The Parables of Our Lord | Page 9

of the first,--the function of concealing the
doctrine in judgment from closed eyes and hardened hearts. In some
instances and to some extent, the parables, while they conveyed the
doctrine to one portion of the audience, concealed it from another. In
those cases "they are like the husk which preserves the kernel from the
indolent, and for the earnest."[6] It is the method, not unknown in other
departments of the divine government, of making the same fact or law
at once profitable to the humble, and punitive to the proud. Not only
the Lord's word, but also the Lord himself, partakes of this twofold
character, and produces these diverse effects; the same rock on which a
meek disciple surely builds his hope, is also the stone over which
scoffers stumble in their final fall.
[6] Gerlach in Lange.
The judicial or penal function of the parable was indicated by the Lord
in express terms when he explained the meaning of the sower in private
to his own disciples (Matt. xiii. 11-17; Mark iv. 10-13). In these cases,
however, the wilful blindness of men's hearts appears as the sin which
brought down the punishment, and the obstacle which kept out the
blessing. Every word of God is good; but some persons maintain such
an averted attitude of mind, that it glides off like sunbeams from polar
snows, without ever obtaining an entrance to melt or fructify. To one of
two persons who stand in the same room gazing on the same picture in
the sunlight, the beauty of the landscape may be fully revealed, while to
the other, on account of a certain indirectness of position and view, it
appears only as an unpleasant dazzling glare. So, of two Jews who both
eagerly listened to Jesus, as he taught from the fishing-boat on the Lake
of Galilee, one found in the story the word of the kingdom, refreshing
as cold waters to a thirsty soul, while the other, hearing the same words,
perceived nothing in them but incoherent and tantalizing enigmas. For
the right comprehension of the parables in particular, as of revealed

truth in general, a receptive heart is a qualification even more
peremptorily and essentially necessary than a penetrating understanding.
"If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God" (John vii. 17).
Each of the parables contained some characteristic, or presented some
aspect of Christ's kingdom. His kingdom was not of this world, and
therefore it was intensely distasteful to the carnal Jews of that day. The
idea did not readily enter their mind; and when it did in some measure
penetrate, it kindled in their corrupt hearts a flame of persecuting rage.
It was necessary that the Lord should, during the period of his personal
ministry, fully develop and deposit the seed of the kingdom; but it was
necessary also that he should remain on earth until the set time when
his ministry as prophet should terminate in his offering as priest. Now,
if he had at any period displayed all the characteristics of his kingdom
in terms which the mob and their rulers were able to comprehend, the
persecution that ultimately crucified him, would have burst prematurely
forth, and so deranged the plan of the Omniscient. It was necessary, for
example, in order to provide consolation for his own disciples in
subsequent temptations, that the Lord should predict his own death and
resurrection; but this prediction, when uttered in public, was veiled
from hostile eyes under the symbol, "Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up" (John ii. 19). More generally, it was necessary
that such features of the kingdom as its spiritual character and its
expansive power should be made known to true disciples for their
instruction and encouragement, but hidden for a time from persecutors
in order to restrain their enmity. Parables served the twofold purpose.
Tender, teachable spirits caught the meaning at once; or, if they failed,
they asked and obtained an explanation from the Master in private;
while those who had not the single eye, were for the time left in
darkness. It was their own hardness that kept out the light; their own
hardness was employed as the instrument whereby judgment was
inflicted upon themselves.[7]
[7] In Matthew (xiii. 13) he speaks in parables, "because ([Greek: hoti]),
they seeing, see not:" and in Mark (iv. 12), and Luke (viii. 10), "that
([Greek: hina]) seeing they might not see." Two different objects were

effected at the same time, and by the same act, corresponding to those
two terms; it is true that the Lord employed parables, as one employs
pictures to teach a child, because his auditors were children in
understanding; and it is also true that he veiled his