After telling the disciples the spiritual principle behind His decision to speak in parables, Jesus said, “This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”” Where His prior answer emphasized the positive side of a spiritual principle (those who have the blessing of God find they can walk ever deeper in God’s blessing), here Jesus emphasizes the negative side; Those who don’t really want Him encounter God just as all do yet they fail to realize His working in their lives.
As before, we can see this happening in our own lives too. Every time there is a church service, a few respond. Even apart from ‘coming forward’ and making commitments, the vast majority of church goers will have an opportunity to encounter Christ every time they are in a service. For unless the church is a cult and a church in name only, Christ faithfully speaks to His people and Christ faithfully meets with His people. Yet most will come to church unprepared to encounter Him and unprepared to see Him.
Frankly, they are not expecting to encounter Him there. Yet He shows up and He speaks. He speaks through the reading of His Word. He speaks through the music He gave His servants to perform. He speaks through the people we meet and the words He gave His preacher. Yet we can remain oblivious to Him unless we attend church expecting to see and hear Him.
Knowing that is true for those who DO know Him, how much more is it true for those who do not know Him? After all, God is still at work in their circumstances. God is still aware of their beginning and their end. He knows all the number of their days and every hair on their heads. Their thoughts do not escape Him. They too are made in His image, and they too are sustained by His grace and speaking over their lives (for He upholds all things by the power of His word). We who have read God’s Word surely know that He does open their ears to perceive Him speaking to them and He does show up in their lives every time we pray for God’s mercy upon them, for He is gracious, He desires that none should perish and He answers prayer. Yet they remain oblivious.
In fact, those who have no desire to really know Him find that even what little they have of His blessing is taken away. Recall Jesus’ earlier statement, “Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” Unbelievers may or may not have worldly things, but a lack of peace and a lack of joy inevitably begin to overshadow their souls. Their experience of God’s creation and God’s blessing gets smaller and less wondrous instead of bigger and more wonderful. Far worse than a retirement in poverty, what awaits them after death is not the riches of heaven but the desolation of an eternity apart from every blessing that can be known.
This we have to know: God is purposing to meet with us every day of our lives. He is always caring for us, always speaking over us, always urging us closer to Him. Can we se His work every day? Are we listening?
We can see, but there’s something wrong with our spiritual capacities to discern the beauty and value of what we see.
John Piper
APPLICATION: Thankfulness
God gives spiritual sight to all who ask Him. He is able, and He is willing.