His message and understand His ways. They did not want to listen to God’s prophets or understand their messages. The people in Jesus’ time are no different. Jesus tells them stories that they will think about to figure out what He is telling them. It will be on their minds a lot longer than a simple statement they would reject right away because they don’t agree. As they figure it out, the message calls to their hearts to follow God. But just like Pharaoh, every time we say no to God, the harder our hearts get.

Jesus does care, and He does want us to understand just as He wanted the people of His time to understand. However, He is not a dictator and will not force us to accept Him and His message. He leaves it up to us to decide if we want to turn to Him and ask for His forgiveness.

Lord Jesus, help us to see and hear the messages You have for us. Help us to understand Your ways, to accept that our ways are not Your ways, and that we need Your forgiveness. Let Your stories work on our hearts and show us Your love and truth in a clearer way today. Amen.