The Parable of the Talents is one in a set of parables focused on the return of Jesus. Jesus was preparing his followers for his departure and the formation of the Church.  

This parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven. What does the king expect of his people? Or more directly, what does Jesus expect from us?

The Talent

The Greek word translated as “talent” is the word “talanton”, which was an ancient weight of currency. The master entrusts each of his servants with differing weights of currency. Some scholars say that one talent was worth about twenty years of wages.

In the same way, when Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave the Holy Spirit to the church and entrusted the church with the task of preaching the Gospel to every people group on the earth. (see Acts 1:8).

In verse 15 we read that the master entrusted the talents according to the ability of the servant. The master knew the individual and their ability. If five talents were given to a person who has little ability, it would be a load too heavy to bear. It would end in discouragement and pain.

God knows how He has designed and created us; He knows our abilities. We are all assigned talents and responsibilities from the Lord. God has given each of us a ministry, and it is our privilege to serve the Lord and multiply what He has given us for the Kingdom.

The Reckoning

The master comes back and calls the three servants to give an account of his entrusted treasure. Notice that he never told the servants to go and trade or make a profit. But they knew him and what he would have desired for them to do.  All three servants responded in proportion to the relationship they had with the master.

The Faithful Servants

The first two servants were incredibly successful, doubling their Talents. The first servant didn’t seem to worry about the potential for loss. He boldly traded because he knew his master, and he knew his master was more interested in faithfulness than profit margins.

When it comes to the kingdom of heaven, our Lord desires faithfulness and obedience far above what we accomplish in human understanding (see Micah 6:8).  

Our lives should be lived with eternity in mind so that when Jesus comes again, we will be expectant and fearless because we know we have done what he asked us to do (see 1 John 4:17).

The master was pleased; he rewarded both diligent servants with an incredible promise (see Matthew 25:21). Their faithfulness gave each of them a capacity for greater service and responsibility. We simply have no idea how incredible heaven will be and how great are the rewards that God has in store for his faithful children (see 1 Corinthians 2:9).  

Are you living for eternity? Are you being faithful with the talents that the Lord has entrusted to you?

The Unfaithful Servant

When the third servant comes to the master, his response is very different (see Matthew 25:24-25).

This servant didn’t seem to do anything wrong, but the problem was that he didn’t do anything at all. He hid his talent under the ground. From his response, it is clear that he did not know his master; he was afraid.

We may ask the question: does he represent a Christian or a non-Christian? At that time when Jesus told the parable, that term did not exist. But we know that Jesus was speaking to the future church, knowing that there would be people who attend churches, claiming to be followers of Jesus, yet do not have a relationship with him (see Matthew 7:21-23).

Jesus ends the parable with a terrifying warning, “And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” (Matthew 25:30).

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” C. S. Lewis.

The “Offense”

In the parable, the master instructs the servants to remove the one talent from the unfaithful servant and give it to the one who has ten. It’s a classic example of the rich getting richer, and it offends us.

Thinking about the purpose of our existence according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

The purpose of the gifts that God gives to His children is to bring glory to His name.

God is the creator and sustainer over all creation, which He created to glorify Him. Thus, if He gives us a gift with the purpose of bringing Him glory, and we don’t use it for His glory, He is perfectly just to take it away and give it to someone who will use it.

We must be careful not to read more than Jesus intended into the parables, but it would seem that the warning is this: if you don’t use what the Lord has given you, you will lose it.

The Requirement

The main point of the parable is being ready for Christ’s return. Too many people are drawn to Jesus merely to get to Heaven and avoid the alternative. They play it safe and try to stay out of trouble. However, membership in the Kingdom of heaven is based on a relationship with Jesus, and authentic relationship with Jesus inevitably leads to the kind of faithful service that produces results (see Acts 1:8).

The Practice

What does this look like in practice?

In our parenting, it is to be the very best parents we can be, to steward the brief moments that we have to raise up our children in the ways of the Lord.

In our profession, it is to be the best student, businessman, firefighter, medical professional or neighbor we can be, using the gifts that the Lord has given for His glory.

It may mean being a pastor, evangelist, missionary, or teacher as the Lord calls.

Are you investing the Talents that the Lord has given you today?

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From time to time, Jesus would address a small group of people when he was teaching. This parable in Luke 18 was one of those occasions. We read in verse 9, “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.”

