Shock and Awe

 

Then 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.

There is always the temptation for people who break the word every day (or even study it hard) to think we understand God and his word more than the general public. Or, sometimes, more arrogantly, more than others who break God’s word. When we start to think like this, we are in danger of making the same mistakes the scribes and Pharisees made. This is thinking we know it all. And when we do this, we become deaf and blind, unable to hear or see anything outside of our belief system. Unfortunately, we are not dumb as well, so our mouths continue to work.

Let us imagine, for instance, that we don’t believe the devil is real. We might have come to this conclusion on our own, or we may have been taught this; it doesn’t matter. We just don’t believe the devil is real. Consequently, we will try to explain anything that might actually be demonic in nature in “natural” terms. For example, if somebody is demonized, we will say the person is mentally sick, even though the person is actually being troubled by evil spirits. We will make sure that all the evidence fits OUR version of the truth. 

This is why the scribes and the Pharisees could not recognize Jesus because he didn’t fit in with their ideas of what THEY expected the Messiah to be. And, as teachers and leaders in the community, they would transmit these beliefs to the people. When things are taught repeatedly, ideas start to get reinforced, and eventually they become set like concrete. When Jesus speaks of hard-heartedness, this is what he is referring to. And when your hearts are really hard, you get to the point where you cannot recognize God even when God is standing right in front of you! 

So, how do you break this concretization — these ideas that seem set in concrete? Well, you tell them parables. These are not simple stories but challenging stories intended to make people think out of the box and see things differently. They are like riddles. Consider the parable Jesus told about the mustard seed that became large with big branches that the birds could perch on. Anybody with any knowledge of plants would know that the mustard tree doesn’t grow very large — it’s just a big shrub — so what was Jesus talking about birds resting in its branches?  This was the purpose of the parables. I call it shock-and-awe, Jesus-style! Jesus would shock his listeners by saying something totally outrageous (or totally baffling). Then, when they thought about it (IF they thought about it), and understood what he really meant by it, they would be left in total awe. This would result in a change of mind, and consequently, a change of heart. 

Everything Jesus says is like that. Shock and Awe. So, let us not merely hear and see, but listen to what he says, and perceive what he wants to show us. 

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here: https://youtu.be/gmNdEctq5FY