Go to Justin in Hamilton, Ohio listening on the Catholic Answers app. Justin, you
are on with Jimmy Akin, what's your question? Hi Jimmy, my
question is well I was reading reading my Bible and I was coming across
a verse in the Gospel of Mark chapter 4 where he says, "He answered them, The
mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside
everything comes in parables so that, 'they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand; in order that they may not be converted and
be forgiven.'" What exactly is he trying to say? Like when I'm reading and I have
a hard time understanding is he saying that he's saying these things in
parables so people don't understand? This is one of the most difficult verses in
the New Testament and I won't really be able to do it full justice here. You
might want to check out my commentary on Mark which is just called "Mark: A
Commentary," it's by Jimmy Akin, it's available on Verbum Bible Software. But I
can give you a brief explanation here. Now one of the things that God often
does in Scripture is he often uses things like parables, prophecy is also
frequently given in a kind of symbolic almost parable-like way rather than just
an explicit straightforward statement, and there seem to be a couple of reasons
for that, at least a couple. One of them is that
sometimes truths are complex, and they're rich, and in order to fully mine them
it's helpful to use an analogy rather than simply having a short statement. If
you made a short statement, it would tend to flatten them out, whereas if
you give them in a symbolic form, and you're forced to think about it and
wrestle with it, you may notice additional dimensions that you wouldn't
if just a short statement were given. And so the richness of these things is
part of why God gives us parables and prophecies.
Also there's a certain intrigue factor to them. We're more likely
to wrestle with them and absorb their message if they're given to us in this
somewhat enigmatic way, because our minds are attracted to mysteries and enigmas,
and so if God gives us a mysterious, enigmatic statement we're gonna be
inclined to think about that more deeply than if he just told us something
flat-out. We're likely to learn our lesson better. Having said that, there are
specialized situations where knowledge is meant to be broadcast in a way that
conceals it, and that seems to be what Jesus is referring to here. Jesus did not
come to make his message apparent to everybody so that everybody would repent
and believe. Now he came to make salvation possible for everybody, but the
means by which he chose to do that in concert with the Father was by his
redeeming death. And so he came to die, he came to function as a prophet who, like
many of the prophets before him, would encounter opposition and disbelief on
the part of many people, and who would eventually put him to death just like
many of the previous prophets were martyred--only unlike them, through his
death the redemption of the world would be accomplished. And so what Jesus is
talking about here is when he talks about "lest they see and understand" and
so forth, basically that's another way of saying "Part of the reason I'm using
parables is so that those who would not think about them and dwell on them, those
people who aren't willing to engage the parables in a constructive way and learn
from them and absorb their spiritual lessons and convert, so that those people
will follow their appointed course and they will end up choosing to martyr me
so that I end up fulfilling my mission as well." And so it's a kind of
complex situation, much like those that we actually find in parables. But he
it's not that he doesn't will everybody to be saved--he does--but he
knows certain people are not going to cooperate with his offer of salvation,
they're not going to take him up on it, and as part of that he's willing to
communicate in this somewhat mysterious way, so that those who are open to God's
message will study the parables and interpret them and internalize them and
be saved, whereas those who aren't willing to
engage God in that way will not do so and they'll end up fulfilling his
mission. Does that help you Justin? Yeah yeah that's a--yeah that's a large
pill to swallow at once. Yes it is. Okay I do have a quick
question. So with your explanation, I'm thinking and trying to
rationalize what you're saying, could that be in a way like some people
believe in predestination? In terms--well there are themes of predestination that
are related here. It doesn't intersect in a direct way, because, I mean Jesus is not
talking about predestination per se in this passage, but God--you also have to
clarify how are you using the word predestination, because in some circles
the word predestination is used to refer to a decision God makes on no basis...that
God's just going to pick certain people to do certain things. And that's not the
the vision of this that I just articulated, which involves those who are
willing or unwilling. The choice that Jesus makes to leave certain people in
their ignorance is based on their unwillingness to engage God in an open
constructive way, because if someone is willing to engage God in an open
constructive way then they'll think about the parables, and they'll
eventually solve them, internalize their meaning and be saved.
So it's not that God's picking people randomly to go to Heaven or Hell; the
dividing line is between those who are willing to be open to God's grace and
those who are not. Thanks Justin, I hope that that was helpful to you.