It would seem that this group had two primary character flaws:

1: They trusted in their own righteousness. They thought that their actions gave them right standing with God. This is self-righteousness, and it is rooted in pride. Notice how Jesus ends the parable in verse 14, “…For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

2: They treated others with contempt. Self-righteous people look down on others; they operate out of a “spiritual caste system” that views less religious people as unworthy of their time. We see this today when people display spiritual elitism, when they claim to have a special knowledge or superior access to God.

Before we judge too quickly, we must remember that we will always have a root of pride in our lives; it is part of our fallen human nature. We are sinners saved by the grace of God (See Isaiah 64:6).

Jesus, speaking to this select group of self-righteous people—and to us— tells the story of two men going to the temple to pray.

The Pharisee

Seeing a Pharisee pray would have been a normal and expected thing to witness. The Pharisees were the best of the best when it came to following the law. They were held in high esteem by the common man. Everyone looked up to the piety of the Pharisees, but this man was the epitome of a self-righteous person.

Tax collector

Seeing a tax collector pray would have been a shock to the hearers. Tax collectors were seen as corrupt and sell-outs to the Roman Empire, making a living by stealing from their fellow Jews. The hearers would have been wondering why a tax collector would even be going near the temple, let alone praying.

Jesus allows us to eavesdrop on the prayers of the two men.

The Pharisee’s Prayer 

“God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” (Luke 18:11)

In reality, this wasn’t a prayer; the Pharisee was putting on a show, praying to himself and to those within earshot. To this man, prayer was a way of being recognized and praised.  

He begins his prayer by comparing himself to other people. If we are honest, we are all guilty of comparison; daily we come across people who don’t measure up to our standard of decency or accepted behavior. We can be tempted to judge the addict, the homeless, the corrupt businessman, and many more. We can easily be guilty of our own self-righteous thoughts for which we need to repent.

Comparison can become deadly for our spiritual growth. Our standard for holiness must be Jesus, and him alone. With Jesus as our standard, we will always grow in humility and dependency on his grace and mercy for our daily lives.  

This Pharisee, looked down on the tax collector and mocked his prayer, mocked his display of worship. The Pharisee didn’t realize that he himself was the one who was far off from God.

The Pharisee continued to speak about his accomplishments and his religious credentials, all the while reinforcing his own self-righteousness.  

The Tax Collector’s Prayer

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)

This man’s posture, position, and desperation indicated his brokenness and humility. He beat his chest and cried out to God for mercy. His prayer was short and didn’t contain any religious jargon, but it was from the heart and raw.

The tax collector was convicted of his sins, and he was repentant, sadly a posture that is lacking in many churches today.

Two Kinds of Prayers

The Pharisee needed to repent, but he was blinded by his religious activity. In contrast, the tax collector received the forgiveness he was asking for (see Luke 18:14).

The fact that the tax collector received mercy would have shocked the hearers of the parable. The Pharisee went home just as bound up in his pride as he was when he came to the temple.

The tax collector recognized that prayer put him in the presence of God’s holiness. He became fully aware of his sinful nature and his need for forgiveness (see Isaiah 6:5). But the Pharisee only saw himself and his good accomplishments. He was lost in the temple of his own making.

The Pharisee went home thinking that he had worshiped, but he went home unchanged. The tax collector went home changed because he had truly worshiped.

One Kind of Worship

In God’s eyes, there is only one kind of true worship, and it begins with acknowledging His preeminence and admitting our own sinful state. Humility is key to worship.

Worship is the place where we, in a broken and contrite spirit, encounter the profound holiness and majesty of God. It’s the place where we are confronted by our deepest longing, the longing for the presence of God, and we treasure Him as the answer to that longing.

From that place of humble dependency, we worship as we remember all that God has done for us on the cross and in our lives, celebrating and giving Him the glory. We cannot worship God if we think we are good enough; worship and self-righteousness cannot coexist.

Is pride in your past spiritual achievements hindering your worship?

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We live in an age when people avoid the inevitability of death. We don’t like to talk about death. When someone dies, often their body is quickly cremated, and those who are grieving try to move on as quickly as possible, avoiding pondering on the destination that we all face:, heaven or hell.

Jesus spoke a lot about heaven and hell, in particular the parable of the rich man and Lazarus found in Luke 16.

Without getting too caught up in the metaphor of the parable, we must be careful not to miss the real reason for the parable. This parable had a twist at the end that, I believe, revealed the primary reason that Jesus taught it.

