Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand

 

 And again He began to teach by the sea.  And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on land facing the sea.  Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:  "Listen!  Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.  Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.  And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.  But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced:  some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."  And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

 

But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.  And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that

'Seeing they may see and not perceive,

And hearing they may hear and not understand;

Lest they should turn,

And their sins be forgiven them.' "

 

And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable?  How then will you understand all the parables?  The sower sows the word.  And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.  When they hear,  Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.  These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.  Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.  Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other tings entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit:  some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."

 

- Mark 4:1–20 

 

Yesterday we read that, having appointed the Twelve to become His apostles, Jesus and the disciples went into a house.   Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.  But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, "He is out of His mind."  And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub," and, "By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons."  So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables:  "How can Satan cast out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.  And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.  No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man.  And then he will plunder his house. Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation" --  because they said, "He has an unclean spirit."  Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him.  And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You."  But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?"  And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother."  

 

  And again He began to teach by the sea.  And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on land facing the sea.  Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:  "Listen!  Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.  Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.  And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.  But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced:  some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."  And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  As in the other Synoptic Gospels, Jesus begin preaching in parables with the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-3; Luke 8:4-5).  Let us note that He began to teach by the sea because by now there is a great multitude gathered to Him.  It's important to understand this beginning of teaching in parables comes when His ministry draws great crowds to Him.  Jesus' saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" is an echo of the Old Testament prophets; see Isaiah 6:9-10; Ezekiel 3:27; Jeremiah 5:21; Deuteronomy 29:4.

 

 But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.  And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that 'Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.' "  The disciples' question is answered first by Jesus not as to explain its meaning, but to give the reason for His preaching in parables.  He responds by a reference to the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9-10).  My study Bible comments that, according to St. John Chrysostom, Isaiah's prophecy 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 in Scripture and reveals God as giving people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24-26).  God has permitted their self-chosen blindness and deafness.  People did not become blind and deaf to the message of Christ because it God spoke through Isaiah, but the prophet spoke because he foresaw their blindness.

 

 And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable?  How then will you understand all the parables?  The sower sows the word.  And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.  When they hear,  Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.  These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.  Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.  Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit:  some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."  In this parable, my study Bible comments, our Lord reveals Himself as the promised Messiah, the sower, who had been foretold in Isaiah 55:10-13.  My study Bible asks us to note that while some might teach a person is permanently saved at the moment one professes faith (a view which was never held by the historic Church), the teaching of Jesus here is quite clear that it is possible for some to receive the word with gladness, but endure only for a time.

 

 In today's reading we first of all observe that Jesus begins speaking in parables only when His ministry has grown so that by now there is a great multitude which follows Him -- so many people that He must sit in a boat facing the shore to preach.  In the beginning of His ministry, the disciples whom He told to "Follow Me" were those who had already been disciples of St. John the Baptist, and were led by the Baptist to Christ (Mark 1:17; John 1:29).  Here He is before the crowds who have heard of Christ's fame -- and especially of His healing and casting out of demons.  They are drawn to Him not necessarily because they seek discipleship.  What we may conclude from Christ's choice to preach in parables before this multitude then, is that He desires a faith that is not based on coercion or manipulation or the appeal of miraculous occurrences.  Indeed, the faith that He is seeking is one that can perceive with a different set of eyes and ears, one not drawn simply by appearance or public acclaim.  And this dynamic surely plays out in our own lives, and even in every generation.  Moreover, the kind of faith He's looking for is one that will grow in us, and become through this process strong enough to endure through tribulation or persecution.  The sense of rootedness that He speaks of ("they have no root in themselves") is something that is deep within us, not merely on the surface through some sort of material attraction or promise.  Parables work, in some sense, as icons.  They are images drawn from daily life in the world to represent and communicate the deep things of God, as my study Bible puts it.  But, as the quotation from Isaiah indicates, these deep things are not evident to everybody.  What Christ is looking for are those with spiritual ears to hear -- and even then, not all people have the same degree of understanding.  These various possible outcomes conveyed by the parable, which Jesus explains in private to His disciples, are all things, in fact, that we may occasionally experience even as faithful.  We all may be tempted to stumble (for example as did St. Peter; see this reading).  But the rootedness of the faith Christ seeks is that which has endurance, forbearance, patience, and a deep love for the things of God:  those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit:  some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.  Note that the qualities Christ seeks in the parable all indicate a faithfulness through time.  For how else can we bear fruit, except through the times of our lives and the living out of our faith through all things?  This is an ever-deepening process, one with difficulties, and hard choices, and one subject to temptation.  The material-oriented life we lead in modern times, all the desires which are fed through coercion or persuasion, our impulses to rage, to take what we think we deserve from others, to shortcut or ignore the realities and values of the spiritual life:  these are all with us, and in some ways are perhaps stronger than ever.  But, yet, faith endures, and is the antidote to the easy things we think we can grab -- popular images we consume on social media, the temptation to addictions of all kinds, the lack of vision to persist through hardship and discomfort.  But our lives are made of more than this, and Christ asks for those who can seek it and live that fullness, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Prophet Isaiah.  Copy of 14th cent. icon, Monastery of Dionysiou,  Mt Athos.  The scroll he is holding is open to Isaiah 6:1

