Circumstances did not allow for posting these lessons the weeks they were completed. However, it is my hope that you will still be able to take something from them. Today’s posts address lesson 11, “He Spake Many Things unto Them in Parables.”
This week’s Sunday School lesson encompasses the whole of Matthew 13. While the easiest way to progress would be to start at the beginning, I am going to try to take a more comprehensive look at the chapter. Thus, I am going to start with why the Savior uses parables before I move on to the seven parables found within the chapter.
After the Master has taught, the disciples inquire of Him, “why speakest thou unto them in parables?” (Matt 13:10). The Savior explains that “this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed” (verse 15). In short, many of those who came to hear the Savior preach do so with an unrepentant heart. The LDS Institute manual notes that Christ was halfway through His teaching at this point, and had many antagonistic listeners present. Thus, He couched His words in such a way that only those who truly sought would understand.
The parables are surely the greatest example of why we should seek, rather than just listen. If we hear a story only of a farmer scattering seeds, we will miss the deeper meaning. However, those who love Christ and seek to understand His words will put forth the study, thought and effort required to comprehend His parables. When we do not ponder, we show that we do not truly desire to follow Him.
In the April 1998 General Conference, President James E. Faust shared a story that stuck in my mind for many years. He quoted from the Church News:
“A group of religion instructors [were] taking a summer course on the life of the Savior and focusing particularly on the parables.
“When the final exam time came, . . . the students arrived at the classroom to find a note that the exam would be given in another building across campus. Moreover, the note said, it must be finished within the two-hour time period that was starting almost at that moment.
“The students hurried across campus. On the way they passed a little girl crying over a flat tire on her new bike. An old man hobbled painfully toward the library with a cane in one hand, spilling books from a stack he was trying to manage with the other. On a bench by the union building sat a shabbily dressed, bearded man [in obvious distress].
“Rushing into the other classroom, the students were met by the professor, who announced they had all flunked the final exam.
“The only true test of whether they understood the Savior’s life and teaching, he said, was how they treated people in need.
“Their weeks of study at the feet of a capable professor had taught them a great deal of what Christ had said and done.”8 In their haste to finish the technicalities of the course, however, they failed to recognize the application represented by the three scenes that had been deliberately staged. They learned the letter but not the spirit. Their neglect of the little girl and the two men showed that the profound message of the course had not entered into their inward parts.
I am reminded of the Nephites in 3 Nephi 11, who heard the voice of Heavenly Father prior to the Savior’s visit. The first two times, they did not understand what they heard. Only when they turned their full attention and their whole hearts towards the Lord did they comprehend the words He spoke.
So it is with us and parables. Although we may not fully understand them the first – or tenth – time we read them, if we continue to “search, ponder, and pray”, we will come to know how best to apply them in our lives.
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