Kingdom insights are for those who seek to live from the mind, heart, and life of Christ. For those who accept the challenge to change their minds and exercise their wills to be righteous. Righteousness is just fairness – from God to man, man to God, and man to man. We must be as determined towards others as our Father is determined towards us and for us; to pay our debt of love. Pay it no matter who is right or what is owed, for our Father will have His children like Him!
Jesus came speaking parables so that their truths would be either hidden or revealed based on the hearer’s heart. They shine a light on the way for those who do them and blind the eyes and minds of those who don’t.
The most significant obstruction to understanding parables is to interpret them instead of doing them. Theologians have done more to hide the gospel of Christ than any of its adversaries!
Kingdom Insights
Matthew 13:11-15 MSG
He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward a welcome awakening. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
“Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are stupid! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.“
Readiness
Have you noticed that you cannot see or hear until you can? How many times have we said
“. . . if only I could have seen that twenty years ago?”. This readiness is what Jesus is speaking about. Jesus often used parables even though they are not easily grasped by the intellect alone. They are addressed more to our conscience than our intellect and our will more than our imaginations. Parables are forceful and direct but not always precise. They are not primarily to explain, but challenge us to see ourselves in need of doing more and being more than we currently are!
Jesus was not a philosopher seeking to change our thoughts, but a trainer seeking to change our actions. It is through our obedience that He brings His understanding. Love can be anything we want it to be when it is only a word or a thought, but the cost is finally seen and understood when it becomes an action.
Rights versus Debt
In his sermon, “The Last Penny,” MacDonald writes a dialogue in which he explores this thought.
“Do you love them as yourself?” • “Oh, come on! No one does that!” . . .
“It would be so much the worse for him. So, it is up to you to be fair with him, whether he is fair or not.” • “But you have to be kidding; being right is all that matters! I want nothing but my rights. Could anything be more important than that?”
We have no rights as Christians, only a debt of love. God has laid down His life on the cross, not claiming His rights as the Divine! And likewise, it means nothing whether anyone gives us our rights or not, but it is a matter of Life and death if we don’t give them theirs! There is no quid-pro-quo, no business transaction here. If owing you love, they give hate, and you owe them love yet unpaid, you still owe them. A love unpaid, a justice undone, praise withheld, or a judgment passed on you without fair play does not absolve you of your debt of love outstanding.
The central debt whose payment God demands is that which lies at the very root of our lives, and it is Love! From this debt, there is no escape in this world or the next. We will pay the last penny! For it is the first thing we ever do in the Kingdom, as well as the last we will ever do!
We are far less than our prideful self believes and far more than the humble one can imagine!
Kingdom Insights is an introductory reflection on the Unspoken Sermon linked below: