Living in the Parable
“Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.”(Matthew 11:6). A few chapters later Jesus bluntly speaks to the Pharisees. Peter speaking for the group of followers asks, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying.” Jesus answers in a PARABLE! Peter asks Jesus to explain the parable. I picture this scene played out with Jesus in a bit of humor and frustration, lightly pushing Peter a little off-balance and asking, “Are you still so dull?”
This is living life in a PARABLE! There are frequent seasons that we just can’t fully grasp what’s going on. We are unsure what God is really saying and what the next step really should be. We can try to understand the world, we see great evil and great beauty often in the same instance. As a result, we might tend to get offended because we don’t quite understand it all. In Matthew 11, John the Baptist sat in prison, his emotions, reasoning, and the reality of his impending death might have caused him to be at risk of being offended, but Jesus reminded him that blessed, happy, made holy, favored is John because he is not offended by Christ.
John, Peter, and the disciples found themselves living in a PARABLE. Following Jesus, listening to His words but not quite understanding it all. I find myself there frequently, like now, as we are moving AGAIN (just houses, staying in Lubbock). We are following Christ, leaning in to hear what exactly He wants to do in us and through us. Our understanding struggles and we seem to waiver in decisions. I’m constantly asking questions. And I have felt Jesus playfully push me off balance and say, “Are you still so dull?” When we are off balance we have to grab hold of Him in faith. Faith trumps understanding. In His voice I detect humor, truth, frustration with a flavor of promise sprinkled with sadness at my immature faith. Yet, He reminds me like He did John, blessed am I that I am not offended by Him in little things and in big. Each time, each home has been with purpose and a prophetic act of Him in our lives and the life of PI. I’m off balance but grabbing onto Him in faith.
The truth is, we live in a PARABLE. We don’t understand everything, and there’s always a deeper meaning, and He is always loving us. He’s always requiring us to lean into Him closer, to move in faith, in order to learn the true meaning of that parable. But guess what, as the page turns, there’s another parable that will require questions, listening, conversations, searching the Bible, listening for His heart and His breath. Living in a parable requires faith. Faith! Faith can be strangled by offense. So let’s be reminded as we walk through the parables of life, that if we love and passionately seek His Word we will walk in great peace and nothing can make us stumble or be offended. (Psalm 119:165). So let’s not fear being a bit off balance instead let’s love His word, grab onto Him in faith, and enjoy the PARABLE living.
