For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him

 

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,

And seeing you will see and not perceive;

 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,

And their eyes they have closed,

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.' 

 "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

 

- Matthew 13:10–17 

 

 In yesterday's reading, we were given a new turn in Christ's ministry.  We read that on the same day following a dispute with the Pharisees and scribes (and their demand for a sign from Him), Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.  And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears, let him hear!" 

 

 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."  My study Bible comments that the mysteries of the kingdom are not simply obscure concepts, or some religious truths meant only for the elite.  Neither is the understanding of the parables a purely intellectual process.  Even the disciples find the message hard to understand.  While Jesus taught the same message to all, my study Bible comments, it is the simple and innocent who are open to its message.  

 

"Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:  'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.' "  Jesus quotes from the prophesy of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9-10).  My study Bible comments that this prophesy of Isaiah, according to St. John Chrysostom, does not mean that God causes spiritual blindness in people who would otherwise have been faithful.  It's a figure of speech common to Scripture which reveals God as giving people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24-26).   It's understood from this passage that God permits their self-chosen blindness (compare Exodus 8:15, 32 with Exodus 10:20, 27).  Spiritual blindness is not the result of God speaking through Isaiah, but rather Isaiah spoke because he foresaw their blindness. 

 

  "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."  Here He is speaking directly to His disciples, those who have chosen to follow Him, responding to the truths they perceive in His ministry, and His presence of holiness that is undeniable to them (John 6:68).

 

 Jesus has suddenly begun an unusual practice (for Him) which the disciples have never seen Him do before:  He begins to speak to the crowds ("great multitudes") in parables (see yesterday's reading, above).  His disciples are puzzled, and they come to ask Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  Jesus answered, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given." This is an intriguing answer.  Somehow Jesus seems to be saying to them that somehow it has been given to them by God that they should have the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven revealed to them, but not to the crowds in front of whom Christ now speaks in parables.  Parables sound like simple stories, and indeed they are, but to understand and to have insights about the spiritual journey and the reality of the kingdom of heaven, one would have to have some sort of experience of this to relate to the parable.  One would have to know something about the journey of spiritual truth, of growing closer to God and growing in participation in those mysteries in one's life.  But what is the point of speaking to the great crowds in parables?  Jesus tells the disciples, "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."   We take this together with the words from Isaiah Jesus goes on to quote, and we discover a fact about the spiritual life, which Jesus states here unequivocally.  We're either going to grow in this life, or we won't.  This is a reflection of the common theme, sometimes called "the two ways" in Scripture.  It's also referred to as the "way of life and the way of death" (Jeremiah 21:8).  These "two ways" were also described in the earliest teaching document known to the Church, considered to be the teachings of the apostles, called the Didache ("The Teaching").  Jesus Himself described these two ways when He taught (in the Sermon on the Mount), "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).  But here in today's reading, He seems to teach us that there are some for whom these mysteries of the kingdom of God are accessible; perhaps they have a function in their inner life of being perceptive to them, and they will find them in Christ's parables, and be drawn to Him.  But, He also states, there are those who simply don't, and will not seek to have this abundance, as He puts it.  One presumes that this capacity is linked also to the capacity for repentance, for access to this Kingdom and its mysteries surely confers ways in which we change and adapt as we participate in this understanding, and grow more deeply into it.  Let us consider the reality of the presence of this Kingdom among us, and in our world, brought to us by Christ -- and how we will pursue it.  Our prayers are those that seek this participation and growth in the life of the Kingdom, for without it, what else is the point of His preaching to us in His parables of the kingdom of God?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How is it you do not understand?

 

 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.  But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign?  Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation."  And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."   And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still hardened?  Having eyes, do you not see?  And having ears, do you not hear?  And do you not remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?" 

 

- Mark 8:11–21 

 

On Saturday we read that, in those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar."  Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them.  So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.  Now those who had eaten were about four thousand.  And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

 

  Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.  But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign?  Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation."  And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."   And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still hardened?  Having eyes, do you not see?  And having ears, do you not hear?  And do you not remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"  Once again, has Jesus has returned to Jewish territory (in our recent readings, Jesus has spent much time evading the Pharisees as He was in the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon, and then the Greco-Roman culture of the Decapolis).  So, in today's reading, we again feel the influence and scrutiny of the Pharisees, whom Jesus had quite possibly been evading after His last dispute with them.  My study Bible comments that the leaven of the Pharisees to which Jesus refers is their doctrine (Matthew 16:12) and their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).  In Scripture, it points out, "leaven" is used both positively and negatively.  A positive example is in the parable of the Leaven found in Matthew 13:33.  Most often, however, it is found as a negative image, as in this case.  But, either way, my study Bible says, leaven symbolizes a force which is powerful enough -- and frequently subtle enough -- to permeate and affect everything around it (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-8).  

