Treasure and Be Changed by His Parables

1/5/2007

A parable as a seed is something that can grow deeper and deeper and higher and higher. Jesus told the parable of the Kingdom about the Pearl of great price (Matt. 13:45). There are many deep meanings in that very, very short parable. He said a hundred things in about twenty words. He told another parable about the man working in a field who found a treasure (Matt. 13:44).

So He said the Kingdom of God is like a pearl merchant and the Kingdom of God is like a man working in a field. Both of those things have very rich and very deep meaning. The longer we are Christians, the more exciting these things become even though He only said twenty words.

The Bible says the Word of God is a seed, and Jesus plants these little, tiny seeds that can grow into great big things. If He were to give a long, long teaching about a pearl or about a field, we wouldn’t understand most of it at our stage of development. We would do a long analysis of it and break it down into little parts and put numbers on it. Then instead of letting the Seed of Life grow inside of us, we’d be squashed by a mountain of ideas.

When Simeon spoke to Mary about what her Son, Jesus would become when He grew up, the Bible says she “treasured these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19). She couldn’t understand what he meant, but she could treasure them in her heart. The Word of God is a seed that we sow deeply in our heart and treasure, not something that we break into little pieces and analyze.

I could tell you ten or fifteen things that I have learned about the parable of the pearl and the parable of the worker in the field, but it took me 25 years to learn those things. Because I sowed it in my heart, God made it alive. He made it more and more alive. God made it alive! If it was a long teaching about a pearl, I would be tempted to memorize it. Then I would “know” it, and I would tell other people what I “know.” But because I sowed it in my heart and treasured it in my heart, it grew and grew and bore more and more fruit. Every year I’m changed more by these parables, even though it’s only twenty words. Amen?

Amen!

The Word of God is God, says John, chapter 1. The Word of God is a window into the very Mind of God. If we treasure the seed of the parable in our heart like Mary did, then we have a window that grows brighter and brighter into the very mind of God. If His Word is not a window, then I won’t be able to see very well. If we make all of the words on the page the end of everything rather than a window to God, then we’ve made a mistake.

I’m very happy that there are so many parables because I can look more and more and more deeply into the Heart and Mind of God as the years go by, because it’s a parable and a Seed. It brings meaning as I grow closer to Jesus, and I understand more. Parables are very beautiful in that way. Remember we discussed earlier that Jesus is Alive and He is raised from the dead? We talked about Jesus taking the disciples aside and explaining the parables to them? Ask Jesus to take you aside and explain the parables to you! Jesus explains His parables to His disciples because He’s Alive. Ask Him to bring you aside day by day and year by year and explain His beautiful parables to you just like He did to His disciples then. It’s a beautiful, living relationship.

•  Treasure and Be Changed by His Parables