Introduction
We are back to the parables this morning. In contrast to our extended metaphor of the sower and his soil conditions, we now come to a collection of short images and sayings.
Remember how I said that usually it is the context that makes the parable’s meaning clear? The peculiar challenge of these sayings is that they appear independently elsewhere in the gospels in other contexts and combinations with other sayings, causing their meaning to change. Let me show you how.
What does verse 21 remind you of? “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? The Sermon on the Mount!
14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16).
Jesus is clearly exhorting his disciples not to let the light of the gospel that is in them be hidden. They are to show the light through their good deeds. The light or lamp is what is within them. But that is not what Jesus means by the lamp in this parable, nor does hiding the light refer to hiding our good deeds.
Look at verse 22. 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If you feel uneasy when hearing this verse, it’s probably because you have the context in mind as recorded by Luke: 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs (Luke 12:2,3). In this case the hidden things that will be disclosed are our secret words.
Those of you more evangelistically minded may have been thinking of the application in Matthew when Jesus sends out his disciples on a missions trip. 26 “So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs (Matthew 10:26-7). There, Jesus is exhorting his disciples to boldly proclaim the gospel. But neither of these applications fits in our passage.
Consider verse 24: “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. This also is a familiar saying used elsewhere. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:1,2). By the measure we judge, we will be judged. But that is not the meaning in our text.
Finally, we have the statement in verse 25: 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. That is the same conclusion to the well-known parable of the talents. Luke uses the term minas instead of talents. His version expresses well Jesus’ intent. Jesus has the nobleman give a mina (three months’ wages) to ten servants. We are only told of the results of three. The first earns an additional ten minas; the second an additional five, and the third simply returns the one his was given. Here is the response of the nobleman.
24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
25 ”‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.
The application is that we are to use the gifts and abilities God has given us for productive service in his kingdom. But that is not the meaning in our context.
What a fine situation we have – four sayings that appear independently of one another in Jesus’ teachings, each of which presents us with different meanings than how they are used in our present text. Oh, these parables that are supposed to make Jesus’ teachings easier to understand! I feel like Steve Martin in The Three Amigos when he receives a message through a bartender who mistakes him for someone else. The bartender leans over and whispers the message. Martin receives the word thoughtfully and yet clueless to what it means. Let’s see if we can find the clues that will make us thoughtful and wiser.
The Text
We are going to approach the text as a detective approaches a crime scene. We will look both inside the house of the incident and outside. Take a look outside. In the front yard - i.e. what precedes the passage - is the parable of the sower. What had Jesus talked about? It was the effect of the gospel he preached on the people who heard him. For many, they heard and yet did not hear well enough, so that the word had little or temporary effect in their lives.
Go around to the backyard, to the passage following. We have two short parables, both about the mysterious and amazing growth of the kingdom. They complement the ending of the sower parable, which concludes with the wondrous growth of the kingdom as well. Think of what the common elements are. There is great growth. The growth happens on its own. Indeed, either because of what had seemed like too poor of conditions or lack of effort, the result of the harvest or size of the plant is surprising.
All right. We note these clues on the outside; what is inside the house? What do we find within the passage itself? Notice how it falls naturally into two sections divided by sayings about hearing. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 “Consider carefully what you hear.” These are common phrases that Jesus uses to introduce or conclude his teaching.
Look at the first scene, the first two verses. 21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.
We want to know what the lamp is. I’ve already said that it is not our lamp; it is not “this little light of mine” that I’m gonna let shine. A more literal reading of the Greek text helps here. It reads more like this. “Does the lamp come so that it might be set under the measuring bowl or the recliner?” (It actually says bed, but probably the recliner used at a dinner table is meant.) Mr. Lamp doesn’t enter a room so he can be hidden. His purpose in existing is to shine so that he can be seen and can cause everything else to be seen.
Apparently, though, Mr. Lamp had been hidden before. For a time, he was not seen. Even so, it was only so that he would be revealed at the right time. A time would come for his entrance, and then his light would be revealed and would reveal all else that had been veiled.
What is the lamp a figure of speech for? What fits with this image? Think back to the front yard. Instead of a lamp, what object was being brought out? It was seed. It was taken out of the sower’s bag and tossed out onto the soil. What did the seed represent? The word, i.e. the gospel.
It all starts to fit. The gospel in the form of Jesus and in his message has come. Previously, in the law he and his work had been somewhat veiled. It was unclear as to who the Messiah would be and what he would do, which is what the gospel is about. But he has come now, and he is speaking the words of life. And yet, what is happening? His hearers behave as though the light is still hidden. That is what we pick up from the outside evidence. Indeed, it is as if the lamp has come only to find itself being hidden all over again. The religious leaders tried to snuff him out. The crowds treated him as a star but still missed who he was, as though their eyes were veiled. His own family failed to recognize him. Even his disciples had difficulty comprehending his nature and his mission. As John explained in his gospel:
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it..10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
The lamp has come to shine forth its light, but its receivers are still keeping it hidden. The common phrases that follow take on more meaning in light of what is being said. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 “Consider carefully what you hear. “Listen closely to what I am saying now,” is what Jesus normally means with these words, but he is also admonishing his hearers to let the gospel sink in.
