Marmite and parables divide

When Jesus had finished giving the parable, Luke tell us (8:8b) that he called out, Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. What did Jesus mean by this? He obviously was not referring simply to the physical ability to hear. There is no point telling a deaf person to listen well. Rather Jesus is drawing a distinction between those who listen and understand (who have ears and hear) and those who hear but don’t understand. It is clear that one of the functions of Jesus’s parables is to divide people – to make a distinction between those who are true disciples in his kingdom and those who are not. If I say ‘Who here likes Marmite sandwiches?’ it will cause a division. Some will say yes, some will say no. It’s like certain jokes. Some will laugh, some won’t. It all depends on how you hear.

Knife Throwers

When you watch someone having knives thrown at them or catching a bullet in their teeth on TV, you know that they are not panicking because they have confidence in the person throwing or firing that this will not harm them. Of course, human tricks sometimes go wrong – but that cannot happen with the Lord.

Don't Panic!

If you have ever seen an episode of the comedy Dad's Army, there is often a point where the character Corporal Jones runs round saying, in his panic 'Don't panic!'. DON'T PANIC also appears in another fictional series, Douglas Adams' The hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy. These words were printed on the guide in bold print “partly because the device 'looked insanely complicated' to operate and partly to keep intergalactic travellers from, well, panicking”.

Panic is a sudden strong feeling of fear that prevents reasonable thinking and acting. We must not fall into it when trouble comes. Yet so often this is our case – we are in peril on the sea, as it were, even though Jesus is right beside us. It's as if he is there but asleep and so because we fail to think straight, we fly into a panic and start crying out to him in the way that the disciples in the boat did.

Out of Control

We are told that this man was demon-possessed. He was under occupation. Enemy forces had moved in and taken possession of him body and soul. Now, of course, as in any occupation their control was not 100%. There were pockets of resistance even at this stage. That is why the man seems to act in contradictory ways – wanting to come to Jesus yet not wanting to. If I say this is a portrait of evil gone out of control I use the term loosely. In truth there is no such thing as out of control absolutely. When a bus or a lorry runs down a street ‘out of control’ it is not so out of control that there is not a certain predictability about its movements. What we mean is that there is no-one behind the wheel or no-one competent behind the wheel. When a gunman goes berserk, out of control, again we are not speaking in absolute terms. The man knows to a certain extent what he is doing even though we cannot predict what he will do next. So when we see control and order breaking down in a person’s life or in a society we should remember that there are alien forces only too happy to seize the moment and take what control they can.

Children sharing sweets

When God converts a person he doesn't only save them. He forgives them and makes them his child and takes them to heaven and gives them all sorts of good things. That is what it is like when you put your faith in Christ. God does not just give one blessing. He doesn't give his blessings the way some children give out sweets. You know, holding on to them so that you don’t take more than one. No, he is like a very generous person pouring out the goodies. He heaps upon us one blessing after another. Oh how good he is!