 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

Yesterday we read that on the same day that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees (after He was accused of casting out demons by the power of demons - see readings beginning on Friday), He 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."  My study bible explains that the mysteries of the kingdom are not merely obscure concepts or some religious truths that exist only for the elite.  Neither is the understanding of these parable a purely intellectual process.  As we can read, even the disciples find the message obscure and hard to understand.  Jesus taught the same message to all, my study bible says, but it is the simple and innocent who are open to its message.  Here, Jesus clearly indicates a kind of process ongoing, where those who are open to receive the treasures in His word are on a kind of journey where they will receive more.  But those whose hearts and minds are not open to the spiritual message of the Kingdom will be depleted of such treasure.

"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 prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9-10).  My study bible cites the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, who reflects that Isaiah's prophecy doesn't mean that God causes spiritual blindness in people who would otherwise be faithful.  This is a familiar type of speech in Scripture which reveals God as giving people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24, 26).  As the heart is far from God, God permits a self-chosen deafness and blindness (compare Exodus 8:15, 32 with Exodus 10:20, 27).

"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."  Once again, Jesus emphasizes the blessedness of those for whom the realities of the spiritual life He offers are present and perceived.  He contrasts those disciples drawn to what He offers with the many prophets and righteous men who desired the same -- and neither saw nor heard what they do.

Throughout Matthew's Gospel, Jesus has couched His ministry in terms of healing.  His mighty "great works" done in various cities have been, for the most part, works of healing.  That would include physical healing as well as exorcisms, the casting out of demons causing affliction of various sorts.  He explicitly called Himself a Physician when referring to the spiritual ailments of sin, when He was criticized by the Pharisees for associating with tax collectors, notorious and scandalous for the Jews.  At that time Jesus said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Matthew 9:12-13; see this reading).   Jesus quoted from Hosea 6:6, also a passage related to the themes in today's readings, as the full passage reads: "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."  In today's reading from Matthew, Jesus connects this mysterious knowledge of God with healing, through the words of the Prophet Isaiah.   Jesus explains to His disciples His reason for speaking in parables, through the prophecy of Isaiah.  As the hearts of many are far away from God, so they will be left to their spiritual blindness and deafness, and therefore they will not be healed.  What He offers -- these mysteries and blessings of which Jesus speaks in today's reading -- is a healing balm of grace for all.  Spiritual suffering, this deafness and blindness, is something very real, something acute.  It is a spiritual ailment and depletion of what the soul needs.  Jesus speaks the words of the prophecy of Isaiah, which only serve to emphasize and frame His ministry within this paradigm or image of healing, with Christ as Physician.  Hosea's "knowledge of God" becomes Christ's words to His disciples regarding the mysteries and blessings of the kingdom of heaven, which are also couched in the Beatitudes of Matthew's Sermon on the Mount.  These mysteries and blessings are the very things for an ailing humanity.  They are the medicine that we need, and the Church herself must serve as hospital.  But there is a very important lesson here that must not be lost on any of us.  Those who truly don't desire this healing, whose spiritual eyes and ears are closed off through a "hardness of heart" which does not want to hear and see, are left to such a choice.   Christ speaks in parables in a sense similar to the understanding that God "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (5:45).  While the explanation in private to His disciples is for those who have a true desire to understand, the parables nevertheless are given to all, so that this ministry is open to anyone who truly desires what God -- through Christ the Son Incarnate -- has to offer to a world deeply in need of healing on all levels.  So how about your spiritual eyes and ears?   What healing do you need today?  Is there a mystery, a blessing of God that you need to heal you spiritually, that your soul needs to know?  Seek it in prayer, read the Scripture, find those who offer sustenance and who also seek what you know is treasure.  Let us be truly grateful, even if the whole world does not care for what there is on offer.  The one who needs healing remains blessed simply to be aware of their true need.

Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive

 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

Yesterday we read that on the same day Jesus went out of the house where He was preaching 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 and 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."  My study bible says that the mysteries of the kingdom are not merely obscure concepts nor are they religious truths that are only for the elite.  Neither is the understanding of the parables simply an intellectual process.  Even the disciples, it notes, find the message hard to understand -- and this is something of which we should be well aware.  While Jesus teaches 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."  Here is the logic of the Kingdom.  If we have ears to hear, we will hear in abundance.  If we do not, even what we think we have will be taken away.

"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."   Jesus also references this passage of Isaiah in John's Gospel (John 12:40).  It is related to faith in general and also specifically to Jesus' ministry, as well as this new style of preaching in parables.  According to St. John Chrysostom, Isaiah's prophecy does not mean God causes spiritual blindness in people who would otherwise be faithful.  It is a figure of speech common to Scripture that reveals that God gives people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24, 26).  My study bible also says that this indicates that God has permitted their self-chosen blindness (compare Exodus 8:15, 32 with Exodus 10:20, 27).  The people did not become blind because God spoke through Isaiah, but rather Isaiah spoke in prophecy, foreseeing their blindness.  And by contrast, there is a deep reassurance here, a great and tremendous blessing, in that these (His disciples) see what many prophets and righteous men have desired to see and hear, and did not.

In a particular sense, Jesus emphasizes the great mystery of faith.  It is like "the wind" that "blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes" (John 3:8).  But in Jesus' teaching on His use of parables, He makes it clear that there is some sort of counterpart in us that is responsive to this "wind" (Who is the Holy Spirit) or to Christ Himself.  We, too, put up our own internal obstacles, we rest in a condition in which our ears are hard of hearing and our eyes are blind to something.  At this juncture in Jesus' ministry, when He starts to preach in parables, it has become clear that the leadership is not only against Him, but is plotting ways to destroy Him (12:14).  The Pharisees have brought a serious false accusation against Him (that He casts out demons by the power of demons), and they're not going to stop searching for ways to accuse Him.  There are others in many cities who've seen His "mighty works" and yet rejected His ministry (11:20-24).  This is a clear-eyed assessment and adjustment of His ministry to the conditions that He has found, the receptivity (or non-receptivity) of the people to whom He's been sent and has ministered.  This is the reality of the world in which we live, and the nature of faith that we continue to find around us.  Jesus not only accepts the response He's found, but does far more in this acceptance than meets the eye.  He teaches us about God -- that faith is not imposed upon us.  God does not force nor compel anyone to return God's love.  This statement or awareness isn't simply profound in terms of its implications for God's nature, but it also teaches us truths about ourselves:  that we have freedom to choose faith or not, and that we also have the hand of love that is continually extended and awaiting response.  What it also teaches us is our own responsibility in this struggle for faith.  We need to be aware that it is not automatic, and that our relationship with the Creator who loves us can be abused or lost, frayed with rejection, locked up within ourselves where we choose or prefer blindness or hardness of hearing.  It emphasizes the essential importance of simply being aware of our choices, and our need to return to God's love and to rejoice in the blessing we're given.  Jesus' great emphasis to His disciples, practically none of whom are highly learned nor particularly known (at this point) for their piety or holiness, are the ones to whom the transcendent is revealed -- those things that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see and hear, and have not seen nor heard.  This is the tremendous measure of the blessing we're given.  It's important to remember that, as my study bible noted (above), the disciples don't understand the parable nor immediately grasp its meaning.  But they are there with Him.  They respond to His call, and to His ministry.  The relationship is there.  St. Paul writes that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).  It is the response in us to something not given by intellectual proof nor coercion nor manipulation.   Faith, in fact, is trust.  It is a trust inspired by Christ, by the presence of the Kingdom and the holy.  It is a particular response to God's love, a way of living in that reciprocal and endlessly reciprocating relationship.  Faith in our lives is this blessing of the substance of things hoped for.  It is the evidence of things not seen.   We may accept or reject it, but without it we lose immeasurable love and hope.

Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive

 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

Yesterday, we read that on the same day Jesus taught that "whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother," He 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."  Here we are entering into an all-important area of our faith.  What are "mysteries of the kingdom of heaven?"  My study bible tells us that these mysteries are not merely obscure concepts nor are they religious truths that are only for the elite.  Furthermore the understanding of the parables isn't just an intellectual process (and neither is faith).  We note that even the disciples find the message hard to understand!  Rather my study bible reminds us that this message is taught to all the people, and it is the simple and innocent who are open to its message.  "Simple and innocent" implies first of all a heart that loves truth -- simple meaning straightforward, and innocence implying what we truly desire, a real and pure intent.

"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.'"  My study bible tells us of Isaiah's prophecy that it reveals God as giving people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24, 26).  God doesn't deliberately "cause" their their ears to be "hard of hearing" or their eyes to be "closed."   But Christ leaves us to our choice, a depth of true desire.  The passage is from Isaiah 6:9-10.  To be truly healed is to be reconciled, "face to face" with God, in right relationship.

"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."  While we know the disciples certainly don't understand everything, Jesus tells them, "Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear."  The important thing is what they are open to, the faith that leads them as followers of Christ.  In Him, the kingdom of heaven is present -- this is what the prophets and righteous men of all the ages have desired to see and to hear; and the disciples are blessed.

Let's think about the use of parables.  It's a way of filtering out those who really want this message that Christ has, this presence of the kingdom that's come near, from those who really aren't interested.  Faith is like a deep chord that sounds somewhere in us we can't really hear, but somehow we respond to it.  It leads us forward, as if there's a depth of being that's central to us that somehow keeps us heading in one direction.  The parables work to tease out that direction, even if we can't completely grasp the fullness of all the meanings contained therein.  And I think that's Christ's purpose in telling them.  We're not alone in this venture; it's not just all about us.  But it is about a place in which we respond to the presence of the Kingdom in our midst.  It's about a part of us that responds to the work of the Spirit in us, and allows the Spirit to work hand in hand at that depth we can't quite consciously grasp.  I once heard a description of how the human voice works:  there are two basic tones made by the larynx (or voice box) in our throat:  everything else, all sound and all capabilities of the human voice such as singing, come from how those chords then vibrate in various places in the body.  In some sense, our response to Christ, our deep inner "yes," might be like those deep basic tones, and all the help that we get in life from both human and divine sources magnifies that in us and helps that "word" radiate and become more a part of us and a part of our lives.  Scripture, for example, helps to magnify our basic "yes" into something that lives in us, and that we live out in our lives.  It is the presence in the world of Christ that builds and grows that distinction -- His parables are a key to understanding it, and His affirmative "yes" to this process of drawing out those who respond from those who do not.  That's why and how faith is not just an intellectual effort, but involves a great deal more of what makes up a human being.  Faith involves also intuition and creativity, an impulse and drive for truth, life in us that can't necessarily be quantified nor predicted.  The purpose of the word -- those seeds cast by Christ who is the Word Himself, and the Sower -- is to allow them to be planted, and take root, and grow.    Let us remember this is a lifelong process, and that spiritual fruits are generated in time.  Let us have ears to hear and to respond.

One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see

 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight.  And they asked them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind?  How then does he now see?"  His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know.  He is of age; ask him.  He will speak for himself."  His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."  So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, "Give God the glory!  We know that this Man is a sinner."   He answered and said, "Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know.  One thing I know:  that though I was blind, now I see."