Two Different Men

The two main characters in the parable are a rich man and a poor man who was called Lazarus. The rich man remains nameless, but he was exceptionally wealthy and ostentatious in displaying his wealth. The rich man trusted in his riches; this was his downfall.

This is also the downfall of our nation. The irony is that the statement, “In God we trust” appears on the currency that we really trust in. Self-sufficiency is a fatal pitfall (Hebrews 11:6).

Jesus gives the poor man a name, Lazarus.  Everyone in the town would have known the name of the rich man. But Jesus knew the name of the poor man. God sees the downcast, the broken, and the poor.

Two Different Destinations

As the story is told by Jesus, both men die and Lazarus is given a personal escort to the side of Abraham, which in Jewish culture would have been the place of greatest honor.

From a temporal place of suffering and pain, Lazarus is lifted to an eternal place of peace and comfort.

Then the rich man dies, and he is sent to Hades, a place of torment (Luke 16:22-23). At death, the rich man enters into eternal punishment and eternal poverty, while Lazarus is eternally wealthy in paradise.

The difference between the two men was not riches or poverty; it was faith (see Ephesians 2:8).

In his suffering, the rich man cries out to Abraham, asking him to send Lazarus to help him. He still sees Lazarus as a lower-class man, someone to do his bidding (Luke 16:24).  Abraham responds by letting the formerly rich man know that his situation is permanently set (Luke 16:26).

Jesus taught that Hell would be a place of excruciating eternal suffering, but the worst part would be the complete absence of the grace of God—that is what makes it Hell.

As Jesus continues to tell the parable, we see the twist in the tail; the rich man seems to fear for the plight of his brothers. This rich man was probably not a bad person by human standards. He displayed concern and love for his family.

The reality is that there will be people in hell who, by our worldly standards, did good things. But all our good deeds are worthless when we stand before Jesus on judgment day; the only thing that matters is our response to the Gospel message.

One True Book

The rich man, again seeing Lazarus as someone to do his bidding, begs Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to go and warn his family.

Abraham responds in verse 29, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”

Abraham is talking about the Holy Scriptures, the Hebrew Bible, which we call the Old Testament. We know, looking back from a New Testament perspective, that all the Law and the Prophets point to Jesus. The Old Testament is a revelation of Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament.

Luke 16:31, “He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

I think Jesus added that last sentence knowing that many who were listening to him would refuse to believe in his resurrection just a few months later. Today, we have the complete Word of God, the revelation of Jesus, that explains all we need for life and salvation (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17).

This means that all Scripture is fully inspired by the Holy Spirit. Written by 40 different authors over fifteen hundred years, the Bible never contradicts itself and is as relevant today as it was almost two-thousand years ago. The Bible is a book that is supernatural in its writing and supernatural in its application. Jesus used the Scriptures as his only defense when tempted by Satan.

One Illiterate Generation

Sadly, in our digital culture, people want something trendy and flashy. People look for new revelations from the latest content creator or YouTube channel. But few people are reading and studying the Word of God for themselves. The result is that we have widespread and frequent deception.

We live in a nation of Biblical accessibility and Biblical illiteracy. People come to church to hear an inspirational message and don’t even bring their Bibles, which is an indication that they don’t open their Bibles at home. As a result, people are easily misled and fall prey to false teaching.

This is the age that Paul wrote to Timothy about in 2 Timothy 4:3-4. The result is that we have a weak but well-entertained church that is fearful of the future with no desire to reach the lost with the Gospel message.  

The sad indictment that Jesus taught in this parable is that even if someone would rise from the dead, the people would not believe. Someone did rise from the dead, and the Bible is his revelation to us.

Is reading and meditating on the Word of God part of your daily routine? If you develop this spiritual discipline, you will find that it is living bread for your soul as the Holy Spirit reveals the Scriptures to you. Whether you are rich in earthly treasures or not, you will be rich in the treasures of Christ.

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If we are honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that there are people that we would not be concerned about being outside of the grace of God. We all have a line.

This is part of our fallen human nature. During the time that Jesus walked the earth, the nation of Israel had people that they hated so much they declared them to be beyond the hope of redemption.

