Seeing Through the Eyes of God

Teaching a Confirmation class of high school juniors for many years has caused me to see the parables of Jesus with fresh eyes.  I now see the yearning, the hunger, and the pain of God reflected in the stories Jesus told.  In the parables of the wheat and the weeds, and in the parable of the sower, and in the parable of the king giving a banquet, I see my own students and I grieve.

I know that each one of us must "live" the experience of not having and then finding the "hidden treasure" of the kingdom of God.  But I yearn to spare them the grief and anxiety that accompanies having to learn by experience.  Jesus has so much to give to each one of us---"The Gift of the Father"---and yet, we are still blind, deaf, and dumb before we can see and hear what He is offering to us. 

As I meet my class each Wednesday evening, after praying for each of them all week, I see some who might be hungry for the Gift of God, but it is difficult to satisfy their hunger, for having to fight my way through those who are bored, who are distracted, who have other things on their minds.  In a class of 15, there are maybe 4 or 5 who "tune in," but they are quickly distracted by the foolishness of the 10 who have no desire yet for the kingdom of God.  For them, it is "foolishness," as Paul said of the Greeks.  Some indeed receive the seed that is sown, but quickly forget about it in the pressures of school and relationships. 

I can readily see now what Jesus meant when He said, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.  Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.  Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ( It seems that the word translated "has" can also mean "holds."  )

Though seeing, they do not see;

though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving. 

For this people's heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears,

and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.

 



My students are all very good kids; they are working hard in school and honestly trying to meet the multiple demands on their time and energy.  They are respectful and for the most part do not create problems in the classroom.  But they also suffer from the common stresses of mankind:  fear, anxiety, lack of trust that God is "there" for them, a feeling that they must do it all on their own or suffer failure -- in other words, the human condition.  And because I have grown to love them intensely, I want them to know the peace, the joy, the comfort offered to them by Jesus in the Holy Spirit. 

 

With Jesus, I cry out to the Father with "inexpressible moans" for them.  I see the seed, the Good News, fall on rocky places (indifference) and being taken from them by the cares of this world, and I want them to know what God has in store for them.  I know that each one of us must seek and find God out of a poverty of spirit, a pain that can be healed only by Him.  I would spare them the experience of grief, but cannot do so.  I would give them the joy of the Holy Spirit, but that Gift belongs to the Father to give. 

 

I just wonder if it is possible for me learn to teach in parables.