Knowledge

The disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

‘You will indeed listen, but never understand,

and you will indeed look, but never perceive.

For this people’s heart has grown dull,

and their ears are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes;

so that they might not look with their eyes,

and listen with their ears,

and understand with their heart and turn—

and I would heal them.’

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:10-17)

Wouldn’t it be great to ask Jesus a question and get an immediate response? In a way, we can. The disciples wondered why Jesus told parables. Jesus responded by telling them that they were especially blessed, even if they don’t always get the parables right away. How so? Because they were getting information that those in the generations before them could only dream of. They were like Galileo. For untold millennia, people looked at the sky and wondered about the moon and planets. Then Galileo pointed his telescope at the sky and for the first time saw them for what they were.

Like a child passing from one grade to another, gradually learning how to count, how to add and subtract, how to multiply and divide, until they move on at last to algebra, geometry and calculus, so God revealed his secrets to the human race gradually. At last, during the time of Jesus, he gave his disciples the final revelations. They got to know for certain what those before them had only been able to guess at. They spoke and ate with God for years as his closest friends. Today, we stand on the shoulders of those apostles, privileged to know what they knew. Our most important questions have been answered.

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