We note how seemingly slow the disciples are to understand Jesus' language, and what He is driving at.  It's almost a comical scene, a sort of play on words, to see how Jesus is speaking of leaven as a metaphor for the Pharisees' subtle, permeating influence as they demand a sign, while the disciples are focused on the mundane matters of organizing this ever-moving ministry.  "It is because we have no bread," they reason among themselves.  "He must be upset because we have no bread!"  We can all picture ourselves in such circumstances:  while we're busy trying to organize and follow a plan, the one with the real vision is trying to tell us something much, much more significant.  Indeed, part of the somewhat comical nature of what we read here today is just simply that which follows in Jesus' perhaps incredulous reminder to them of the two (not just one, but two!) feedings in the wilderness which they've so recently experienced.  We notice how Jesus goes through it piece by piece, and step by step, to work them through remembering what they seem to fail to grasp here:  "When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  It's like they are children who really, really need to be led bit by bit into this lesson.  We can almost hear the plaintive note in Christ's question that follows:  "How is it you do not understand?"  While in a completely rational and quasi-perfect world, in which every experience would lead to a completely logical conclusion, this might seem a little much.  But in terms of the true experience of human beings and the way our minds tend to work, this does not at all sound unusual.  In fact, what the Gospels give us so frequently, as perfect teaching tool, is a mirror of the common things we all do and experience, and even the difficulties of grasping the truly extraordinary nature of our faith. For, at heart, really, is not so much the miraculous nature of the feedings which Christ has given with meager resources to multiply, and through which we're given an early glimpse of the Eucharist, and so much more.  Rather, the depth of the matter here is the almost unbelievable concept that God became human, that the Man they know as Jesus, as their Teacher, is also divine.  How can our minds grasp this, really?  We might know it as an intellectual concept, as a given tenet of the faith, but in terms of really getting a hold of just how contradictory the concept is, it would in truth be hard to underestimate this reconciliation of impossible antithetical things in one Person.  And that is really the ever-continuing drama of our faith in the world.  It remains with us as the "stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks" in St. Pauls' words (1 Corinthians 1:23).  It's not just the Crucifixion that gives us this stumbling block and foolishness, but the whole of the almost stupefyingly difficult concept of the 'irreconcilable reconciled' in Christ Himself -- that God became human. No matter what the disciples have truly experienced in their day-to-day, hands on, time-bound material experience of life with Jesus, they still have not been able to process this extraordinary but nonetheless true picture of the reality which God has offered us in the Person and ministry of Jesus Christ.  It is the very thing at the heart of every struggle we might have with our faith, no matter what it is.  The disciples themselves passed out the bread to thousands of people from a handful of loaves, twice.  And yet, they still do not have the eyes to see nor the ears to hear the true message here:  that the things they think they know of their faith, the reality the Pharisees would present to them undermining the ministry of Christ by demanding a convincing sign,  is a kind of poisonous influence, and one that seeks to take away the gift of Christ's true reality presented to the world.  It is similar to Christ's response to St. Peter, when he cannot accept the message of the Crucifixion, later in this chapter.  Jesus' response is, "Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men" (Mark 8:33). It is perhaps more dramatic, but yet another instance where it is the divinity of Christ that is the stumbling block, for it is only in that understanding that we know the Crucifixion will serve as the trampling of death by death.  Here, Jesus refers to the leaven of the Pharisees, the doubtful, insidious chipping away at our capacity for grasping the things of God, the gifts inherent in the paradox of Jesus and His ministry.  Jesus asks, seemingly bewildered, "How is it you do not understand?"  It is as if we hear God asking, how He could do so much to show us, His creatures,  God's reality, and yet we still don't get it.  But it is a question we always need to ponder for ourselves, for so often we lose sight of the importance of this noetic capability within ourselves -- the place of spiritual eyes and ears -- and the need to strengthen our capacity for faith through the practices we inherit from our traditions:  prayer, worship, liturgy, the saints, the angels, and the whole reality of God within Whom "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  How could Jesus multiply loaves and fish to feed a multitude two times?  How can God become human?  How do we understand the paradox of faith?  This is where we start and where we finish, and it is the place to which we always return.  It is the place where we need to come to find Him, and even paradoxically, to truly find ourselves, the Alpha and Omega of life. 

 

 

Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand

 

 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.  And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,

And seeing you will see and not perceive;

For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,

And their eyes they have closed,

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.'

"But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear . . . "

 

- Matthew 13:1-16 

 

We have been recently reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 -7).  On Saturday, we read that Jesus taught:  "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the  way that leads into destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, there are few who find it.  Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Therefore by their fruits you will know them.  Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."   

 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.  And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Today the lectionary skips forward in Matthew's Gospel, from chapter 7 to chapter 13, in which Jesus will begin teaching in parables.  We note that by now there are great multitudes who are coming to see Him; this has a great deal to do with why He begins to speak in parables.  

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"   This is Jesus' first parable that works as a kind of foundation for the rest of them.  My study Bible explains that in the Old Testament, metaphors of sowing and harvesting are common (Psalm 126:5, Jeremiah 31:27-30; Hosea 2:21-23; Joel 3:12-14), as this was a part of daily life.  In this parable, Jesus reveals Himself as the promised Messiah, the sower in the earth, who had been prophesied in Isaiah 55:10-13.