The next two verses bring forth the consequences of hearing and not hearing. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”
Here is the principle: we will be given according to what we desire. If we care but little for the true treasures of God, so we will receive and even less. If we desire greatly his riches, then so we will receive and even more. God in a sense says to us, “Bring to me a container for me to fill with the riches of my glory and grace.” Some of us bring a little measuring spoon and hold it out. God in turn gives us a few little grains of his blessing. Others drive up in 18-wheelers and said, “Fill’er up!” God grins and pours out such wondrous grace that the trailers sag from the weight. Not only that, he takes the little spoons of the others and empties their remaining grains on top of the trailers. You want? You get! You no want; you no get. It’s as simple as that.
Now, let’s put the two sections together. When we do so, we have this message. Jesus is saying, “I, the lamp, have come with the light of the gospel. Don’t cover me and my message over as many of you are doing. Let the lamp shine openly. The reason that you hide my light is that you really prefer something else which is less than the gospel. Be careful. If you refuse the riches I offer, you will lose what little bit you might have. But if you desire it, then you will receive more blessing than you could have expected.
Application
What then do we do with this message? It seems to me to be a good moment to present the topic of preaching. That, after all, is what Jesus was doing. He was addressing the issue of how his preaching was being received. His critique of how the people listened to what he was saying pinpointed two concerns: one, that the people did not listen well enough to catch what he was saying, and, two, that they really did not want to hear. I would contend that is true for many professing Christians today.
Consider the first point. The common wisdom today for preaching is to keep the message as simple as possible. Let the “KISS” principle be the preacher’s guide: keep it short and simple. There actually is wisdom in the principle and the preacher ought to be as clear as possible, but I do think we have carried the principle too far so that it has become in reality the “DID” principle: dumb it down. This is commonly true in education. Colleges now must offer introductory writing classes because of the poorer skills of incoming freshmen. This is not because today’s students are less capable than their parents, but that less is expected of them. I know from my own experience as a high school teacher that the number one challenge of a teacher is not how to teach so that the students will understand, but how to motivate them to make the effort to understand. The desire to learn and the will to work hard are the two keys for a student doing well.
The same is true in the context of hearing a sermon. The approach that many worshippers take to hearing a sermon is that of issuing an unspoken challenge to the preacher: “Let’s see if you can keep my interest.” We are taught in homiletics class (the class on how to preach) that the most important part of the sermon is the introduction, and what we must do is develop an entertaining opening that will hook the people to listen. There is truth to that, but think what such an approach assumes about the worshipping congregation. Instead of worshippers who have come to hear the Word of the Lord, we are to regard the people as an audience of a performance, who must be entertained to keep their attention.
You have come for no less a purpose than to hear the Word of God delivered to you. Far from passively waiting for the preacher to grab your attention, you ought to be actively engaging your mind to grasp what is being spoken. You need to do the hard work of thinking through the message.
That is what we were doing with the passage. I could have skipped all the part of reasoning through the verses with you and simply stated at the beginning what Jesus was saying. That would have left more room for me to say whatever I want to say. I do that to engage you in the process of reasoning for yourself. I want to get you into the Word, not into my conclusions about it. The more time we are exploring scripture itself rather than my wisdom on how to apply it, the better. But it takes effort.
And we will do that according to our desire for it. That’s the second point and it is the critical point. How much do you desire to explore the profound depths of the gospel? I thought carefully how I phrased that. I was going to say, How much do you desire to hear what God has to say in his Word? Everyone would naturally affirm that we care a great deal. We each have a list of what we want to hear from God about how to get along in life. That is precisely, though, what gives us hearing problems. We set the agenda. But it is not ours to set.
We must come to the message with one purpose – to hear what God would have us hear.
I know each Sunday what he wants you to hear, what you need to hear. It is the message of his holy scripture. That is what you need more than anything else to hear. You have come here at this time because God has drawn you, and he would have you to hear his word given to you through his holy scripture.
I take this seriously. I don’t approach sermon preparation asking what I think my congregation needs to hear. I have you in mind, of course, but I let scripture set the agenda, not what I perceive your needs to be. My overriding question is to know what God would have to say, and I arrive at that by learning what the scripture passage has to say. Oftentimes it surprises me. Did any of you notice the change in the sermon title? Last week it was printed as “Time to Show,” rather than “Time to Hear.” I thought at first reading that I would be preaching about showing the light of the gospel in our lives. Further study proved me wrong.
But to go even further, and this is where you must develop the ears to hear – you must hear the gospel that emanates through all of scripture. Whether the scripture topic be about marriage or enduring trials or how to listen well, what you must really listen carefully for is the gospel that speaks of the greatness of our God and the glorious work of redemption. If all you learn from Sunday sermons is how to be a nicer person and get along better in this life, then you gain but a few grains of grace. But if you come to hear God speak his gospel to you, well then know, that with the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Grace upon grace will be poured into your heart.
The riches of the gospel are beyond measure. Listen, listen well that you may receive it with fullness.