Then they said to him again, "What did He do to you?  How did He open your eyes?"  He answered them, "I told you already, and you did not listen.  Why do you want to hear it again?  Do you also want to become His disciples?"  Then they reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples.  We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from."  The man answered and said to them, "Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes!  Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.  Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.  If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing."

They answered and said to him, "You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?"  And they cast him out.  Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"  He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"  And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you."  Then he said, "Lord, I believe!"  And he worshiped Him.

And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who may see may be made blind."  Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"  Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.'  Therefore your sin remains."

- John 9:18-41

Jesus is at the Feast of Tabrernacles in Jerusalem.  He has preached to the leadership, "Before Abraham was, I AM."  They took up stones to throw at Him, but He hid and passed by them out of the temple.  Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.  And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"  Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.  I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."  When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.  And He said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent).  So he went and washed, and came back seeing.  Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, "Is not this he who sat and begged?"  Some said, "This is he."  Others said, "He is like him."  He said, "I am he."  Therefore they said to him, "How were your eyes opened?"  He answered and said, "A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.'  So I went and washed, and I received sight."  Then they said to him, "Where is He?"  He said, "I do not know."  They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees.  Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.  Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight.  He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see."  Therefore some of the Pharisees said, "This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath."  Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?"  And there was a division among them.  They said to the blind man again, "What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?"  He said, "He is a prophet."

 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight.  And they asked them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind?  How then does he now see?"  His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know.  He is of age; ask him.  He will speak for himself."  His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.  Again, it's important to remember that in John's Gospel the term "the Jews" is used sort of like a political affiliation; most of the time it's used not to refer to the Jewish people, but rather to the religious authorities, those who consider themselves the "regulators" of the faith.

Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."  So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, "Give God the glory!  We know that this Man is a sinner."    My study bible suggests that while Jesus isn't present, the Pharisees call Him a sinner, but earlier He's already asked them face-to-face, "Which if you convicts Me of sin?"  (8:46, see this reading), and they evaded the question.  Give God the glory! is an oath formula that was used before giving testimony.  But the whole purpose of this man's blindness from birth, as Jesus has indicated in yesterday's reading, was to "give God glory" via his healing.  My study bible says that he also gives God glory in that, the more he is pressed, the more fervent his faith becomes, while the Pharisees "lapse into deeper darkness."

He answered and said, "Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know.  One thing I know:  that though I was blind, now I see."   My study bible says, "This healed man becomes a model of Christian witness.  Many people do not bear witness to Christ because they fear they will be asked questions they cannot answer.  This man's answer to people much more educated than he provides the solution:  he admits what he does not know, but follows up with what he does know.  The formula, 'That I don't know, but what I do know is this,' is foundational to witnessing one's faith to others."  Another form of giving God glory is this model of witnessing for all the rest of us.

Then they said to him again, "What did He do to you?  How did He open your eyes?"  He answered them, "I told you already, and you did not listen.  Why do you want to hear it again?  Do you also want to become His disciples?"  Then they reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples.  We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from."  The man answered and said to them, "Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes!  Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.  Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind.  If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing."    This unprecedented nature of opening the eyes of one born blind is a kind of confirmation that Christ is Messiah -- it was one of the signs indicated by Isaiah (Isaiah 35:5; 42:7) and, my study bible says, "a prerogative belonging solely to God"  (Psalm 146:8).

They answered and said to him, "You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?"  And they cast him out.  Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"  He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"  And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you."  Then he said, "Lord, I believe!"  And he worshiped Him.   My study bible points out that "having opened the blind man's eyes, the Lord also opens his heart and illuminates his spirit."   He's moved from knowing nearly nothing about Christ, to the conclusion that Jesus can't possibly be a sinner ("God does not hear sinners"), to a confession that Jesus must be from God ("If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing"), to finally seeing Him as the Son of God and worshiping Him.   The Pharisees can't and don't refute his logic or the truth of what he reveals in testimony; instead they resort to personal insult (see also 8:48).

