You Will Look, But Never Perceive

Matthew 13:10-17; Matthew 21:1-17

We’re coming to the end of our Lenten series, “God’s Love is Foolish.” We’ve been journeying from Ash Wednesday (Valentine’s Day) to Easter (April Fool’s Day), and have spent the majority of the time talking about God’s love. To be fair, when it comes to God’s love there’s a lot to talk about! And it’s fun and exciting to talk about. And talking about God’s love fills us with hope…hopefully. But now we’ve arrived at Holy Week and our eyes drift to the horror on the horizon, the intersection of God’s perfect love with angry human betrayal: the mocking, the derision, the punishment, the cruelty that Jesus must face.

Jesus also spent the majority of his ministry talking about God’s love. But, Jesus did so using parables which revealed the “secrets of the kingdom” to some, but not to all. Some of Jesus’ teachings are more straight-forward, but his parables about God’s love, how it is at work in the world, and how we are called to respond to it, are mysterious teachings. I’m sure that many people in the crowds he taught left asking one another, “What do you think he meant by that?” Even Jesus’ own disciples asked him, “Why do keep teaching the people in parables?”

Can you read between the lines here and understand what they’re really asking? They want to know why Jesus can’t be more specific about who God is, what God is doing in the world, and what the implications of that action are for our lives. "Just tell us what we need to know and what we need to do." We want simple lessons, easy answers, and step-by-step instructions for solving the problems of our world, our lives, our sins. And yet, Jesus continues to teach in parables.

“Contrary to popular belief, the parables Jesus used were not designed to solve problems or create more clarity,” suggests Nathan Croy. “They were crafted to encourage others to solve their own problems by engaging their minds in a personal way….[In modern therapy] to simply provide answers without exploring what has prevented a client from finding their own answers defeats the very purpose of therapy. If I give you the answers, it means you are incapable of figuring them out yourself, are utterly dependent on others to resolve your issues, are ignorant about your situation compared to me, and denied the skill-learning to solve your own problems in the future. However, if time is taken to analyze the origin of the problem and what has prevented resolving it, therapy can move toward empowering, educating, and equipping you to resolve your issues on your own.”[1]

Croy suggests that Jesus’ Parables were designed invite people to think about their own lives and experiences and to empower them to look at and listen to the world around them in new ways. This is because “the secrets of the kingdom” are not “taught but revealed,” writes Douglas Hare. [2] This is why I can, and why I do, preach about the grace and love of God every Sunday; if not specifically in my sermon, then in the Confession and Assurance. It is my hope that one of the ways in which I express or explain God’s love will empower you to let God’s love be revealed to you. I don’t create, or distribute, or reveal God’s love…I simply believe in it. I can’t give you a love that doesn’t belong to me…even the Genie from Aladdin knows this: “I can grant you any three wishes," he tells him, "I just can’t make anyone fall in love with you.”

I can’t make you love God, but I’ll tell you what I can do, though: I can make you afraid of God. I can title my sermons things like "You Will Look, But Never Perceive," make you feel like you're missing out on something good (no one wants to feel like they're missing out). I can preach fire and brimstone, sin and shame, shower you in horror and guilt until you beg for mercy. Then you’d obey God. Or at least do the things that I say God wants you to do. So why don't I do this? Because the obedience we give to those we fear is very different from the obedience we give to those we love. Fear is everything love is not: coercive, manipulative, selfish, dominating, diminishing. Have you ever seen the parables of Jesus manipulated to frighten and coerce others into obedience?

I can’t make anyone love God. Jesus can’t coerce his disciples to love God. Not even God can force creation to love God. Because then it wouldn’t be authentic love. The parables of Jesus contain the mystery of God’s love and the secrets of God’s kingdom. To those who are willing to trust the love of God by their own agency, these parables reveal the way of life to which we are invited by that love. It would seem pretty important to the mission of Jesus’ ministry that all people would learn to walk in this way. But here’s the challenge: this is a way of life lived in response to authentic love, and authentic love cannot force us to follow it. We cannot be coerced, or forced, or tricked into following the way of love to the kingdom of God.

Parables and prophesies are designed to empower us to respond authentically to God’s love, and to allow the secrets of the kingdom to be revealed to us, but parables and prophecies also enable the love of God and the secrets of the kingdom to be misunderstood and manipulated by us. There will be some who listen, but never understand; who will look, but never perceive. There will be some who claim to follow Jesus, while when in reality they are simply afraid of not fitting in, not being good enough, afraid of being wrong. Their obedience is not based on love but fear. Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem describes an excited crowd who see in Jesus a fulfillment of the messianic prophecies. But when Jesus doesn’t live up to their messianic expectations, they have no trouble letting go of their loyalty to him. What do you think: was their behavior influenced by love or fear?

They saw a king entering Jerusalem, but they did not truly perceive his messianic identity. They expected a leader who would help them overthrow their oppressors…instead this guy goes and overthrows tables in the temple courtyard, attracts the attention of the local authorities, and allows himself to be arrested without so much as lifting a finger in protest, not to mention calling off his own disciples who rose to defend him. They heard the prophesies about the Messiah, but misunderstood them…they saw Jesus, but they didn’t really perceive who he was or what he was teaching them. If you’re anything like me, then all of this is pretty unsettling. “Have I gotten everything wrong?”

We live in a world that demands moral absolutes, a world that seeks “stability and assurance that requires no faith.”[3] “Have I gotten everything wrong?” is a question based upon the assumption that wrong and right can be known fully. This is an assumption that our faith calls to question in a parable. God warns us not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But we do. We’ve probably gotten some things wrong, misunderstood others, been coerced by fear into believing certain things, and, at times, allowed the anger of unmet expectations to diminish our loyalty to God’s love. So what is good about this passage for us then? How do we hear something like this and not feel like complete fools?

God knew we’d fail. God knew we’d misunderstand. God knew we’d listen but not hear. God knew we’d see but not perceive. God knew we’d be fearful. But did God give up on us? No. In fact, God made sure that we would always have a way to be forgiven of our failures, a way to be set free from guilt and shame, a way to turn and receive and respond to God’s love. The horror on the horizon eventually gives way to hope. Jesus said, “I am the way. Follow me.” What do you think he meant by that?

[1] Croy, Nathan. https://uncontrollinglove.com/2017/01/12/why-do-you-speak-to-them-in-parables/

[2] Hare, Douglas. “Matthew” from Interpretation:A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. P149.

[3] Croy.