Speaking in Parables

For much of His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke in parables, but privately, to His disciples, He unfolded the mysteries of heaven and explained the parables.  At the Last Supper, the night before His death, however, Jesus said these words: Though I have been speaking figuratively [i.e. in parables], a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language, but will tell you plainly about my Father (Jn. 16:25). 

If we look at what Jesus is saying through our natural eyes and minds, we would have to wonder what "time is coming" He could possibly be referring to.  Clearly, He knew that this was the last night of His earthly life, so what did He mean when He said, "I will tell you plainly about my Father"? 

After His resurrection, He spent 40 days with the disciples, and as far as we know now, He spoke no parables to them during that time.  The only recorded words we have are very straightforward and plain -- those spoken to Mary Magdalen at the tomb, to the Apostles in the upper room, to the disciples on the road to Emmaeus, and at the Ascension.  He is no longer speaking in parables during this time, to His intimate friends, just as He does not appear to everyone during that time, but only to His friends and disciples. 

Actually, the same pattern continues today.  For most of our lives, it seems that the Scriptures and the words of Jesus are a kind of "parable" which we cannot exactly penetrate.  Oswald Chambers said it pretty well:  The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with common sense.  If it were ony common sense, it was not worthwhile for Him to say it.  The whole mystery of redemption is not common sense; we cannot penetrate Scripture with human understanding, for it is veiled to the eyes of flesh.  It takes the Son of God to open our eyes and our minds to see and grasp the things of God. 

When we are born again, for the first time, we can say with the disciples, "Now You are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.....This makes us believe that You came from God" (Jn. 16:29).  Jesus had said to Nicodemus early on, "if you don't understand when I speak to you about earthly things, how will you understand when I speak about the things of heaven?"

If we want to understand the things of God, there is only one way -- we must abandon our own understanding and seek the plain words of Jesus Christ.  He will reveal to us everything that is His own, no longer in parables but clearly.  One of my students many years ago asked me, "When did God stop speaking to man?"  I wish now that I had given him a better answer than I did -- "maybe it was when man stopped believing that God speaks to us."  Now I would like to tell him that 'the time has come," the time of which Jesus spoke when He said, "I will tell you plainly about the Father."

He still speaks both in parables and in plain words -- in parables to those far away and in plain words to those who are near.