Jesus and the Parables
Matthew 9:1-17
April 6, 2014
Jesus came to the world and one of His ways of teaching was to use parables. Have you ever wondered why Jesus did this? Why didn’t He just spell things out in black and white, in such a way that every one could understand what He was talking about? Just why use parables? Well, He tells us in the 13th chapter of Matthew why; when He tells the disciples who came up and asked Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered them, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You will listen and listen, yet never understand; and you will look and look, yet never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn back — and I would cure them. “But your eyes are blessed because they do see, and your ears because they do hear! For I assure you: Many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see yet didn’t see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn’t hear them.”
Today we begin a new series that I think is going to not only be informative, but exciting in how the parables Jesus taught in His day are prevalent and relevant to us gathered here this morning. I am a firm believer that the firsts found in the Bible are important. Join me as we read the first parable Jesus taught as we go through His parables in chronological order. Turn with me to Matthew, chapter 9 verse 1 and read along with me as hear the Word of God in the purity it is given to us.
So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own town. Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the scribes said among themselves, “He’s blaspheming!” But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts? For which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — then He told the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” And he got up and went home. When the crowds saw this, they were awestruck and gave glory to God who had given such authority to men. As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So he got up and followed Him. While He was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came as guests to eat with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when He heard this, He said, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Then John’s disciples came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. But they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
As I was preparing this series I wanted to begin with the first parable taught by Jesus. I think it is very informative to us gathered here this morning that the first parable was concerning the trappings of religionism, legalism, traditionalism, and ritualism. It is not a coincidence that Jesus spoke to a problem He knew was prevalent in His day and would be prevalent in the church though out its history. It is easy to fall into the trap of doing the same ole, same ole and as Jesus told the Church of Ephesus in the Book of Revelation, “You have forgotten your first love.” What He is saying in this parable and the Book of Revelation is that when we are focused on rituals and traditions it takes an intimate relationship with Jesus out of the picture. Today I am bringing a message of hope, but I fear that some people will receive it as a message of condemnation. It is a message of conviction, not a message a criticism. This is not an easy message because it is hard for us to hear the truth and look realistically at the way we do things in our individual life and the life of the church. Lately, I have been focusing on Jesus and His adversaries. Now, if we look at the confrontations Jesus had in the Scriptures, it was not with the secular authorities - for He told the Pharisees and Herodians who were trying to trap Him to, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The confrontations Jesus had were with the religious authorities. In today’s Scripture text we see a couple of these confrontations were with the religious authorities prior to the first parable given by Jesus. Jesus was bringing a new dispensation (a new era) into being and this was setting the religious world on its ear. The old dispensation (the era of the Law) was being replaced by a new dispensation (the era of grace). The religious leaders had made the traditions and rituals such that they were binding, restrictive, stifling, and constricting the life of the believer. Jesus came to set the believer free from the tyranny of traditions and rituals. Now I am not anti traditions and rituals, but they are not commands from God. They can be helpful if practiced appropriately, but they can become stifling if they become more important than Scriptural revelation itself. I think it is telling when Scripture is not an integral part of a follower of Christ daily walk and a church that does not put an emphasis on being led by the Scriptures and placing an emphasis on Bible Study. The Scriptures are how God reveals Himself to us through the illumination of the Holy Spirit and we need to be willing to be led and governed by these Holy and Sacred Scriptures. Yet the religious leaders of Jesus day were more concerned with their traditions and rituals than what the Scriptures taught. Think about it: If the Pharisees and the religious leaders had really studied and focused their life and the life of the church on the Scriptures and what they taught; then they would have known that Jesus was the Messiah proclaimed by the prophets in the Old Testament! Think about that – they missed the Messiah because they were stuck in their own idea of what religion was through the Law, the traditions, and the rituals and they missed Jesus, the Messiah; the Savior of the World! Like old wineskins, the Pharisees had become too rigid in their lifestyle and in their traditions; they could not accept Jesus because he would not be bound by the rules they themselves had set. It was time for change where new approaches, new traditions and new structures were required. How many of us today because we are unwilling to bend or change from our traditions and rituals are missing who Jesus really is and what He is offering us in the way of salvation and blessings! We as Christians today must be on our guard that we don’t allow our hearts to become so rigid that we become unable to accept new ways and new approaches. We can become stale, mouldy and unpalatable and even the lost will find us undesirable.
Jesus said by the use of today’s parable I read to you, that He has not come to shore up the traditional practice of the Jews or our practices today. Rather, He has come to offer an entirely new approach to God. Jesus was bringing a new life as an entirely new garment and an entirely new wine. Jesus has not come to fill the old Jewish system of traditions and rituals with new life. They are inadequate to the new life of the Kingdom. Rather, new forms are needed for His kingdom, and new practices must accommodate the new life of discipleship in Jesus. This doesn’t supersede or abolish the Old Testament, which Jesus has come to fulfill; instead, it indicated that discipleship to Jesus supersedes rigid legalistic adherence to traditional practices. True righteousness is not built on the Law or Pharisaic traditions or human traditions of today.
How do we think that Jesus would be received in many churches today? If we are realistic He would be rejected and I think would have just as many confrontations with the religious leaders of the church as He had in His day. We have gotten comfortable in the way we do things and many have the attitude that it is not acceptable to change our way of thinking and how we do things when it comes to our past, we want to keep things as it is no matter if it cost us growth in the spirit and growth in leading people to Jesus Christ. Many Christians today are trying to be what we call Messianic Jews. As a matter of fact there is a group that calls themselves Messianic Jews. They continue to live in the traditions and rituals of the Jewish faith, but believe and find their hope in Jesus Christ. Many Christians want to live and be governed by the traditions and rituals created by the church, but find their hope through these traditions and rituals leading them to a knowledgable relationship with Jesus, but not an intimate relationship with Jesus. Now this cannot be, when we accept Christ we belong to Him, not some sect or some group of traditions and rituals. Many in the church today desire to have the church as it was when they grew up, but according to today’s parable that just cannot be. As a matter of fact a church that is truly living is ever changing! It's members and the church is constantly seeking ways to draw closer in their walk with Jesus Christ. The life and liberty of the Gospel ruins the wineskins of traditionalism, ritualism and legalism. The introduction of the Christian era found in Jesus Christ coming to the earth would inevitably result in tension. The joy which Christ brought could not be contained within the forms and rituals of the Old Testament. There must be an entirely new order of things. Brothers and sisters, this a great news for us in the church today – change is good; change is a requirement as we grow in Christ. The attitude that we have always done it this way or this is not the church I grew up in, should never be a battle cry in the church of today – the battle cry should be Lord, we are here, we are Your vessels; what can we do to lead people to You. We are willing and able to do whatever it takes to make this happen even if it takes us out of our comfort zone because we want to trust You and be faithful to You. Are we willing to make that commitment this morning? It is not something that is easy for us to commit to, but we must be willing to put new wine into new wineskins, not put new wine into the way we have always done things (this will not work). History tells us that the church has a reformation every 500 years or so and it has been a little over 500 years since the Reformation. I feel we are on the cusp of something great in the church, but we must be willing to put Gospel above all else, even our traditions and rituals; even above the way we have always done things. Join me as we begin our journey through the parables, but more importantly let us begin a new journey and chapter in the life of Emanuel Reformed Church where we seek to follow the true leader of this church – JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!