And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who may see may be made blind."  Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"  Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.'  Therefore your sin remains."    My study bible says, "Our Lord's coming brought judgment into the world not because He came to judge (12:47-48), but because of man's accountability to Him.  Those who see and hear Him but do not believe are judged by their own faithlessness."  Quite clearly, these men don't want to believe; their concern is to zealously guard their positions of authority against Jesus and his criticisms, as they did against John the Baptist.

Witnessing is an important and essential thing to think about.  How do we witness to what we have experienced, or to the things that have illuminated our own vision?  Yesterday, we read a comment in my study bible that baptism has always been understood as "illumination," that this was the goal of the catechumens in the ancient Church.  In our past two readings, a man blind from birth has had his own illumination.  His eyes have been opened to the light of day, the light of the world, even as we've read that Jesus taught, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."  As "light of the world," or of the cosmos, His is the light by which we are taught to see the many things truly there for us in our lives, and it's to that kind of light that we witness.  What have you discovered on your own journey with Christ?  Christ's light can also illumine the not-so-pleasant things in our lives, the dark corners, the things that we need to change or at least acknowledge.  Many forget that part of the journey, or talk like it's not there.  But His light is always leading us somewhere, on a closer road with Him, and with the Father, and the Spirit.  So, how do you need your eyes opened today?  To what can you witness as to the light that has illumined you in your life, one way and another?  This is the important vision and goal we take with us as we understand our faith, what it means to glorify God, and to testify as witness.

Why do You speak to them in parables?

 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 whosoever 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 read that on the same day He was spoke (in Monday's reading), 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."  My study bible explains that the mysteries of the kingdom are not just esoteric concepts or some body of religious truth that is only for the elite.  Additionally, an understanding of Jesus' parables isn't simply an intellectual exercise, either.  It says, "Even the disciples find His message hard to understand.  Jesus preached and taught the same message to all; but it is the 'babes,' the simple and innocent who are open to the gospel and have faith to receive this mystery, which is the reality of the Kingdom."

"For whosoever 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."  My study bible notes here:  "When one has zeal, he will be given more from God.  But if he does not use what he has, and fails to participate in the life of the Kingdom, God's gifts will be taken away.  This is a hard saying, but true."  I think it points again to our discussion in yesterday's reading, in which Jesus gave us the parable of the Sower.  Jesus wants those who will be pulled in through their own receptivity through what is in their hearts.  The one thing I believe we can liken this to is love, a heart calling to another heart.  This itself is mysterious, and it is connected through the workings of the Father.  This isn't perfect knowledge, it's the calling of love, the drawing in to relationship, communion, participation.

"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.'"  This quotation from Isaiah begs us to understand what it is to be healed.  To be truly healed is to be in right relationship to God, to be aware and alert, awake to the love and presence of God and participating with it.  It's an explanation for why He will not offer proofs on demand.  (See Saturday's reading, in which He was asked for a sign, and Monday's in which He spoke of a healed person who becomes seven times worse.)  He wants volunteers; love is not something one compels.

"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."  The disciples follow Him because they have a sense of Him.  It's not that they understand Him perfectly -- far from it, the Gospels see to it that we understand that.  They don't even fully understand the parable.  (Jesus will explain its meaning in tomorrow's reading.)  What they understand is a kind of love and trust that compels them to follow Christ.  It is He who leads the way, and whatever it is they possess within themselves, it is that which leads them to follow and compels them forward.  Jesus does not come into the world with an army.  He doesn't come with extreme wealth.  He doesn't have glamour.  What He has is His Person, His authority which is an internal authority of identity and not the trappings of the world.  He has His Person.  It is in the truth of that Person that people find something compelling.  It is the spiritual desire in them that truly responds to the call of His voice in the heart.  The Incarnation is present before them, and these "simple" people, these "little ones" who are not in the power elite or the well-to-do or the most educated, for the most part, are those who are called to Him.  They have eyes to see and ears to hear.  There is a spiritual response deep in the mystery of what it means to be a human being, and it is this love and loyalty that compels them forward.  In this ministry, God is revealed as a lover of all, who does not compel (force) us to love Him, but acts with equal opportunity for all of us.  Our spirits cooperate with His Spirit, and Son and Father are also at work within us.   As Jesus indicates, from this seed grows more.