A Question for a Question

Jesus confronted this way of thinking and challenged the norms of culture during his earthly ministry. We read about his confrontation with a Mosaic law expert in Luke 10, and we know it as the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Sometimes we forget that Jesus told the parable in response to a challenge. A lawyer had posed this question: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

To the lawyer’s chagrin, Jesus answers the question with a question, asking, “What is written in the Law?” In response, he begins sparring with Jesus. Jesus directs the man to an authority that they can both accept – the law of Moses (Luke 10:26).

The lawyer answers Jesus’ question by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. He connects these two different passages, showing a good understanding of the law of Moses.

“And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

Jesus commends him and seems to move on, but the learned man is not satisfied. He knows that he is not perfectly loving towards his fellow man, so he is looking for a definition that will lower the bar on the requirement of the law. He asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

A Parable for a Problem

Jesus tells a parable to correct the scribe’s false understanding of who his neighbor was.

In this parable, a man is beaten to the point of death, and three people walk past him as he lay on the side of the road between Jerusalem and Jericho.

The priest, who should have been the first to help, walks by on the other side of the road. A man from the tribe of Levi does the same thing and keeps on walking.

The third person to come by is a Samaritan. Samaritans were hated by the Jews because of racial position and religious differences. The Samaritans were judged and condemned by the Jewish people.

We do not know if the injured man was a Jew or Gentile, but it made no difference to the Samaritan; he did not consider the man’s race or religion. The Samaritan only saw a person in need of assistance, and he assisted him by going above and beyond in his care.

A Question for an Answer

Jesus made his point by asking the scribe a laser sharp question, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”  (Luke 10:36).

Once again, the lawyer’s answer reveals his personal hardness of heart. He refers to the Samaritan as, “the one who showed mercy.”

Jesus then tells the lawyer to “go and do likewise,.” Jesus means that the man should start living what the law tells him to do by following the Samaritan’s example of merciful care, irrespective of the recipient’s race, religion, financial position or nationality. 

The lesson is the same for us. If someone has a need and we have the means to help, then we are to give generously and freely without expectation of return, regardless of the recipient’s race, religion, socioeconomic status, or political views.

A Parable for Our Practice

As we put this into practice, we will find that mercy always costs. Mercy is compassion that is willing to pay the price. Mercy is what we have received as followers of Jesus. We deserved death (see Romans 6:23), but Jesus paid the price that we could not pay.

Jesus in turn calls us to show mercy to those we meet along the pathway of life, and it will usually cost us something. Often it will cost us our prejudice.

However, there is no person on earth who can meet this standard, Jesus sets the bar impossibly high; our heart is selfish to the core. When left to our own devices, we do the wrong thing. We see the person in need and justify why we don’t need to help them. The drug addict, the homeless person, the illegal immigrant, the person who looks different…

Dr. Albert Mohler wrote, “There is not a single human being, made in God’s image, who does not deserve our compassion, care and mercy.” That is a challenging statement.

The compassion that Jesus showed on the cross should be the mark of every Christian even towards those we feel are beyond mercy (see 1 John 3:16).

A Question for an Eternity

Getting back to the original question of this legal expert, “What must I do….to inherit eternal life?”

We know from Scripture that we will never be able to do enough good things to inherit eternal life. We need a savior, Jesus Christ. And only then, as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, will we be equipped to love our neighbor.

Although compassion is a pillar of the church, it is an outflow of the ministry of the church. Compassion is essential in the church, not because it is what good people do to help one another but because it is the way the church points people to Jesus. Jesus views compassion very seriously (see Matthew 25:34-36).

Until Jesus comes again, the church is called to the Great Commission and to works of compassion, displaying the love of Christ to a broken world.

Isaiah 58:6-7

The church is called by God to the Great Commission, to declare the Good News and make followers of Jesus, baptizing them and teaching them what Jesus taught. Along with that are the multiple aspects of gathering, prayer, worship and encouragement. But sadly, some churches get too focused on their internal programs that they lose the passion for the mission of the church.

How are we doing as a church? Are we still laser focused on the Great commission?

The parable of the sower is one of the few parables that Jesus explained to his disciples as we read in Matthew 13:18-23.  

A sower went out to sow:

For any crop to grow, the seed needs to be sown. In the first century the farmer would manually throw the seed on the prepared ground. The seed represents the Gospel, the Word of God. The sower sows the seed, but God makes it grow, and this is also true of the Christian Walk.

Ultimately the purpose of sowing is to produce a crop. To grow something. To produce life. If there is no sowing, there is no life and only the Gospel message is able to produce eternal life.

