Teaching in Parables
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they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of
Esaias. ... For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and
their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have
closed.”
Matthew 13:13-15
.
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Saviour could feel that they were neglected or forgotten. The humblest,
the most sinful, heard in His teaching a voice that spoke to them in
sympathy and tenderness.
And He had another reason for teaching in parables. Among the
multitudes that gathered about Him, there were priests and rabbis,
scribes and elders, Herodians and rulers, world-loving, bigoted, am-
bitious men, who desired above all things to find some accusation
against Him. Their spies followed His steps day after day, to catch
from His lips something that would cause His condemnation, and
forever silence the One who seemed to draw the world after Him.
The Saviour understood the character of these men, and He presented
truth in such a way that they could find nothing by which to bring His
case before the Sanhedrin. In parables He rebuked the hypocrisy and
wicked works of those who occupied high positions, and in figurative
language clothed truth of so cutting a character that had it been spoken
in direct denunciation, they would not have listened to His words, and
would speedily have put an end to His ministry. But while He evaded
the spies, He made truth so clear that error was manifested, and the
honest in heart were profited by His lessons. Divine wisdom, infinite
grace, were made plain by the things of God’s creation. Through
nature and the experiences of life, men were taught of God. “The
invisible things of Him since the creation of the world,” were “per-
ceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power
and divinity.”
Romans 1:20
, R. V.
In the Saviour’s parable teaching is an indication of what consti-
tutes the true “higher education.” Christ might have opened to men the
deepest truths of science. He might have unlocked mysteries which
have required many centuries of toil and study to penetrate. He might
have made suggestions in scientific lines that would have afforded
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food for thought and stimulus for invention to the close of time. But
He did not do this. He said nothing to gratify curiosity, or to satisfy
man’s ambition by opening doors to worldly greatness. In all His
teaching, Christ brought the mind of man in contact with the Infinite