Today’s Reading: Matthew 13:10-17 [also see Mark 4:1012] New RSV
Then the disciples asked him, “Why do you speak in parables?”
I am confident that as children all of us were told the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and countless other “fairy tales”. And we probably also saw some of them as cartoons. They were delightful entertainment, and we celebrated with the Three Little Pigs as they thwarted the Big Bad Wolf. The Good guys won again.
But as Adults we came to understand that these seemingly innocent stories often contained serious lessons about life. We need to be prepared when the wolves appear in our lives and not be easily taken in. We need to avoid assuming we can simply enter someone’s life like Goldilocks and not expect consequences. There is a much deeper meaning to these stories, and they were created to convey truths we need to understand.
In today’s passage we are told that the disciples wondered about Jesus’ use of parables as a teaching tool and he explains that while the general crowds will hear them having one set of meanings, the disciples have been granted the capacity to see their deeper meaning. The parables are not just nice analogies or simple examples for moral guidance. Instead, they are windows into the nature of God’s Kingdom, a Kingdom that is present in this world now, “at hand”, to those who have the ears to hear and the eyes to see.
This Lenten Season I want to focus on the deeper meanings to be found in some of the parables of Jesus as he illumines our present world as the place of God’s Kingdom. We only need to have the eyes and ears of faith.
Reflections 