Chap. 1 - Teaching in Parables
In Christ’s parable teaching the same principle is seen as in His
own mission to the world. That we might become acquainted with His
divine character and life, Christ took our nature and dwelt among us.
Divinity was revealed in humanity; the invisible glory in the visible
human form. Men could learn of the unknown through the known;
heavenly things were revealed through the earthly; God was made
manifest in the likeness of men. So it was in Christ’s teaching: the
unknown was illustrated by the known; divine truths by earthly things
with which the people were most familiar.
The Scripture says, “All these things spake Jesus unto the
multitude in parables; ... that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the prophet, saying, I will open My mouth in parables; I will
utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the
world.” Matthew 13:34, 35. Natural things were the medium for the
spiritual; the things of nature and the life-experience of His hearers
were connected with the truths of the written word. Leading thus from
the natural to the spiritual kingdom, Christ’s parables
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are links in the chain of truth that unites man with God, and earth with
heaven.
In His teaching from nature, Christ was speaking of the things
which His own hands had made, and which had qualities and powers
that He Himself had imparted. In their original perfection all created
things were an expression of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve
in their Eden home nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming
with divine instruction. Wisdom spoke to the eye and was received
into the heart; for they communed with God in His created works.
As soon as the holy pair transgressed the law of the Most High, the
brightness from the face of God departed from the face of nature.
The earth is now marred and defiled by sin. Yet even in its blighted
state much that is beautiful remains. God’s object lessons are not
obliterated; rightly understood, nature speaks of her Creator.
In the days of Christ these lessons had been lost sight of. Men
had well-nigh ceased to discern God in His works. The sinfulness of
humanity had cast a pall over the fair face of creation; and instead
of manifesting God, His works became a barrier that concealed Him.
Men “worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.” Thus
the heathen “became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was darkened.” Romans 1:25, 21. So in Israel, man’s teaching had
been put in the place of God’s. Not only the things of nature, but the
sacrificial service and the Scriptures themselves—all given to reveal
God—were so perverted that they became the means of concealing
Him.
Christ sought to remove that which obscured the truth. The veil
that sin has cast over the face of nature, He came
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to draw aside, bringing to view the spiritual glory that all things were
created to reflect. His words placed the teachings of nature as well as
of the Bible in a new aspect, and made them a new revelation.
Jesus plucked the beautiful lily, and placed it in the hands of
children and youth; and as they looked into His own youthful face,
fresh with the sunlight of His Father’s countenance, He gave the
lesson, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow [in the
simplicity of natural beauty]; they toil not, neither do they spin;
and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these.” Then followed the sweet assurance and the
important lesson, “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field,
which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”
In the sermon on the mount these words were spoken to
others besides children and youth. They were spoken to the
multitude, among whom were men and women full of worries
and perplexities, and sore with disappointment and sorrow. Jesus
continued: “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?
or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for
after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your Heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” Then spreading out
His hands to the surrounding multitude, He said, “But seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall
be added unto you.” Matthew 6:28-33.
Thus Christ interpreted the message which He Himself had given
to the lilies and the grass of the field. He desires us to read it in every
lily and every spire of grass. His words are full of assurance, and tend
to confirm trust in God.
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So wide was Christ’s view of truth, so extended His teaching, that
every phase of nature was employed in illustrating truth. The scenes
upon which the eye daily rests were all connected with some spiritual
truth, so that nature is clothed with the parables of the Master.
In the earlier part of His ministry, Christ had spoken to the people
in words so plain that all His hearers might have grasped truths which
would make them wise unto salvation. But in many hearts the truth
had taken no root, and it had been quickly caught away. “Therefore
speak I to them in parables.” He said; “because they seeing see not;
and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.... For this
people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and
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their eyes they have closed.” Matthew 13:13-15.
Jesus desired to awaken inquiry. He sought to arouse