A church that does not sow the seeds of the Gospel, cannot expect to see new life.

The sower sows the seed, but there are four different soils or receptors of the seed. These represent four different ways that people respond to the word of God.

1. The Pathway (Matthew 13:4)

The pathway is the area between the prepared soil, it is the place that people trample as they walk around the prepared soil. This hard ground represents a hardened heart that is not receptive to the Gospel.

People’s hearts can be hardened for several reasons; trauma, poor life choices, and often pain caused by other believers.

Someone with a hard heart, is not capable of receiving the word of God. Our best course of action in this case is to pray that the Holy Spirit would work and soften their hearts.

Satan loves a hardened heart. The birds in this parable represent how Satan comes and takes away even the seed of the Gospel (Matthew 13:19).

Never give up praying for someone who has a hardened heart.

2. The Rocky Ground (Matthew 13:5-6).

Sadly, not every positive response to the Gospel means new life. Many people are quick to respond to the Good News wanting the promise of eternal life, but in reality, they have made a superficial commitment.

Jesus said that the plant sprung up immediately, there is evidence of growth, excitement and energy, but the roots aren’t deep enough to sustain the new believer, when persecution and hard trials come. And eventually they wither away (Matthew 13:21).

As a church, we can be guilty of counting numbers, celebrating new responses and baptisms, which are all good, but are we discipling the new believer to help them grow, deep and sustaining roots.

The soil in the parable had rocks. A gardener must take pains to remove all rocks and stones before sowing, otherwise the plants will not develop healthy roots.

That is the discipleship process, it takes time, prayer and feeding on God’s word to remove the rocks from someone’s life. In fact, every believer should be working out the rocks in their lives as they come to the surface.  

What are the Rocks?

The rocks in our lives are areas of compromise. These are pockets of embedded sin, sins that we are comfortable with.

There are the rocks of; unforgiveness, anger, addictions, hatred, racism, foolish talk, gossip, complaining, dishonesty and the like.

Anxiety is also a rock, fearing the unknown displays a lack of trust in God (Matthew 6:25).

The rocks come in many forms, but they all prevent us from growing deep, life sustaining roots. Invite the Holy Spirit to reveal to you, what are the areas of compromise that you are entertaining, that are preventing you from growing deep roots as a Christian.

3. The Thorny Ground (Matthew 13:7)

The thorny ground is more subtle than the rocky soil. Weeds are not immediately evident when planting in a freshly plowed field and weeds also have a nasty habit of returning.

Jesus explains that the thorns are the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matthew 13:22).

The cares of this world can be good or bad, but ultimately, they are things that draw us away from our relationship with the Lord Jesus.

The Greek word translated “cares”, could mean anxiety, worry or anxious concern. Jesus warned against this in Matthew 6 and also we have the wonderful promise of 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.“

Jesus points out the deceitfulness of riches is a thorn. Being rich is not wrong nor sinful, but when our life revolves around our finances, then it becomes a thorny weed that chokes out the Gospel message. Sadly, we are a nation that is obsessed with wealth. And we know that money lies to us, it cannot make us happy or bring us eternal security.

We pull out the choking weed of the love of money by being aggressively generous. We destroy the alure of money by fully trusting the Lord with our finances and generously giving. Generosity kills the weed of anxiety and the deceitfulness of riches.

4. The Harvest (Matthew 13:9)

Jesus explained that good soil produces a bountiful harvest (Matthew 13:23).

A person with a receptive and fruitful heart is a recipient of God’s grace. While we can follow good spiritual disciplines to make our lives more fruitful for the Lord, ultimately a receptive heart is a gift from the Lord.

This is why it is vital for us to pray for our lost friends and neighbors, for our unsaved children and family members. Praying that God works a miracle in their hearts to receive the Gospel message.

Who are you praying for today?

The Fruit and the Sower.

What is the evidence of growth and fruit?

A good starting point is Galatians 5:22-23, but there is other evidence of a healthy Christian life. Fruit such as, godly character, integrity, soul winning, disciple making, generosity, endurance in suffering, the ability to control our emotions and our tongue, to name a few. These are evidence of a life committed to the Lordship of Jesus (see Psalm 1:3).  

With so much focus on the soil, who is the sower?

While we are all the soil, recipients of the Gospel, we are also called to share the Gospel message. We have been commissioned by Jesus to share the Gospel message to the ends of the earth.

Are you intentionally sowing today?

