The Secret

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

THE SECRET

Mark 4:9-12

9 Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 

10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that, "'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'" 

NIV

This is a somewhat difficult passage although it should be quite easy. There is no question about not being able to understand parables. Those who refuse to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior are left outside of the understanding, but not by the will of God, but rather by their own choice. As we will see when Jesus explains this parable, it is a key to understanding all parables, but let us first understand that Jesus is not keeping people from understanding the Kingdom of God, but simply saying that unless people turn from their wicked ways and seek forgiveness of their sins they will never understand the truth about the Kingdom of God. We have been given the secret of the Kingdom of God. We should grasp the importance of that, understanding the privilege we have. We can see and perceive, we can hear and understand. There is no mystery to us about the Kingdom of God, we know the truth. Now it might be that there are people who say they are believers, or we should use the word Christians, but they still do not see and perceive or hear and understand. Would we be able to say they have not really turned? Surely Jesus did not mean for only those few that were with him in those days to be the only ones with the knowledge of the secret. Surely all this was recorded so that we too might know and understand. Surely anyone who turns and seeks forgiveness from their sin will be given the key to understanding these parables and seeing the truth about the Kingdom of God. Why is there so much confusion? Why do people have so many different opinions about the Kingdom of God? Is it they simply do not really see and perceive? What is keeping them from perceiving? They claim to know Jesus but they do not understand or they are miss-understanding what the Word says. We all think what we think is right yet surely with so many different rights, someone has to be wrong. Do some people merely accept what a supposed scholar or theologian says is the right way to understand, simply because they said it was the right way? We all have the Spirit dwelling within us who leads us into all truth, so why is some truth different than other truth? Jesus has said we have been given the secret. The question is then who is “we”.