The Language of the Kingdom:
W H I G H E R
T H I N G S __ 4
Why Jesus
hen I was in college, I spent one of my summers in a remote village in the highlands of Fiji. There was no running water, no electricity.The people of the village spoke English, but whenever there was anything important to discuss the conversation would change to Fijian.
There was a man who would walk around the village each morning chanting the news. I had no idea what was being said. He could have been reviewing the points of the ongoing debate about the benefits of electricity in the village, or he could have said, “Keep the goats out of the toilets.”The business of the village happens in the language of the village; strangers are left out. The parables of Jesus work the same way.They are spoken in the language of the kingdom of God, spoken for the children of the kingdom.To His followers, Jesus is revealing the truths of His kingdom. To those who do not believe in Jesus, the parables hide these truths of the Lord’s kingdom. As Jesus gets farther from His Baptism and closer to the cross, opposition to Him grows.The crowds become polarized, pulled off the fence in one direction or the other. In this charged atmosphere, Jesus teaches in parables. The Lord’s disciples notice this change and ask Him about it.“Why do You speak to them in parables?” (Matthew 13:10). Jesus answers, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have in abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” (Matthew 13:11–13) When Jesus uses parables, He is speaking in the language of the kingdom, and this speaking is for the citizens of the kingdom. Like the announcements chanted in Fijian, the citizens hear and understand what’s being said; outsiders don’t.
