Devotion - Wednesday, Nov 18

As the lectionary continues to move through Revelation, this morning’s reading from Matthew 13:10-17 addresses one of the difficulties we often have with that last book of the Bible.

In Matthew, the disciples ask Jesus, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Jesus tells them, “To you in has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” Lest this seem like favoritism (i.e. that God wants some to understand and others not to do so,) Jesus goes on to say, “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear.” Becoming blind and deaf to God’s voice means that understanding cannot occur.

The symbols and images of Revelation were not meant to create an insider circle and an outsider circle. They were not intended to exclude. However, they are codes. And those codes were not (are not) immediately available to everyone.

Some of the code is purely cultural. There are icons for every culture, not fully understood or appreciated by another. I recall my first trip into Mexico and all of the ornaments associated with The Day of the Dead. I needed an interpretation to something that was completely understood by the school age children walking the streets. Other parts of the code are intentional. When John writes his Revelation, there is the very real threat to those who are followers of Jesus. If his writing openly defies the civil authorities, those in possession of the writings could be labeled subversive. He writes to those who have previously opened their eyes and their ears to see and hear God.

I want to suggest a third reason for the codes and hidden messages of Revelation. John, like Jesus in Matthew 13, is frustrated that not everyone can see the work of God and the hand of God. John writes of things which are so apparent to him, but which seem to be undetected by those around him. “How can this be?” Perhaps because others see but do not see; hear, but do not hear.

Listening with the ears of God and seeing with the eyes of God the world looks and sounds different. Being open to what God is doing means we will see the hand of God in everything around us. Others will look at the same thing, and not see.

There is no “secret code” that needs to be broken; there is simply a change of heart which is necessary. Once that transition occurs, we see and hear as we have never seen or heard before.