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Once upon a time…

We all love a good story, don’t we?

Jesus was the greatest storyteller when he walked with his disciples. He taught many things in what we call parables, which are simple stories that reveal a deeper meaning. Jesus spoke in parables not simply to teach moral lessons in a way people would remember but to reveal the kingdom of heaven. There are multiple layers to every parable that Jesus taught, but each one shows us something about God’s character and our own hardened, sinful human nature.

Thirty-five percent of the content in the synoptic Gospels is the parables that Jesus told. If parables were Jesus’ primary teaching method, then they should be very important for us to study.

What is a Parable?

The word parable means “to set alongside”. A parable is a story that is set alongside a timeless truth to reinforce or to clarify a certain truth.

Dr/ Albert Mohler defines a parable as, “Surprising stories and word pictures drawn from the familiar, that powerfully reveal to us the unfamiliar”.

God uses this concept throughout the Bible. Sometimes God uses historical accounts to stand as a standard to reveal His character and nature. In the Old Testament, God frequently God referred to himself as, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt”. The Egypt deliverance was their great story.

The books of Esther and Ruth reveal aspects of the nature of God and the Gospel.

The prophets were sometimes called upon to act out the message in sometimes uncomfortable ways, providing a visual parable if you will (look at Jeremiah and Hosea for example).

Job is a true story that has become a parable for the sovereignty of God.

Our creator knows our mind is wired for story because He created it that way. Our creator came, teaching in parables 2000 years ago, and they still speak to us today.

Truth Obscured

When Jesus first taught the parables to the original audience, they were obscure; his listeners didn’t grasp the true meaning of what Jesus was saying. 

The disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 13 verse 10, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”  They noticed that Jesus was not explaining the parables to the people. 

Jesus answered in verse 11, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”

Why would Jesus intentionally obscure truth from the very people he came to save? The disciples and the people thought they knew who Jesus was. They were expecting a messiah who would overthrow the Roman empire and re-establish the great nation of Israel. The disciples were trying to help Jesus create a following by revealing who he was, or at least who they thought he was. Why was Jesus hiding the truth in stories?

While Jesus explained the parables to his inner circle, he was really speaking to the church that would be birthed after his ascension. The parables are for us, revealing truths about the Kingdom of Heaven.

In verse 12, Jesus explains that there are two kinds of people, those who hear and understand, and those who hear and do not understand.

Truth Revealed

What makes the difference? The key is the Holy Spirit, the revealer of truth. The parables are not just informative stories; they are crucial for the believer to grasp and to apply leading to a harvest of righteousness. It is our privilege to mine them in order to grow in wisdom and sanctification.  

Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah in verses 14-15, quoting Isaiah 6 which includes the prophet’s commissioning. God responds to Isaiah’s willingness by telling him that He is sending the prophet to a people who have dull hearts, blind eyes, and deaf ears.

All followers of Jesus have been commissioned by him to go and proclaim the Gospel (see Matthew 28:19-20). Just like Isaiah, we will have some people who hear and are saved and others who hear but reject the Gospel, facing an eternity separated from God.

So why do some people receive the Gospel and others reject it? What makes the human heart receptive? Can we soften our own hearts (see Jeremiah 17:9)?

This is a complex paradox that theologians have wrestled with for centuries. On the one hand we have the absolute sovereignty of God and on the other hand we have the responsibility of the hearer to respond.

In verse 16 Jesus tells his disciples, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”

Jesus didn’t say, “you see and hear because you are smarter, or special in some way.” The disciples weren’t chosen because they had superior people skills or IQ. No, they were blessed by God to have Jesus explain the parables to them.

We know from Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit, that when we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are blessed to be able to understand the truths of God’s Word.

Truth Told

Along with the sovereignty of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit bringing revelation, we have what we call the doctrine of election. Why does the Bible teach that there are some who are chosen and others not? From Abraham to the writings of Paul and the book of Revelation, we see that God elects His people.  

Our calling as followers of Jesus is not to try to determine who the elect are and aren’t but to proclaim the Gospel. We sow the seeds of the Gospel, but the Holy Spirit is the one that brings new life, winning souls for the Kingdom of Heaven. The more we share the Gospel, the more of the elect we find!

The Gospel is the one true story that makes every parable understandable. It is the one truth that reveals all other truths that Jesus taught.

Are you seeing? Are you hearing? Are you understanding? Who will you tell?