As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve disciples, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those who are outside, everything comes in parables, so that while seeing they may see, and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear, and not understand, otherwise they might return and it would be forgiven them.”

Our reactions vary when we don’t understand something. Sometimes we are intrigued, so we do some research and ask questions to. Sometimes we move on, content to not understand, considering the subject unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Other times we explain away the things we don’t understand by using our own lens and experience to tell us what it means.

But Jesus’s parables were unique: they made no sense without Him. Many commentators describe Jesus as being the key that put all these parables into perspective, giving them the meaning He intended.[1] The disciples were eager to learn from Jesus what He meant by His parable instead of assigning the meaning themselves. They had the desire to know Jesus’s way and had the humility to ask when they didn’t understand.

Even today, with so much access to sermons, theology textbooks, and commentaries, the Word of God does not make sense without first knowing the One it is about. We have to seek to know Him as the disciples did. When we wrestle with matters of life and faith that don’t make sense to us, we can come to the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the key to understanding these parables; He is the key to eternal life; and He is the key to this life. He holds all things together, even when they don’t make sense to us. It is time to come to the source of life with our questions and like the disciples, grow in eagerness to know Him more.

• What do you do when you come across a passage of Scripture you don’t understand?
• What would it look like to be eager to learn from Jesus? How does that look different from your life today?
• Pray and confess to God the areas you are not seeking His answers and direction. Ask Him to grow in you a desire to know Him more.

[1] David Guzik, “Study Guide for Mark 4,” Blue Letter Bible, 2018, https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/mark/mark-4.cfm.