Tuning In
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
February 13, 2011
So why bother? So why should Jesus bother at all if his true assignment was to speak to people in order that they do not understand? That hardly seems like a worthwhile goal in life. But at least at first glance that appears to be what he is telling his disciples is his reason for telling these strange parable things. And this assignment is not new. It was the same one that was give to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah in our reading has this amazing experience of the presence of God in which God asks if he is ready for an unknown, but important assignment. When Isaiah agrees, he is given the assignment of telling people that they will listen and not understand, they will look and not see in order that God not heal them. In a similar way Jesus has had this amazing experience of God in the wilderness but now is called to confuse people. Chances are that this seems odd to us. After all we have been taught that Jesus was the original Great Communicator. He was the one who knew how to turn a phrase and inspire all of those around him. Yet if we are to believe Matthew that is not the case. No, Jesus is there to confound and not clarify. So why bother at all?
The answer to that question, why bother, is simply put, he is to confuse them so that they will understand what he is trying to teach them. I know that that sounds like a silly kind of statement, but what I will ask of you is that you bear with me for the next few minutes as we explore this story. First I want to ask you if you have been in a conversation with someone, or a group of people, in which you were transmitting at your clearest and yet you realized that no one was receiving? It could be at work, at school or perhaps with your children, but you discovered that those to whom you were speaking were on a completely different wavelength. It is frustrating. My favorite story of this kind of thing was about General Joseph Stillwell. Stillwell was raised in China as a child of missionaries and so was chosen to work with our Chinese allies during the Second World War. One day he and his driver were lost. Stillwell had the jeep stop, he got out and approached two farmers. In his best Mandarin he asked them directions to his destination. They just stared at him. He asked again. Again they stared. Frustrated he turned to leave and heard one of them say to the other, “It sounded like he was asking directions, but that can’t be since Laowai can’t speak our language.”
In a sense this is where Jesus was with his audience. He was speaking the same language but they could not hear what he was saying. The problem was that they were tuned to a different frequency than the one on which he was transmitting. Jesus was transmitting on the Suffering Servant channel of NPR. He was telling them how God’s victory and kingdom would come through the messiah being arrested, tried and crucified. He was telling them that he had to suffer and die in order to set the world free. His audience eon the other hand was tuned into talk radio in which the only message was, “Let’s beat the daylights out of the Romans.” So regardless of what Jesus said, every time he mentioned the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God all that his audience could hear was, “Let’s beat the daylights out of the Romans.” So Jesus understood that he had to take a different tack if he wanted people to actually hear what he was going to say. His choice was to tell parables; stories which confused and confounded. And here is why he did this.
Jesus understood that his audience already had the presets set on their theological and political beliefs. A frontal assault would not change that. His only hope that if told stories that confused and confounded that the people would hit the seek button and go looking for meaning. In other words if their presets could not explain Jesus’ parables they might go searching for an answer thus opening them to the possibility that they could hear and see what God was doing in Jesus. In fact that is what this parable is all about. It is about God’s message being broadcast and the response of those who hear it. Some people, Jesus says, will be confused but will not hit the seek button. They will be happy with talk radio and will reject anything new and different. Others will be confused and confounded and hit the seek button. They will find almost find the right frequency, try to listen but will return to the presets because they were a bit clearer. Still others will hit the seek button, find the right frequency, get excited about what they hear, but then, return because this new frequency is asking too much of them. Finally there will be those, like the disciples, who will hit seek, they will find and they will continue to listen and learn, becoming those who know and live the kingdom.
It is at this point that this story connects with our lives. It connects with us because we too have presets in our lives. We have been given these presets by society, sermons and Sunday school. Our tendency then is that when we hear a scripture or are confronted with an ethical issue we immediately hit our presets because they are familiar and comfortable. The problem with this is that sometimes our presets are not receiving what Christ is broadcasting. The question then becomes are we willing to hit the seek button? In other words are we willing to come to this place, to Bible study, to our prayer life and even to our places of school and work, and instead of simply pressing our presets are we willing to seek the will of Christ in that place and in that moment. Are we willing to allow our lack of clarity about what is the right thing to do to be a moment in which we search for the new thing that God might want to do through us? So here is your challenge for the week. “Am I will to seek the new that God might have for me rather than simply always responding in the same old way?”
