NEW TESTAMENT

– A narrative on Matthew 13:10-17, 34-35

“What is the use of a book,” thought the heroine of Alice in Wonderland, “without pictures or conversations?” Jesus was a master of telling stories which included conversations and evoked pictures. But it was not enough. Some could never get the point.

Ordinary people delighted in them, but the theological experts got nothing out of them, drawing Jesus’ sad quotation from Isaiah 6 that they were blind as proverbial bats. However, the quote almost implies that the parables were meant to make them blind, which modern readers find puzzling.

The parables were used to convey profound truths in picture language. Normally they were intended to make only a single point. They are not allegories in which every detail “means” something. So, in interpreting them, we should not press the detail too much.

They were more like paintings than photographs. The experts found them frustrating because the deliberate vagueness left them arguing over the meaning (which was Jesus’ intention) and not grappling with concepts in the way they were used to.

The quote from Isaiah 6 is therefore not a prescription – “I’ll make sure you never understand” – but a description of people whose minds are closed to new ideas. They don’t want to discover anything about God which doesn’t conform to their preconceived formulae; they are incapable of seeing it even if it stares them in the face.

The most dangerous state of mind is a closed mind. Diseased minds can be healed; confused minds clarified; minds in error corrected; uninformed minds educated; narrow minds broadened. God, who is bigger than our minds, would like to enlarge those that are open. But even He cannot penetrate a closed mind. And Christians can be as closed as their critics.