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given."  Here Jesus begins to reveal to the disciples the purpose of speaking in parables.  My study Bible explains that the mysteries of the kingdom are not merely obscure concepts or some religious truths which are only for the elite, nor is the understanding of the parables just an intellectual process.  Even the disciples find this message hard to understand.  While Jesus taught the same message to all, my study Bible says that it is the simple and innocent who are open to its message.  

For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:  'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, snd seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.'  But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear . . . "  The quotation is from Isaiah 6:10.  This quotation also appears in John 12:37-41, in the context of those many who gathered to Christ for His signs, but had no faith.  Here, as Jesus speaks to such a great multitude that He must sit in a boat off the shore, His parables are also aimed toward those who will hear and develop faith, out of the multitudes who will not.  My study Bible notes that according to St. John Chrysostom, the prophecy of Isaiah quoted here does not mean that God causes spiritual blindness in people who would otherwise have been faithful.  This is a figure of speech which is common to Scripture, revealing God as giving people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24, 26).    What is meant by He has blinded, my study Bible explains, is that God has permitted people's self-chosen blindness (compare Exodus 8:15, 32 with Exodus 10:20, 27).  People did not become blind because God spoke through Isaiah; it is Isaiah who gave his prophesy because he foresaw their blindness. 

As we have been reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7; beginning with this reading from May 9), Jesus has been speaking to His disciples.  That is, He has been addressing His sermon to those who would be His followers, speaking of the particular type of blessedness that belongs to this Kingdom, to those who have faith in Him, teaching His gospel message.  He has been teaching us what it means to be a disciple, to engage in discipleship, to follow Him.   But in today's reading, we skip to chapter 13, where the parables begin, and the lectionary will be giving us these parables in preparation for Ascension Day (which, generally speaking, for the West is Thursday this week, and for the Eastern Churches  falls on Thursday next week).  In tomorrow's reading, we'll receive Jesus' explanation of this foundational parable which He gives to His disciples.  But for today, let us consider what He teaches them here, in response to their question about why He has chosen to begin to speak in parables.  For us today, it remains an important concern to understand why it is that membership in our churches seems to fluctuate so.  Popular ideas in the West have long followed a trend toward a belief in a very materialist-oriented perspective on life.  A false understanding of science seems to imply that we must only trust in what has been proven to us scientifically, but nevertheless there are those who seem to adopt this attitude.  (All science is based on hypothesis; if scientists only accepted that existence was limited to what had already been proven, there would be no science at all; nor would there be constant new discoveries which, in fact, render mistaken what had been previously understood to have been proven.)   In some sense, this "misdirection" of perception, or failure to grasp the mysteries of which Christ speaks, remains entirely pertinent to what we're being taught in the quotation of the prophesy of Isaiah.  Jesus gives us a hint about the failure to hear and see the things He is offering, the lack of perception of the value in the things He teaches.  Although Israel, and particularly its leadership contemporaneous with Christ, is steeped in preparation for the Messiah, in scholarship on the Old Testament, together with tremendous resources from the Second Temple period which was rich in possibility to accept Christ as divine, there are those who cannot nor will not see and hear what He is offering, with faith.  Jesus has spoken of the hypocrisy which keeps us from faith during His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, for which He will repeatedly indict the religious leadership.  There is the aspect of life lived purely for show, for the praise of other people, which He repeatedly mentions in this context -- and we can surely see at least some of this pattern reflected in a world which now bases so much of its common social exchange on consumed image through social media, or identity which seems to rest solely on how it is reflected back to us through the eyes of others.  It seems common today that there are so many who do not see and do not hear these realities of which Christ speaks, the blessedness of God and mysteries of God's kingdom.  Faith asks us for a perception that comes from a deeper place within ourselves, something subtle, but also essential to identity which is hidden from those without this capacity for perception.  From this perspective, it seems there is something missing from the development which enables us to participate in mystery and to receive what mystery offers us as part of identity and personal growth.  Just as Jesus taught us to rebuke hypocrisy by praying in secret to our Father who is in the secret place and who sees in secret (and to do likewise with practices of almsgiving and fasting), so we must come to understand that a life lived entirely with a consumerist orientation is going to miss out on what is to be grasped from within, in a secret place, even with no one else watching or seeing.  There are things which cannot be apprehended simply by consuming or absorbing what is outside of us or around ourselves.  This is what the parables point to:  images hidden within the story, which feed us something more than the easy fare of spectacle.  That is, things which engage us in a deeper way than the narcissistic drive for competing image or comparing ourselves to others, something other than the tremendous focus only on what appears to us in a material way.  There is a deeper place where life is for us, where we understand that who we are comes in relationship to God and to the righteous way of life to which God calls us in our relations to others, regardless of social demands.  If we think about it, this is part of the reason why the poor (or the poor in spirit) are always dear to God, for their perception is not based solely on what they possess materially.  We start there, in this parable of the Sower, to build an awareness of what this means and what it offers, who the Sower is, and how important it is that we find this way to perceive what is of true value and gives value to all else.  As Jesus teaches, there is a law to this type of awareness, and the kind of abundance He offers:  "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."   In Jesus' final statement in today's reading, it is as if we are given another Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount, and another lesson about what it means to live a blessed life:  "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear . . ."